Biometric authentication system

• US 20080101658A1
• Filed: 12/22/2005
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corporation DAON Technology
• Original Assignee: Daon Holdings Limited
• Inventors: Peirce, Michael, Ahern, James
• Granted Patent: US 7,545,961 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/115
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/21 Design or setup of recognition systems or techniques; Extraction of features in feature space; Blind source separation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/70 using pattern recognition or machine learning optical pattern recognition or electronic computations therefor G06V10/88
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/70 Multimodal biometrics, e.g. combining information from different biometric modalities

Abstract

A biometric authentication engine includes components which are configured to authenticate a user based on one or more presented biometrics. The system makes use of multiple threshold parameters or scores so that the authentication process is better tailored to match the specifics of the authentication request

Claims

1. A biometric authentication system configured to enable an authentication process, the process having predefined parameters associated therewith, the process providing for authentication of a user based on a comparison of a presented biometric with one or more previously stored biometric(s), the authentication system including a matching system providing as an output an output score based on a comparison of the presented and stored biometrics, the authentication system being configured to authenticate the user on determining that a parameter based on the output score meets a threshold score, and wherein the system includes interrogation means configured to interrogate the process so as to extract and use the predefined parameters to select an appropriate threshold score from a plurality of available threshold scores, each of the plurality of available threshold scores being previously generated for specific parameters.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein a meeting of the threshold score is determined if the parameter based on the output score is equal to the threshold score.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein a meeting of the threshold score is determined if the parameters based on the output score is less than the threshold score.

4. The system as claimed in claim 3 wherein the threshold score is an False Match Rate, FMR, threshold score and the output score must be less than the threshold score to enable a user to be authenticated.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein a meeting of the threshold score is determined if the parameter based on the output score is greater than the threshold score.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the parameter based on the output score is the output score.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the parameter based on the output score is a transformed value of the output score.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the predefined parameters are selected from the group consisting of:

a) User population type,

b) User gender,

c) User age,

d) Biometric sample type,

e) Hardware type,

f) Algorithm used in the matching process,

g) Algorithm used in the enrollment process,

h) Quality assessment algorithm used in the acquisition process,

i) Environmental factors,

j) User identity, and

k) User group.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the thresholds or parameters are selected based on the identity of the user being authenticated.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the system is configured to maintain historical data relating to each user, and wherein the authentication process is configured to select a first set of thresholds or parameters for a first user and a second set of thresholds or parameters for a second user, the first and second sets being generated through use of the system by the first and second users.

11. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the authentication process is configured to authenticate the user on the basis of providing a threshold score that is a result of a combination of a plurality of threshold scores.

12. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the authentication process is configured to authenticate a user based on a score resultant from a combination of multiple output scores, or values transformed from those scores, when compared against a single threshold score.

13. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the interrogation means is configured to determine parameters associated with the enrolment of the user and also is configured to determine parameters associated with the authentication request, each determination step providing a threshold score and wherein the appropriate threshold score is determined as a result of combining these two threshold scores.

14. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the interrogation means is configured to interrogate an authentication request so as to select a correct threshold score, the correct threshold score having been previously defined for the specifics of the enrollment and authentication request parameters for the user making the authentication request

15. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of the threshold scores are parameters resultant from analysis of biometric accuracy tables or statistics.

16. The system as claimed in claim 15 wherein the biometric accuracy tables or statistics are derived from one or more of the following:

a) individual receiver operator characteristic curve, ROC, data,

b) individual cumulative match characteristic, CMC, data,

c) individual false acceptance rate, FAR, data, and/or

d) individual score distribution data.

17. The system as claimed in claim 1 further including an audit module, the audit module configured to monitor the authentication process and to provide one or more revised threshold scores, the revised threshold scores being provided based on an analysis of the performance of the authentication system over a predefined time period using current threshold scores.

18. The system as claimed in claim 17 wherein the revised threshold scores are used to update the current threshold scores periodically so as to provide a tuning of the system based on system usage.

19. A distributed network of authentication systems, at least one of the authentication systems being configured to enable an authentication process, the process having predefined parameters associated therewith, the process providing for authentication of a user based on a comparison of a presented biometric with one or more previously stored biometric(s), the authentication system including a matching system providing as an output an output score based on a comparison of the presented and stored biometrics, the authentication system being configured to authenticate the user on determining that a parameter based on the output score meets a threshold score, and wherein the system includes interrogation means configured to interrogate the process so as to extract and use the predefined parameters to select an appropriate threshold score from a plurality of available threshold scores, each of the plurality of available threshold scores being previously generated for specific parameters,

the network including at least one audit module, the audit module being configured to receive data relating to the authentication process from at least one of the authentication systems within the network, the audit module being configured to process the received data so as to provide an analysis of the performance of the system using current threshold scores, the audit module being further configured to generate one or more revised threshold score to supplement the current threshold scores used at one or more of the authentication systems within the network.

20. The network as claimed in claim 19 wherein each of the authentication systems within the network include an audit module.

21. The network as claimed in claim 20 wherein each of the audit modules are configured to communicate with others of the audit modules so as to enable a transfer of revised threshold scores between authentication systems.

22. The network as claimed in claim 19 wherein the audit module is provided distinct from any of the authentication systems, the audit module being configured to communicate with one or more of the authentication systems so as to receive and transmit data relating to the threshold scores used within individual authentication systems.

23. A method of authenticating a user based on user presented biometric sample, the method including the steps of:

receiving a request for authentication, the request for authentication including a presented biometric;

analyzing specifics of the request so as to extract one or more parameters specific to the request;

matching the presented biometric with a previously stored biometric for that user so as to provide a matching score;

determining an appropriate threshold score from two or more available threshold scores by using the parameters specific to the request to ascertain which of a plurality of threshold tables are most appropriate for this set of parameters;

on selecting this appropriate table, extracting a threshold score from that table;

comparing the threshold score with the matching score; and

authenticating the user on determining that the matching score exceeds the threshold score.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the authentication request is performed at the time of capture of the presented biometric.

25. The method as claimed in claim 24 wherein the authentication request is performed at a time subsequent to capture of the presented biometric.

26. The method as claimed in claim 25 further including the step of capturing the biometric at a first location and transporting that biometric to a second location for matching using an appropriate table.

27. The method as claimed in claim 26 wherein the appropriate table is generated from a specific subset of the population.

28. The method as claimed in claim 25 wherein the presented biometric is presented from a non-cooperative user.

29. The method as claimed in claim 28 wherein the biometric is captured during surveillance activities without the user'"'"'s knowledge.

30. The method as claimed in claim 23 wherein the request for authentication receives a plurality of biometrics, the authentication of a user resulting from a matching of one or more of each of the plurality of biometrics.

31. The method as claimed in claim 30 wherein a user is authenticated irrespective of whether all presented biometrics match, the authentication being determined based on a confidence level associated with the plurality of presented biometrics being met.

32. The method as claimed in claim 23 further including the steps of monitoring the performance of the authentication process and generating one or more revised threshold scores for use in future authentication processes based on historical authentication processes.

33. The method as claimed in claim 32 further including the step of comparing the revised threshold scores with the existing threshold scores and generating an alert on detecting a predetermined variance between the two scores.