TECHNIQUE FOR AUTHENTICATING AN OBJECT ON BASIS OF FEATURES EXTRACTED FROM THE OBJECT

• US 20080253619A1
• Filed: 06/18/2007
• Published: 10/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kashima, Hiroaki, Hagino, Masao, Tomoda, Daisuke, Takeuchi, Shigeki
• Granted Patent: US 8,064,646 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/115
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/70 Multimodal biometrics, e.g. combining information from different biometric modalities
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3231 Biological data, e.g. fingerprint, voice or retina network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using biometrical features in a packet data network H04L63/0861

Abstract

The present invention discourages effective illegal use of compromised biometric information in biometric authentication and allows biometric authentication to be securely continued even when some biometric information is compromised. A user authentication system compares extracted user features with a previously registered combination of features and authenticates the user on the basis of the result of the comparison. If the authentication is successful, the previously registered combination is replaced with anew combination of features that are registered for use in the subsequent authentication of the authentication object.

Claims

1. A system for authenticating an authentication object by comparing features that are extracted from the authentication object with features that are registered in advance, the system comprising:

an extraction unit that extracts a plurality of features from the authentication object;

an authentication unit that compares the extracted features with a plurality of registered features that are registered in advance in relation to some of the extracted features and authenticates the authentication object on the basis of the result of the comparison;

a selection unit that selects, from the extracted features, a plurality of features forming a different combination other than that of the registered features, if the authentication is successfully completed; and

a registration unit that registers the selected features as a plurality of registered features to be used in a subsequent authentication of the authentication object.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the registered features are recorded in an information recording medium that is carried by a user who is an authentication object and records information that is used to authenticate the user,

the authentication unit reads the registered features from the information recording medium and compares the registered features that have been read with the extracted features, and

the registration unit removes the registered features, which are registered in advance, from the information recording medium, and records the features selected by the selection unit in the information recording medium as a plurality of registered features to be used in the next authentication of the authentication object.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein combination information is also registered in the information recording medium, the combination information indicating a combination of features, out of the extracted features, to be compared with the registered features,

the authentication unit reads the registered features and the combination information from the information recording medium, selects a plurality of features of a combination indicated by the read combination information from the extracted features, and compares the extracted features that have been selected with the registered features, and

the registration unit records the features selected by the selection unit in the information recording medium as a plurality of new registered features, and records combination information indicating a combination of the new registered features in the information recording medium.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the extraction unit reads a plurality of features from an authentication object at substantially the same time and extracts a plurality of extracted features.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system authenticates a user who is an authentication object by comparing biometric features of the user with features that are registered in advance, and

the selection unit combines features that are parts of fingerprints in relation to a plurality of fingers that are different from each other to select the combined features as a combination of a plurality of features to be used in subsequent authentication.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein, on the condition that an instruction not to use a certain combination of a plurality of features in the authentication is received, the selection unit does not select the instructed combination of the features for use in the subsequent authentication.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the selection unit selects a plurality of features to be used in the subsequent authentication according to a predetermined rule each time the authentication is successfully completed, and changes the predetermined rule to another rule on the condition that a notice is received, stating that at least part of the features extracted from the authentication object are compromised.

8. The system according to claim 2, wherein identification information of the information recording medium is also recorded in the information recording medium, and

the selection unit selects a plurality of features to be used in the subsequent authentication according to a predetermined rule every time the authentication is successfully completed, and changes the predetermined rule to another rule on the condition that the identification information is read from an information recording medium of a certain user, and the read identification information is different from identification information that was read from the information recording medium of the user in the previous authentication.

9. A system for authenticating an authentication object by comparing features that are extracted from the authentication object with at least one feature that is registered in advance, the system comprising:

an extraction unit that extracts a plurality of features from the authentication object;

an authentication unit that compares the extracted features with at least one feature that is registered in advance in relation to part of the extracted features and authenticates the authentication object on the basis of the result of the comparison;

a selection unit that selects, from the extracted features, at feast one feature that is different from the registered feature on the condition that the authentication is successfully completed; and

a registration unit that registers the selected feature as a registered feature to be used in the subsequent authentication of the authentication object.

10. A method for authenticating a user by comparing features that are extracted from the user with features that are registered in advance, the method comprising the steps of:

extracting a plurality of features from the user;

comparing at least some of the extracted features with a previously registered combination of features and authenticating the user on the basis of the result of the comparison;

if the authentication is successfully completed, selecting a new combination of extracted features; and

registering the new combination for use in a subsequent authentication of the user.

11. The method according to claim 10 wherein the previously registered combination of features is recorded on an information recording medium carried by the user and the comparing step further includes the step of comparing the extracted features to the registered combination recorded on the information recording medium.

12. The method according to claim 11 wherein the registering step comprises the steps of:

removing the previously registered combination from the information recording medium; and

recording the new combination on the information recording medium.

13. The method according to claim 12 wherein the previously registered combination of features was selected in accordance with a particular rule and the step of selecting a new combination comprises selecting a new rule for forming the new combination.

14. The method according to claim 13 wherein the step of selecting anew combination further includes the step of excluding any new combination consisting of extracted features which have been identified as being compromised.

15. A computer program product comprising a machine readable medium embodying program instructions for authenticating users, said program instructions when loaded into and executed by a computer causing the computer to perform a method comprising the steps of:

extracting a plurality of features from the user;

comparing at least some of the extracted features with a previously registered combination of features and authenticating the user on the basis of the result of the comparison;

if the authentication is successfully completed, selecting a new combination of extracted features; and

registering the new combination for used in a subsequent authentication of the user.

16. The computer program product according to claim 15 the previously registered combination of features is recorded on an information recording medium carried by the user and the program instructions for causing the comparing step further includes program instructions for causing the step of comparing the extracted features to the registered combination recorded on the information recording medium.

17. The computer program product according to claim 16 wherein the program instructions causing registration of the new combination includes further program instructions for:

removing the previously registered combination from the information recording medium; and

recording the new combination on the information recording medium.

18. The computer program product according to claim 17 wherein the previously registered combination of features was selected in accordance with a particular rule and the program instructions for causing selection of a new combination further comprises program instructions for selecting a new rule for forming the new combination.

19. The computer program product according to claim 18 wherein program instructions for causing the step of selecting a new combination further includes program instructions for excluding any new combination of extracted features which have been identified as being compromised.