INTEGRATION OF FACIAL RECOGNITION INTO CROSS CHANNEL AUTHENTICATION

• US 20090140838A1
• Filed: 11/30/2007
• Published: 06/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Original Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Inventors: Ghosh, Debashis, Banerjee, Sudeshna, Joa, David, Bendel, Timothy J., Newman, Kurt D., Allison, Thayer S. JR.
• Granted Patent: US 8,558,663 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/5.830
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40145 Biometric identity checks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/20 Automatic teller machines [ATMs]
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/207 Surveillance aspects at ATMs

Abstract

Real time facial images of individuals transacting accounts held in a bank facility are taken following the grant of authorization to the individual to access the account under the bank'"'"'s required identification protocol, the real time facial images being matched to recorded facial images of account holders maintained by the bank to further authenticate the transacting individual as having authorized account access.

Claims

1. A method of authenticating an individual that is initiating a bank account transaction as having authorization to access the account, comprising:

verifying the existence of the account and the authority of the individual to access the account under the bank required identification protocol;

obtaining a real time facial image of the individual;

comparing the obtained real time facial image with recorded facial images maintained by the bank in an account associated image file of persons who are authorized to access the account, to detect a matching image pair; and

granting account access to such individual in response to the presence of a matching image pair.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

denying account access to such individual in response to the absence of a matching image pair.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a default account access to such individual in the absence of an account associated image file of recorded facial image of persons authorized to access the account.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

creating, in response to the absence of an account associated image file of recorded facial image of persons authorized to access the account, an account associated default authorization image file; and

storing in the default authorization image file, the real time facial image of persons who are granted default authorization to access the account,

and wherein the step of comparing further comprises

comparing the obtained real time facial image with recorded facial images maintained by the bank in the account associated default authorization image file to detect a matching image pair.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of authorizing default account access comprises:

offering the individual the opportunity to enroll in a program which authenticates the authority of each individual accessing the account by matching their real time facial image to a recorded facial image maintained by the bank of persons authorized to access the account.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

creating, in response to acceptance by the individual of such offering, an account associated image file to maintain each such obtained real time facial image as a recorded facial image of a person authorized to access the account.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring, at the time of opening a bank account, an initial real time facial image of each individual having authority to access such account; and

creating an account associated image file to maintain each such acquired initial real time facial image as a recorded facial image of a person authorized to access the account.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

adding, to the account associated image file, as a recorded facial image of persons authorized to access the account, each most recent successfully matched real time facial image obtained in each most recent account transaction.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a selected N number of recorded facial images of persons authorized to access the account are maintained in the account associated image file.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the longest maintained one of the recorded facial images in the account associated image file is deleted in response to the adding of each most recently added recorded facial image, as necessary to maintain a selected N number of recorded facial images.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of comparing comprises:

selecting the most recent recorded facial image in the account associated image file to detect a matching image pair with the obtained real time image; and

continuing, in the absence of achieving a matching image pair therefrom, with selecting a next most recent recorded facial image in the account associated image file for comparison with the obtained real time image to detect an image pair.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein each real time facial image comprises digital signal content.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of comparing comprises:

identifying, as a standard for matching the obtained real time facial image to a recorded facial images, a selected number of facial features to be compared between images, and a quantitative measure to be used to establish an acceptable match between comparable features.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of adding comprises:

transforming each most recent successfully matched real time facial image obtained into a facial image template to be added to the account associated image file as a recorded facial image of persons authorized to access the account, the facial image template presenting the selected number of facial features to be compared in an abstract format for ease of comparison.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein a matching image pair is identified with the occurrence of a user required number of successful quantitative measure matches from among the selected number of facial features to be compared.

16. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

creating an account associated denied access image file of persons denied account access; and

storing the real time facial image of individuals denied account access in the account associated denied access image file.

17. A method of identifying bank customers from among persons that are present at the bank facility, comprising:

maintaining recorded facial images of bank account holders;

acquiring, real time facial images of persons appearing in public spaces of the bank facility from surveillance cameras disposed in the bank public spaces;

comparing the acquired real time facial images with the recorded facial images to identify therefrom account holders; and

notifying bank personnel of the presence of such identified account holder at the bank facility.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of notifying bank personnel comprises:

determining whether there is a present need to personally meet with the identified account holder;

alerting bank personnel of the need to personally meet with the identified account holder, and the subject purpose of such meeting; and

dispatching a bank employee to meet the identified account holder to notify them of the need to meet and the subject purpose of the meeting.