PORTABLE DEVICE HAVING BIOMETRICS-BASED AUTHENTICATION CAPABILITIES

• US 20110107416A1
• Filed: 01/07/2011
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Trek 2000 International Limited (Trek Technology Singapore PTE Limited)
• Original Assignee: Trek 2000 International Limited (Trek Technology Singapore PTE Limited)
• Inventors: Lim, Lay Chuan, Poo, Teng Pin
• Application Number:
  US12/987,061
• Publication Number:
  US 20110107416A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/45 Structures or tools for the administration of authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/12 Fingerprints or palmprints
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/26 using a biometric sensor integrated in the pass
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• 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

Apparatus and method for implementing biometrics-based authentication. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention is embodied in a portable device. Specifically, in one embodiment, the portable device includes a microprocessor, a non-volatile memory coupled thereto, and a biometrics-based authentication module controlled by the microprocessor. Preferably, the biometrics technology used is fingerprint authentication technology. The authentication module is capable of registering a fingerprint upon first use of the portable device, storing an encoded version of the fingerprint in the non-volatile memory. Subsequently, the authentication module can read a person'"'"'s fingerprint and reliably determine whether the fingerprint matches the registered fingerprint stored in the non-volatile memory. If a match is found, access to information in the non-volatile memory is granted to that person; otherwise, access is denied. Embodiments of the present invention thus provide a highly convenient, secured and reliable method and system for user authentication and access control which was not achievable in prior art password-based authentication approaches.

Claims

1. A portable device comprising:

a Universal Serial Bus (USB) plug configured to enable the portable device to be directly connected to a USB socket of a computer;

a non-volatile memory having a capacity of at least eight megabytes, wherein at least a portion of the non-volatile memory is inaccessible without authentication; and

an authentication module configured to perform a password-based authentication and a biometrics-based authentication such that the portable device is authenticated when the password-based authentication and the biometrics-based authentication are successful.

2. The portable device of claim 1 further comprising a fingerprint module structurally integrated with the portable device.

3. The portable device of claim 1 wherein the biometrics-based authentication comprises comparing captured fingerprint data with stored fingerprint data.

4. The portable device of claim 3 wherein the stored fingerprint data is an encrypted template.

5. A method of authenticating with a portable device comprising:

communicating with a computer, wherein the portable device, having a non-volatile memory with a capacity of at least eight megabytes and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) plug configured to enable the portable device to be directly connected to a USB socket of the computer, is communicatively-linked with the computer;

receiving a biometric input;

performing a biometrics-based authentication using the biometric input;

receiving a password input;

performing a password-based authentication using the password input; and

providing access to at least a portion of the non-volatile memory if the biometrics-based authentication and the password-based authentication are successful.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the biometric input is a fingerprint image.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the biometrics-based authentication includes comparing the biometric input to stored biometric data.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the password-based authentication includes comparing the password input to stored password data.

9. A system comprising:

a portable device including

a Universal Serial Bus (USB) plug configured to enable the portable device to be directly connected to a USB socket of a computer, and

a biometrics module configured to obtain biometric input;

a restricted resource that is inaccessible without authentication; and

an authentication engine configured to perform a password-based authentication and a biometrics-based authentication using the biometric input such that the portable device is authenticated when the password-based authentication and the biometrics-based authentication are successful.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the restricted resource is at least a portion of a non-volatile memory in the portable device, the non-volatile memory having a capacity of at least eight megabytes.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the restricted resource is at least a portion of a non-volatile memory of the computer.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the restricted resource is a software program on the computer.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the restricted resource is a resource accessible to via the computer when the password-based authentication and the biometrics-based authentication are successful.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the authentication engine is located in the portable device.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the authentication engine is located in the computer.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the biometric input is fingerprint data.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the biometric input is iris data.