METHOD AND SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTING FOR POSITIONAL VARIABILITY OF BIOMETRIC FEATURES

• US 20110188709A1
• Filed: 02/01/2010
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corporation DAON Technology
• Original Assignee: Daon Holdings Limited
• Inventors: Gupta, Gaurav, White, Conor Robert, Peirce, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,520,903 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 10/44 Local feature extraction by analysis of parts of the pattern, e.g. by detecting edges, contours, loops, corners, strokes or intersections; Connectivity analysis, e.g. of connected components
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/462 Salient features, e.g. scale invariant feature transforms [SIFT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/7515 Shifting the patterns to accommodate for positional errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1371 Matching features related to minutiae or pores

Abstract

A method of text-based authentication that accounts for positional variability of biometric features between captured biometric data samples includes capturing biometric data for a desired biometric type from an individual, and processing the captured biometric data to generate a biometric image and a biometric feature template. A selected conversion algorithm is executed by superimposing a positional relationship medium on the biometric image. The positional relationship medium includes a plurality of cells textually describable with words derivable from the positional relationship medium. The positions of biometric features are permitted to vary in overlapping border regions within the positional relationship medium. The method also includes identifying the position of at least one biometric feature within the overlapping border regions and generating a plurality of words for the at least one biometric feature.

Claims

1. A method of text-based biometric authentication that accounts for positional variability of biometric features between captured biometric data samples, said method comprising:

capturing biometric data for a desired biometric type from an individual, and processing the captured biometric data to generate a biometric image and a biometric feature template;

selecting a conversion algorithm for converting the captured biometric data into words, wherein the conversion algorithm is stored in a server system;

executing the selected conversion algorithm by superimposing a positional relationship medium on the biometric image, wherein the positional relationship medium includes a plurality of cells textually describable with words derivable from the positional relationship medium, and adjacent cells included in the plurality of cells include a common border therebetween;

expanding the common borders such that the common borders overlap to establish an overlapping border region between respective adjacent cells, wherein positions of biometric features are permitted to vary in the overlapping border regions;

identifying the position of at least one biometric feature within the overlapping border regions; and

generating a plurality of words for the at least one biometric feature.

2. A method of text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1, said capturing operation further comprising:

capturing fingerprint biometric data; and

extracting at least one minutia point from the captured fingerprint biometric data, wherein the at least one minutia point represents the at least one biometric feature.

3. A method of text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1, said generating operation comprising:

associating the at least one biometric feature with at least one pair of adjacent cells; and

deriving a word corresponding to each of the at least one pair of adjacent cells.

4. A method of text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 3, further comprising establishing intersecting border regions at intersections of overlapping border regions.

5. A method of text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1, said generating operation comprising:

generating a word for the at least one biometric feature corresponding to each of the adjacent cells; and

constructing a sentence from the plurality of words corresponding to the at least one biometric feature to describe the position of the at least one biometric feature.

6. A method of text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 5, said generating a word operation comprising one of:

generating the word using sectors and bands of the positional relationship medium; and

generating the word using radial line and circle designations of the positional relationship medium.

7. A method of text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1, said capturing operation further comprising:

capturing iris biometric data; and

extracting at least phase information and masking information from the captured iris biometric data.

8. A method of text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

assigning cell numbers to each of the plurality of cells; and

translating each of the plurality of words into a single cell number.

9. A system for text-based biometric authentication that accounts for positional variability of biometric features between captured biometric data samples, said system comprising:

a computer configured as a server, said server including at least a data base, said server being configured to store within said database biometric feature templates derived from biometric data and at least a data document gallery comprising a plurality of data documents, wherein each data document includes biographic and biometric data of an individual as well as enrollment biometric words of the individual; and

at least one client system positioned at an authentication station, said client system comprising at least a computer operationally coupled to said server, said client system configured to at least capture biometric data for a desired biometric type from an unauthenticated individual, wherein

said server is further configured to

generate a biometric image and a biometric feature template from the captured biometric data,

select one of a plurality of conversion algorithms for converting the captured biometric data into words,

execute the selected conversion algorithm by superimposing a positional relationship medium on the generated biometric image, wherein the positional relationship medium includes a plurality of cells textually describable with words derivable from the positional relationship medium, and adjacent cells included in the plurality of cells include a common border therebetween,

expand the common borders such that the common borders overlap to establish an overlapping border region between respective adjacent cells, wherein positions of the biometric features are permitted to vary in the overlapping border regions,

identify the position of at least one biometric feature within one of the overlapping border regions, and

generate a plurality of words for the at least one biometric feature.

10. A system for text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 9, said client system being further configured to capture fingerprint biometric data, and said server being further configured to derive at least one minutia point from the captured fingerprint biometric data, wherein the at least one minutia point represents the at least one biometric feature.

11. A system for text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 9, said server being further configured to:

associate the at least one biometric feature with at least one pair of adjacent cells; and

derive a word corresponding to each of the at least one pair of adjacent cells.

12. A system for text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 11, said server being further configured to establish intersecting border regions at intersections of overlapping border regions.

13. A system for text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 9, said server being further configured to:

include the plurality of words and biographic data words in a probe;

compare the probe against the data document gallery; and

identify at least one data document as a matching data document when at least one of the words in the probe matches at least one word in the data document.

14. A system for text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 13, said server being further configured to:

compile the at least one matching data document into a list of potential matches;

rank the potential matches according to a number of matching words contained therein; and

verify the identity of an unauthorized individual by comparing the captured biometric data against corresponding biometric data included in each of the ranked potential matches.

15. A method of text-based biometric authentication that accounts for positional variability of biometric features between captured biometric data samples, said method comprising:

generating a plurality of cells, each cell including at least one border, and positioning cells adjacent each other to define a border between each pair of adjacent cells;

capturing biometric data for a desired biometric type from an individual and storing the captured biometric data in a server system;

determining that at least one biometric feature included in the captured biometric data is positioned proximate the border between at least one of the pairs of adjacent cells;

identifying the position of the at least one biometric feature as being within each cell of the at least one pair of adjacent cells; and

deriving a plurality of words, each word being derived from a corresponding cell of the at least one pair of adjacent cells to describe the position of the at least one biometric feature.

16. A method of text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 15, said determining operation comprising expanding the border between the at least one pair of adjacent cells to establish an overlapping border region between the at least one pair of adjacent cells.

17. A method of text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 16, wherein positions of biometric features included in the captured biometric data are permitted to vary in the overlapping border regions.

18. A method of text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 15, said deriving operation comprising constructing a sentence from the plurality of words corresponding to the at least one biometric feature to describe the position of the at least one biometric feature.

19. A method of text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 15, said generating operation further comprising defining the at least one border of each cell with concentric circles and radial lines.

20. A method of text-based biometric authentication in accordance with claim 19, said generating operation further comprising generating a positional relationship grid with the concentric circles and radial lines.