AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM

• US 20130063581A1
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Published: 03/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Information & Telecommunication Engineering, Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Information & Communication Engineering Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Yoshinaga, Tomoaki, Nagayoshi, Hiroto, KOMATSU, YUTO, Someya, Satoshi, Matsubara, Daisuke
• Granted Patent: US 9,189,680 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/50 Maintenance of biometric data or enrolment thereof

Abstract

It is provided an authentication system, comprising: a reader for obtaining identification information assigned to an identification device held by a subject; an authentication device for authenticating the identification information obtained by the reader; a camera for photographing a facial image of the subject; and a management device which is coupled to a terminal for issuing an alarm and which includes an image database in which the facial image photographed by the camera is accumulated, in which the management device is configured to: search the image database by using information obtained by at least one of the reader and the camera on an occasion of the authentication; determine a reliability of the authentication based on a result of analyzing the retrieved facial image; and transmit data for issuing the alarm to the terminal in a case where it is determined that the reliability is low.

Claims

1. An authentication system, comprising:

a reader for obtaining identification information assigned to an identification device held by a subject;

an authentication device for authenticating the identification information obtained by the reader;

a camera for photographing a facial image of the subject; and

a management device which is coupled to a terminal for issuing an alarm and which includes an image database in which the facial image photographed by the camera is accumulated,

wherein the management device is configured to;

search the image database by using information obtained by at least one of the reader and the camera on an occasion of the authentication;

determine a reliability of the authentication based on a result of analyzing the retrieved facial image; and

transmit data for issuing the alarm to the terminal in a case where it is determined that the reliability is low.

2. The authentication system according to claim 1, wherein the management device is further configured to:

perform first determination processing for determining a first similarity between the photographed facial image and an image accumulated in the image database with a trigger of an event that the camera photographs the facial image;

perform second determination processing for searching the image database by using the information obtained by the reader and determining a second similarity between the facial image photographed by the camera and the retrieved image with a trigger of an event that the reader obtains the information; and

determine the reliability based on a result of the first determination processing and a result of the second determination processing.

3. The authentication system according to claim 2, wherein:

the first determination processing starts after the camera photographs the facial image and stops after the reader obtains the information; and

the second determination processing starts after the reader obtains the information to perform processing on a part of the image database that has not been processed by the first determination processing.

4. The authentication system according to claim 2, wherein the second determination processing is performed only on the image that has determined to be similar by the first determination processing.

5. The authentication system according to claim 2, wherein it is determined that the reliability is high without executing the second determination processing in a case where the first similarity is determined to be high by the first determination processing.

6. The authentication system according to claim 1, wherein:

the authentication device accumulates the facial image in the image database after assigning a subject-basis identifier to the facial image photographed by the camera; and

the authentication device deletes a part of a plurality of the facial images assigned with the subject-basis identifier from the image database in a case where an identifier-basis total size of a plurality of the facial images accumulated in the image database exceeds a predetermined threshold value defined corresponding to the subject-basis identifier, a part of the plurality of the facial images assigned with the subject-basis identifier exceeding the predetermined threshold value from the image database.

7. The authentication system according to claim 6, wherein:

the authentication device calculates, as third similarities, similarities between the facial images whose photographing dates/times fall within a predetermined date/time range from a current date/time and the facial images whose photographing dates/times fall out of the predetermined date/time range among the facial images accumulated in the image database; and

the authentication device deletes a part of the facial images whose photographing dates/times fall out of the predetermined date/time range and whose third similarities are larger than a predetermined threshold value.

8. The authentication system according to claim 7, wherein the authentication device deletes the facial images whose third similarities are larger than the predetermined threshold value and whose photographing dates/times fall out of the predetermined date/time range and earlier than a predetermined first reference date/time.

9. The authentication system according to claim 7, wherein the authentication device keeps the facial images whose third similarities are larger than the predetermined threshold value and whose photographing dates/times fall out of the predetermined date/time range and fall within a range between the first reference date/time and a second reference date/time being later than the first reference date/time and earlier than the current date/time, from being deleted.