Method for Enabling Authentication or Identification, and Related Verification System

• US 20130279765A1
• Filed: 11/29/2011
• Published: 10/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IDEMIA Identity and Security France SAS (Advent International Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Morpho (Advent International Corporation)
• Inventors: Fondeur, Jean-Christophe, Chabanne, Herv
• Granted Patent: US 9,519,824 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/115
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/647 by matching two-dimensional images to three-dimensional objects
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/33 by means of a password

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for enabling the authentication or identification of a person (1) using a first electronic device (2) comprising an image-capturing unit and a data-transmission unit, the method including a step of registering said person in a verification system (3). The registration step includes the steps of: capturing, using the image-capturing unit of said electronic device, a first image (h) of at least one object (O) of any kind that is secretly selected by the person; and transmitting said first image to the verification system by means of said data transmission device of said first electronic device.

Claims

1. A method enabling the authentication or identification of a person, using a first electronic device comprising an image-capturing unit and a data transmission unit, said method including a phase of registering said person with a verification system, said registration phase comprising the following steps:

capturing, using an image-capturing unit of said first electronic device, a first image of at least one object of any kind that is secretly selected by the person;

transmitting said first image to the verification system by means of the data transmission unit of said first electronic device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the object chosen by the person is an object that the person always has on him or within reach.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first image is sent to the verification system in a secure manner.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least a first personal data item for said person is sent to the verification system as a supplement to the first image.

5. The method according to claim 1, further including an authentication or identification phase relative to said person, using a second electronic device, the authentication or identification phase comprising the following steps carried out in the verification system:

receiving from the second electronic device a second image of at least one object that is identical or similar to the object in the first image;

comparing the second image to at least the first image;

concluding that the person is authenticated or identified successfully when the comparison of the second image to the first image reveals a match between their respective objects.

6. The method according to claim 4, further comprising the receiving, from the second electronic device, of a second personal data item for said person corresponding to the first personal data item, and the comparison of the second personal data item to at least the first personal data item, and wherein it is concluded that the person is authenticated or identified successfully when the comparison of the second image to the first image reveals a match between their respective objects and the comparison of the second personal data item to the first personal data item reveals a match between the second personal data item and the first personal data item.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the second image has been freshly captured using an image-capturing unit of said second electronic device, for the purposes of the authentication or identification of the person in said verification system.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein the first electronic device and the second electronic device are the same device.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first electronic device and/or the second electronic device belong to said person.

10. The method according to claim 5, wherein the second image is sent in a secure manner from the second electronic device to the verification system.

11. A verification system enabling the authentication or identification of a person according to any of the above claims, said verification system comprising:

a first receiving unit for receiving, from a first electronic device, a first captured image of at least one object of any kind that is secretly selected by the person;

a second receiving unit for receiving, from a second electronic device, a second image of at least one object that is identical or similar to the object of the first image;

an image comparison unit that compares the second image to at least the first image;

a decision unit which decides that the person is authenticated or identified successfully when the comparison of the second image to the first image performed by the image comparison unit reveals a match between their respective objects.

12. The verification system according to claim 11, said verification system being distributed across multiple entities.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, with a program stored thereon, said computer program comprising code instructions for implementing the method according to claim 10 when it is loaded onto and executed by computer means.