BIOMETRIC SENSING DEVICE FOR THREE DIMENSIONAL IMAGING OF SUBCUTANEOUS STRUCTURES EMBEDDED WITHIN FINGER TISSUE

• US 20140219521A1
• Filed: 02/06/2014
• Published: 08/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonavation, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sonavation, Inc.
• Inventors: Schmitt, Rainer M., Craig, Ronald A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,607,206 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/124
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/64 Three-dimensional objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1306 non-optical, e.g. ultrasonic or capacitive sensing
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1359 Extracting features related to ridge properties; Determining the fingerprint type, e.g. whorl or loop
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1365 Matching; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1382 Detecting the live character of the finger, i.e. distinguishing from a fake or cadaver finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/14 Vascular patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/15 Biometric patterns based on physiological signals, e.g. heartbeat, blood flow

Abstract

A system, apparatus and method for obtaining biometric data from characteristics of a fingerprint and obtaining characteristics of subcutaneous structures that are embedded within finger tissue and located in relation to the fingerprint.

Claims

1. A biometric sensing apparatus comprising:

an array of piezoelectric ceramic elements;

a set of electronics for excitation of said elements and for monitoring a motion of each of said elements;

said electronics and elements being operable in a first mode for obtaining a first set of data encoding at least one two dimensional image of a fingerprint of a linger, and being operable in a second mode for obtaining a second set of data encoding at least one three-dimensional representation of one or more subcutaneous, tissue structures that are located within tissue that is embedded within said finger; and

wherein

said electronics being controlled by software that is configured for identifying biometric markers and for recording a quantitative representation of relative locations between biometric markers within and between said fingerprint and one or more of said subcutaneous tissue structures.

2. The biometric sensing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said second set of data is employed to identify and locate vascular structures within said subcutaneous tissue.

3. The biometric sensing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said second set of data is employed, to identify and locate bone structures within said subcutaneous tissue.

4. The biometric sensing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said second set of data is employed to determine dynamic properties of said subcutaneous tissue, said dynamic properties being properties that change over time.

5. The biometric sensing apparatus according to claim 4 wherein said dynamic properties include elastic properties of said subcutaneous tissue.

6. The biometric sensing apparatus according to claim 4 wherein said dynamic properties are employed to measure frequency of a heart beat.

7. The biometric sensing apparatus according to claim 4 wherein said dynamic properties are employed to measure a presence or amount of blood flow through a vascular structure.

8. The biometric sensing apparatus according to claim 4 wherein said dynamic properties are employed to measure a presence or amount of a pulse wave pattern in association with a vascular structure.

9. The biometric sensing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein a set of said biometric markers is represented by a characterizing score that is later employed for biometric matching.

10. A biometric sensing system comprising:

an array of piezoelectric ceramic elements;

a set of electronics for excitation of said elements and for monitoring, a motion of each of said elements;

said electronics and elements being operable in a first mode for obtaining a first set of data encoding a two dimensional image of a fingerprint of a finger, and being operable in a second mode for Obtaining a second set of data encoding at least one three-dimensional representation of one or more subcutaneous tissue structures that are located within tissue that is embedded within said finger; and

wherein

said electronics being controlled by software that is configured for identifying biometric markers and for recording a quantitative representation of relative locations between biometric markers within and between said fingerprint and one or more of said subcutaneous tissue structures.

11. A method for sensing biometric information;

comprising;

providing an array of piezoelectric ceramic elements;

providing a set of electronics for excitation of said elements and for monitoring a motion of each of said elements; and

wherein

said electronics and said elements being operable in a first mode for obtaining a first set of data encoding a two dimensional image of a fingerprint of a finger, and being operable in a second mode for obtaining a second set of data encoding at least one three-dimensional representation of one or more subcutaneous tissue structures that are located within tissue that is embedded within said finger; and

wherein

said electronics being controlled by software that is configured for identifying biometric markers and for recording a quantitative representation of relative locations between biometric markers within and between said fingerprint and one or more of said subcutaneous tissue structures.