Facial Profile Password to Modify User Account Data for Hands-Free Transactions

• US 20160323274A1
• Filed: 04/29/2016
• Published: 11/03/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Chandrasekaran, Sashikanth, Ho, Denise, Kalenichenko, Dmitry, Chitilian, Varouj, Zwiebel, Timothy Raymond, Palczewski, Michal
• Granted Patent: US 10,397,220 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40145 Biometric identity checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication

Abstract

An account management system establishes an account for a user. The user enters user account information into the account and the account management system establishes a facial template for the user based on an image of the face of the user. The user requests to change user account information at a merchant POS (POS) device. The merchant POS device captures a facial image of the user and transmits the image the account management system, which generates a facial template and compares the generated facial template against the existing facial template associated with user account. If the generated facial template is less than a threshold difference from the existing facial template, the user may update user account information at the merchant POS device, which communicates the updated user account information to the account management system. The account management system associates the updated user account information with the user account.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to enable updates to user account information in response to facial image verification, comprising:

receiving, by one or more computing devices operated by an account management system, a user account identifier associated with a user account maintained by the account management system, a facial image of a user, and a request to update account data in the user account;

generating, by the one or more computing devices operated by an account management system, a facial template based on the received facial image;

retrieving, by the one or more computing devices operated by an account management system, an existing facial template from the user account associated with the user account identifier;

determining, by the one or more computing devices operated by an account management system, that a degree of similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template retrieved from the user account is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold amount;

in response to determining that the degree of similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold amount, transmitting, by the one or more computing devices operated by an account management system, a request for updated account data; and

replacing, by the one or more computing devices operated by an account management system, one or more items of account data in the user account with updated account data.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the facial image of the user is captured by a merchant point of sale computing device camera.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the facial image of the user is captured by a user computing device camera.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein account data comprises one or more of user contact information, user demographic information, user payment account information, and a user facial template.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein updated account data comprises additions, deletions, or edits to the account data.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the generated facial template comprises a computer code representation of the captured facial image.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein comparing the generated facial template to the existing facial template to determine the degree of similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template comprises:

determining, by the one or more computing devices operated by an account management system, a similarity value for one or more regions of the generate facial template and one or more regions of the existing facial template for each of one or more key features, each similarity value describing a similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template for the each of the one or more key features; and

determining, by the one or more computing devices operated by an account management system, the degree of similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template based on each similarity value determined for each of the one or more key features.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the one or more key features comprise one or more of shape, color, line, value, space, form, and texture.

9. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable program instructions embodied thereon that when executed by a computer cause the computer to enable updates to user account information in response to facial image verification, the computer-executable program instructions comprising;

computer-executable program instructions to receive, from a user computing device, a user account identifier associated with a user account, a facial template, and a request to update account data in the user account;

computer-executable program instructions to extract, from a user account associated with the received user account identifier, an existing facial template;

computer-executable program instructions to determine that a degree of similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template retrieved from the user account is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold amount;

in response to determining that the degree of similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold amount, computer-executable program instructions to transmit a request for updated account data to the user computing device; and

computer-executable program instructions to replace one or more items of account data in the user account with updated account data.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the facial template is generated by the user computing device from an image captured by the user computing device of a user requesting to update the user account information at the user computing device.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the facial template comprises a computer code representation of the captured facial image.

12. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein user account data comprises one or more of user contact information, user demographic information, user payment account information, and a user facial template.

13. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein updated user account data comprises one or more of additions, deletions, or edits to user account data.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein comparing the generated facial template to the existing facial template to determine the degree of similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template comprises:

determining a similarity value for one or more regions of the generate facial template and one or more regions of the existing facial template for each of one or more key features, each similarity value describing a similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template for the each of the one or more key feature; and

determining the degree of similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template based on each similarity value determined for each of the one or more key features.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the one or more key features comprise one or more of shape, color, line, value, space, form, and texture.

16. A system to enable updates to user account information in response to facial image verification, comprising:

a storage device; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the storage device, wherein the processor executes application code instructions that are stored in the storage device to cause the system to;

receive, from a user computing device, a user account identifier associated with a user account, a facial template, and a request to update account data in the user account;

extract, from a user account associated with the received user account identifier, an existing facial template;

determine that a degree of similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template retrieved from the user account is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold amount;

in response to determining that the degree of similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold amount, transmit a request for updated account data to the user computing device; and

replace one or more items of account data in the user account with updated account data.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein updated user account data comprises one or more of additions, deletions, or edits to user account data.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the generated facial template comprises a computer code representation of the captured facial image.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein comparing the generated facial template to the existing facial template to determine the degree of similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template comprises:

determining a similarity value for one or more regions of the generate facial template and one or more regions of the existing facial template for each of one or more key features, each similarity value describing a similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template for the each of the one or more key feature; and

determining the degree of similarity between the generated facial template and the existing facial template based on each similarity value determined for each of the one or more key features.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more key features comprise one or more of shape, color, line, value, space, form, and texture.