User identification through sequential input of fingerprints

• US 5,933,515 A
• Filed: 07/25/1996
• Issued: 08/03/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Original Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Inventors: Psaltis, Demetri, Pu, Allen
• Primary Examiner(s): Boudreau, Leo H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MEHTA, BHAVESH M
• Application Number:
  US08/687,259
• Time in Patent Office: 1,104 Days
• Field of Search: 382/115-119, 382/124, 382/127, 382/280, 382/212, 340/825.3, 340/825.31, 340/825.34, 235/382, 235/382.5, 235/379, 235/380, 283/68, 283/67, 902/3, 902/5, 356/71
• US Class Current: 382/124
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/12 Fingerprints or palmprints
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2209/14 With a sequence of inputs of different identification information
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/26 using a biometric sensor integrated in the pass
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition

Abstract

An identification system using biometric information of human body parts and a secret sequence code. In particular, biometric information of human body parts is used to form the secret sequence code. Specifically, a combination entry device recognizes user'"'"'s fingerprints which are entered as a sequence. The fingerprints must be entered in the proper sequence in order to be recognized by the system. The fingerprints are preferably recognized using a fast technique with a low-probability level of rejection. While the sensor can be fooled for any one fingerprint. The use of a plurality of different fingerprints improves the identification capability. In particular, the combination of fingerprints in the proper order is necessary to undo the lock.

Claims

1. A human identity recognizing system, comprising:

an input device, configured to obtain a first physical feature of a first body part and a first sequence code from a first user, wherein said first physical feature identifies a physical characteristic of said first body part that is unique to said first user and said first sequence code includes a set of variations of said first physical feature of said first body part;

an identification device communicating with said input device and operating to compare said first physical feature of said first user against a piece of second physical feature of a second body part of a second user to determine whether said first physical feature matches said second physical feature based on a pre-determined comparison criterion; and

said identification device further operating to compare said first sequence code against a second sequence code which includes a set of variations of said second physical feature of said second body part of said second user, to ascertain whether said first sequence code matches said second sequence code,

wherein said human identity recognizing system is configured to identify said first user as said second user only if said comparison criterion is met by said first physical feature from said first user and said first sequence code matches said second sequence code.

2. A system as in claim 1, further including an output device for outputting information from said human identity recognizing system.

3. A system as in claim 2, wherein said output device includes a video display, or an audio device, or a video-audio device.

4. A system as in claim 1, wherein said identification device further includes:

a body feature recognizing device connected to receive said first physical feature from said input device, operating to compare said first physical feature of said first user against said second physical feature of said second body part of said second user; and

a sequence code comparing device, operating to compare said first sequence code against said second sequence code.

5. A system as in claim 4, wherein both said body feature recognizing device and said sequence code comparing device are electronic devices.

6. A system as in claim 4, wherein said body feature recognizing device is an optical correlator.

7. A system as in claim 6, wherein said optical correlator includes:

a coherent light source, operating to produce coherent light;

a spatial light modulator receiving image information indicative of said first physical feature, and operating to imprint said image information onto said coherent light to produce a first optical image;

a holographic medium having Fourier-transformed holographic information indicative of said second physical feature of said second body part from said second user;

an optical lens, disposed relative to said spatial light modulator and said holographic medium to Fourier-transform said first optical image to said holographic medium, said first optical image interacting with said holographic medium to produce a signal beam having information indicative of a correlation between said first and second physical features;

an output lens located relative to said holographic medium to perform a Fourier transform of said signal beam said signal receiver; and

a signal receiver disposed relative to said output lens to receive said Fourier transform of said signal beam.

8. A system as in claim 7, wherein said coherent light source includes a diode laser.

9. A system as in claim 7, wherein said holographic medium further includes Fourier-transformed information indicative of a piece of third information that is indicative of a third body part from a third user.

10. A system as in claim 9, wherein images in said holographic medium are recorded and superimposed with an angle multiplexing method and a fractal multiplexing method.

11. A system as in claim 10, wherein information of said angle multiplexing method and fractal multiplexing method are used to register said images in said signal receiver.

12. A system as in claim 11 wherein:

said Fourier-transformed information indicative of said second information from said second user is registered to one spatial location on said signal receiver; and

said Fourier-transformed information indicative of said third information from said third user is registered to another spatial location on said signal receiver.

13. A system in claim 6, wherein said sequence code comparing device is an electronic device.

14. A system as in claim 1, wherein said input device is an imaging device, operating to obtain an image of a human body part.

15. A system as in claim 1, further comprising a memory device configured to store said second physical feature and second sequence code of said second user.

16. A system as in claim 15, wherein said memory device includes an optical storage medium.

17. A system as in claim 1, wherein said second body part is a hand and said second physical feature includes one or more fingerprints of said hand of said second user.

18. A system as in claim 17, wherein said second sequence code comprises at least one of the following sequences using a single fingerprint of said hand of said second user:

(A) a Morse-Code-like sequence formed by entering said fingerprint into said input device at least twice with different durations;

(B) a spatial sequence formed by entering said fingerprint into said input device a plurality of times at different locations in said input device according to a specified spatial pattern; and

(C ) an orientation sequence formed by entering said fingerprint into said input device a plurality of times at different relative orientations.

19. A system as in claim 17, wherein said second sequence code comprises at least one of the following sequences using said a plurality of fingerprints of said hand of said second user:

(A) a multiple-finger sequence formed by entering each of said fingerprints into said input device at least once according to a specified sequential pattern;

(B) a Morse-Code-like sequence formed by entering said fingerprints into said input device at least once with different durations;

(C ) a spatial sequence formed by entering said fingerprints into said input device at different locations in said input device according to a specified spatial pattern; and

(D) an orientation sequence formed by entering said fingerprints into said input device at different relative orientations.

20. An identity recognizing method, comprising:

obtaining a physical feature from a body part of a user wherein said physical feature identifies a physical characteristic of said body part that is unique to said user;

obtaining a code entry of said user which includes a sequence formed of a set of variations of said physical feature from said body part of said user;

comparing said physical feature of said user against a pre-selected identification feature of said body part from an authorized user to ascertain whether said physical feature of said user matches said pre-selected identification feature from said body part from said authorized user based on a pre-determined comparison criterion;

comparing said code entry against an existing secret code which includes a sequence formed by a set of variations of said pre-selected identification feature of said body part from said authorized user; and

producing a positive identification of said user only if said comparison criterion is met by said user'"'"'s physical feature and said code entry of said user matches said secret code of said authorized user.

21. A method as in claim 20, wherein said secret code further includes, in addition to said sequence formed by said pre-selected identification feature of said body part from said authorized user, a part formed by alphabetic letters, or numerical numbers, or a combination thereof.

22. A method as in claim 20, further including comparing at least another body Part of said user with said another body part of said authorized user to add redundancy and to improve accuracy of identification.

23. A method as in claim 22, wherein a combination of said body part and said another body part is used for constructing said secret code.

24. A method as in claim 23, wherein said body part is a first finger, said another body part is a second finger, and said secrete code includes a sequence comprising fingerprints of said first and second fingers.

25. A method as in claim 24, wherein said secret code comprises at least one of the following sequences using said first and second fingers:

(A) a multiple-finger sequence formed by entering each of said fingerprints of said first and second fingers into a fingerprint input device at least once according to a specified sequential pattern;

(B) a Morse-Code-like sequence formed by entering said fingerprints of said first and second fingers into a fingerprint input device at least once with different durations;

(C ) a spatial sequence formed by entering said fingerprints of said first and second fingers into a fingerprint input device at different locations in said input device according to a specified spatial pattern; and

(D) an orientation sequence formed by entering said fingerprints of said first and second fingers into a fingerprint input device at different relative orientations.

26. A method as in claim 20, wherein said body part is a finger and said pre-selected identification feature is a fingerprint of said finger.

27. A method as in claim 26, wherein said secret code comprises at least one of the following sequences using said fingerprint of said finger:

(A) a Morse-Code-like sequence formed by entering said fingerprint into a fingerprint input device at least twice with different durations;

(B) a spatial sequence formed by entering said fingerprint into a fingerprint input device a plurality of times at different locations in said input device according to a specified spatial pattern; and

(C ) an orientation sequence formed by entering said fingerprint into a fingerprint input device a plurality of times at different relative orientations.

28. A method as in claim 20, wherein said body part is an eye.

29. A method as in claim 28, wherein said physical feature is a retinal scan of said eye.

30. A method as in claim 20, wherein said comparing includes a correlation process.

31. A method as in claim 20, wherein said comparing includes a probabilistic match process.

32. A method as in claim 20, wherein said comparing includes wavelet transforms.

33. A method as in claim 20, further comprising transforming and compressing said user'"'"'s physical feature of said body part into a plurality of significant feature parameters in digital form using a digital signal processing method.

34. A method as in claim 20, further including comparing a plurality of body parts from a plurality users against a plurality of body parts from a plurality authorized users.

35. A method as in claim 34, wherein said secret code is a sequence formed by using said plurality of body parts from said plurality authorized users.

36. A human identity recognizing system, comprising:

an input device configured to capture a physical feature of a body part entered by a user that identifies a physical characteristic of said body part unique to said user and to capture a biometric sequence code formed at least by a set of variations of said physical feature;

a storage device configured to store a specified physical feature and identification sequence codes of authorized users, each of said identification sequence codes corresponding to a single authorized user and comprising a sequence formed at least by a set of variations of said specified physical feature of said corresponding authorized user; and

an identification device, connected to said input device and said storage device and configured to compare said physical feature of said user against said specified physical feature of said authorized users and to compare said biometric sequence code against said identification sequence codes of said authorized users to determine whether said user is one of said authorized users.

37. A system as in claim 36, wherein said specified physical feature of said authorized users includes one or more fingerprints and each of said identification sequence codes comprises a sequence formed by said one or more fingerprints.

38. A system as in claim 36, wherein said specified physical feature of said authorized users includes physical features obtained from two or more body parts and each of said identification sequence codes comprises a sequence formed by said physical features of said one or more body parts.

39. A system as in claim 36, wherein each of said identification sequence codes further includes, in addition to said sequence formed by a set of variations of said specified physical feature of said corresponding authorized user, a part formed by alphabetic letters, or numerical numbers, or a combination thereof.

40. A system as in claim 36, wherein said identification device includes an optical processor operable to compare said physical feature of said user against said specified physical feature of said authorized users and to compare said biometric sequence code entered by said user against said identification sequence codes of said authorized users.