Fingerprint-acquisition apparatus for access control; personal weapon and other systems controlled thereby
First Claim
1. A personal weapon subject to access control based upon surface-relief data from a human user'"'"'s finger;
- said weapon comprising;
means for discharging an energy-transmitting agency to influence an adversary, said agency-discharging means requiring enablement for its operation; and
means for developing an electronic signal representing a determination of whether a human user'"'"'s fingerprint data which are presented to the weapon are a particular authorized user'"'"'s fingerprint data, and for applying the electronic signal to control enablement of the agency-discharging means;
at least a part of said discharging means and at least a part of said developing-and-applying means being physically formed together as a substantially unitary electronic module to deter unauthorized bypassing of said fingerprint-data access control.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
At a first end of an optic-fiber prism assembly are fiber terminations to contact a relieved surface, e. g. finger (stabilized by a handgrip). In a region where fiber diameter is essentially constant with longitudinal position, light enters the prism, crosses the fibers and enters individual fibers through their sidewalls, lighting the terminations. To allow crosslighting of the assembly, the fiber-optic numerical aperture (NA) is small: preferably not exceeding one-half. Due to fingerprint etc. detail, fractions of light pass along the fibers; at the assembly second end a detector responds with an electrical-signal array based on the surface relief. The signals are processed to check finger etc. identity and applied to control access to a personal weapon, other equipment, facilities, data, or a money service. FTIR ("frustrated total internal reflection") bright- and dark-field versions have various benefits. For use of small, low-cost detectors--and/or internal-mirror versions that light the finger straight-on--the assembly has a separate element, e. g. a high-NA fiber-optic taper with extramural absorption or "EMA" material (no entry light crosses it). For a weapon, a unitary antibypassing module (which matches a weapon port, and must be present) holds part of the access-control and firing systems. Bullets etc. fire only on a special signal from the module.
135 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A personal weapon subject to access control based upon surface-relief data from a human user'"'"'s finger;
- said weapon comprising;
means for discharging an energy-transmitting agency to influence an adversary, said agency-discharging means requiring enablement for its operation; and means for developing an electronic signal representing a determination of whether a human user'"'"'s fingerprint data which are presented to the weapon are a particular authorized user'"'"'s fingerprint data, and for applying the electronic signal to control enablement of the agency-discharging means; at least a part of said discharging means and at least a part of said developing-and-applying means being physically formed together as a substantially unitary electronic module to deter unauthorized bypassing of said fingerprint-data access control. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
- said weapon comprising;
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11. A personal weapon subject to access control based upon surface-relief data from a human user'"'"'s finger;
- said weapon comprising;
means for discharging an energy-transmitting agency to influence an adversary, said agency-discharging means being manufactured to respond exclusively to a specifically controlled electrical impulse; and means for developing an electronic signal representing a determination of whether a human user'"'"'s fingerprint data which are presented to the weapon are a particular authorized user'"'"'s fingerprint data, and for applying the electronic signal to control enablement of the agency-discharging means; said discharging means comprises means for providing a specifically controlled electrical impulse to actuate said energy-transmitting agency. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
- said weapon comprising;
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17. A personal weapon subject to access control based upon surface-relief data from a human user'"'"'s finger;
- said weapon comprising;
means for discharging an energy-transmitting agency to influence an adversary, said agency-discharging means requiring enablement for its operation; first means for developing an electronic signal representing a determination of whether a human user'"'"'s fingerprint data which are presented to the weapon are a particular authorized user'"'"'s fingerprint data, and for applying the electronic signal to control enablement of the agency-discharging means; means for providing entry to working parts of the weapon; second means for applying the electronic signal to control enablement of the entry-providing means; means for determining when entry to working parts of the weapon is gained without operation of the second means; means responsive to the entry-determining means for substantially permanently disabling the weapon when entry to working parts of the weapon is gained without operation of the second means.
- said weapon comprising;
Specification