Hand biometrics sensing device

• US 6,628,810 B1
• Filed: 03/09/1998
• Issued: 09/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Harkin, Gerard F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Werner, Brian
• Application Number:
  US09/037,105
• Time in Patent Office: 2,031 Days
• Field of Search: 382/115, 382/116, 382/119, 382/124-127, 356/71, 340/825.34, 340/5.53, 340/5.83, 707/6, 707/9, 713/186, 902/3, 902/6
• US Class Current: 382/116
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1171 based on the shapes or appearances of their bodies or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1172 using fingerprinting
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1306 non-optical, e.g. ultrasonic or capacitive sensing
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition

Abstract

A hand biometrics sensing device includes an array of sensing elements (12) defining a sensing area (11) over which a person'"'"'s hand is placed and which has a first portion (14) in which the sensing elements are arranged to provide high resolution sensing suitable for sensing fingerprint patterns and a second portion (15) in which the sensing elements are arranged to provide lower resolution sensing suitable for sensing at least one other hand biometric characteristic, for example, hand geometry, finger length, width or inter-joint dimensions. The sensing elements, which may include sense electrodes (17) connected to switching devices (16) such as TFTs, are arrayed in rows and columns and addressed by peripheral drive circuits via sets of row and column address conductors (18, 20), resulting in a low-cost, compact device.

Claims

1. A sensing device for sensing a biometric characteristic of a person'"'"'s hand and comprising

a matrix array of sensing elements defining a sensing area, wherein

in a first portion of the array the sensing elements have a resolution capable of sensing the fingerprint pattern of a person'"'"'s finger when placed over that portion of the sensing area;

in a second portion of the array the sensing elements have a lower resolution for sensing at least one other hand biometric characteristic;

the sensing elements are arranged in rows and columns on a substrate and

sets of address conductors carried on the substrate for addressing the sensing elements, the rows of sensing elements each being connected to a respective row address conductor, a pitch of the row address conductors in the column direction being greater in the second portion than in the first portion; and

a drive circuit, connected to the set of row address conductors, for addressing the rows of sensing elements in turn, wherein

in the first portion the sensing elements in each column are connected to a respective column address conductor and in the second portion the number of sensing elements in each row is less than in the first portion and the sensing elements are connected to selected ones only of the column address conductors associated with the sensing elements in the first portion.

2. A hand biometric characteristic recognition system comprising:

a sensing device for sensing a biometric characteristic of a person'"'"'s hand and comprising a matrix array of sensing elements defining a sensing area, characterised in that in a first portion of the array the sensing elements have a resolution capable of sensing the fingerprint pattern of a person'"'"'s finger when placed over that portion of the sensing area and in a second portion of the array the sensing elements have a lower resolution for sensing at least one other hand biometric characteristic,

processing means connected to the sensing device for receiving an output from the device indicative of the sensed hand biometric characteristics and comparing such with stored hand biometric characteristics data; and

a stylus adapted to be sensed by the sensing elements of the array when in proximity thereto so as to enable a person'"'"'s signature to be sensed when written over the array using the stylus.