Multimodal concierge for secure and convenient access to a home or building

• US 7,064,652 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2002
• Issued: 06/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sovereign Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Junqua, Jean-Claude, Morin, Philippe
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): YANG, CLARA I
• Application Number:
  US10/237,758
• Publication Number:
  US 20040046641A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,380 Days
• Field of Search: 340/5.82, 340/5.83, 340/5.84, 340/5.52, 340/5.53, 713/186, 713/202, 382/116, 704/273
• US Class Current: 340/5.84
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• 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

Abstract

An improved method is provided for enrolling with a resource security system. The method includes: providing an access code to a system user; accessing the resource security system using the access code; prompting the user to input a biometric feature which identifies the user; capturing a biometric feature associated with the user; and associating the captured biometric feature with the identity of the user for subsequent verification. The method further includes subsequently granting access to the secured resource based on biometric feature data input by the user.

Claims

1. A method for enrolling with a resource security system, comprising:

providing an access code to a system user;

accessing the resource security system using the access code;

prompting the user to input a voice biometric feature which identifies the user;

capturing voice biometric feature data associated with the user;

inducing variations in the voice biometric feature data associated with the user by synthetically generating additional utterances, including artificially modifying one or more parameters of the voice biometric feature data, wherein the parameters are selected from pitch, speaking rate, or amount of reverberation;

and associating the captured voice biometric feature data and the variations of the biometric feature data with the identity of the user for subsequent verification.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprises subsequently granting access to a secured resource based on biometric feature data input by the user, including:

receiving a voice biometric feature input by the user;

making an initial attempt to verify the identity of the user based on the voice biometric feature;

only if the initial attempt fails, prompting the user to induce variations in the voice biometric feature data associated with the user;

only if the initial attempt fails, making a subsequent attempt to verify the identity of the user based on the variations of the biometric feature data; and

granting access to the secured resource based on success of either the initial attempt or the subsequent attempt.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein subsequently granting access further includes prompting the user to provide additional voice data that is varied only if an attempt to verify the identity of the user based on the first voice biometric feature fails.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of providing an access code further comprises determining identifying information for the user and associating the access code with the identifying information for the user.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the step of associating the captured biometric feature data further comprises linking the captured biometric feature data to identifying information for the user based on the input access code.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of providing and access code further comprises providing the user with an object having the access code encoded thereon.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of accessing the resource security system further comprises entering the access code into a keypad associated with the resource security system.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of prompting the user further comprises providing at least one of an audible or visual instruction to the user.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising capturing non-voice biometric feature data associated with the user and associating the non-voice biometric feature data with the identify of the user for subsequent verification and wherein the non-voice biometric feature associated with the user may be selected from the group comprising fingerprints, signatures, retinal prints, and facial bone structure.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprises generating voiceprint models from the voice data which are used to identify the user.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprises prompting the user to provide additional voice data that is varied by at least one of pitch, speaking rate, noise level or reverberation from the first voice data and enriching the voiceprint models for the user based on the additional voice data.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprises disabling the access code upon successful enrollment of the user, thereby minimizing any unauthorized access to the system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein synthetically generating additional utterances includes artificially modifying pitch parameters of the voice biometric feature data.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein synthetically generating additional utterances includes artificially modifying speaking rate parameters of the voice biometric feature data.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein synthetically generating additional utterances includes artificially modifying amount of reverberation parameters of the voice biometric feature data.

16. A resource security system, comprising:

a user interface adapted to receive an access code from a user;

an enrollment manager adapted to receive the access code and operable, in response to receiving the access code, to prompt the user to input a voice biometric feature which identifies the user; and

biometric input devices, including a voice biometric input device operable to capture voice biometric feature from the user, the enrollment manager being further adapted to receive the voice biometric feature data from the biometric input device and operable to induce variations in the voice biometric feature data by synthetically generating additional utterances, including artificially modifying one or more parameters of the voice biometric feature data, wherein the parameters are selected from pitch, speaking rate, or amount of reverberation and associate the voice biometric feature data and the variations in the voice biometric feature data with the user.

17. The resource security system of claim 16 further comprises an access manager adapted to receive an access request which includes input voice biometric feature data from the voice biometric input device and operable to grant access to a secured resource based on the input voice biometric feature data.

18. The resource security system of claim 17 wherein the enrollment module is further operable to store identifying information for the user and biometric feature data for the user in a data store associated with the system.

19. The resource security system of claim 18 wherein the access manager is further operable to access stored biometric feature data residing in the data store and compare input biometric feature data with the stored biometric feature data in the data store, thereby assessing an access request from a user.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein said access manager is adapted to prompt the user to provide additional voice data that is varied only if an attempt to verify identity of the user based on the voice biometric feature fails.

21. A method for administering user access to a secure resource based on biometric features associated with the system user, comprising:

enrolling a primary user with a resource security system, the resource security system being operable to control access to the secure resource;

subsequently granting the primary user access to administrative functions of the resource security system based on a biometric feature associated with the primary user;

employing the administrative functions to enroll a secondary user with the resource security system, including recording a voice biometric feature and inducing variations in the voice biometric feature by synthetically generating additional utterances, including artificially modifying one or more parameters of the voice biometric feature data, wherein the parameters are selected from pitch, speaking rate, or amount of reverberation;

granting the secondary user access to a secured resource, including;

(a) initially employing the voice biometric feature when making an initial attempt to verify identity of the secondary user;

(b) in response to success of the initial attempt, granting the secondary user access to the secured resource;

(c) in response to failure of the initial attempt, subsequently employing the variations in the biometric feature when making a subsequent attempt to verify identity of the secondary user; and

(d) in response to success of the subsequent attempt, granting the secondary user access to the secured resource based on the variations in the biometric feature.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the step of enrolling a primary user further comprises:

providing an access code to the primary user;

accessing the resource security system using the access code;

prompting the primary user to input a biometric feature which identities the primary user;

capturing biometric feature data associated with the primary user; and

associating the captured biometric feature data with an identity of the primary user for subsequent verification.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the step of employing the administrative functions further comprises:

prompting the primary user to provide identifying information for the secondary user;

prompting the secondary user to input a biometric feature which identifies the secondary user;

capturing biometric feature data associated with the secondary user; and

associating the captured biometric feature data with the identity of the secondary user for subsequent verification.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprises providing the primary user with an access code which may be used by the secondary user to enroll with the system.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein granting the secondary user access to a secured resource further includes:

(e) in response to failure of the initial attempt, prompting the secondary user to provide additional voice data that is varied.