Swipe imager with improved sensing control features

• US 7,113,622 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2002
• Issued: 09/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Activcard Ireland, Limited (Assa Abloy AB)
• Original Assignee: Activcard Ireland, Limited (Assa Abloy AB)
• Inventors: Hamid, Laurence
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehta, Bhavesh M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHAH, UTPAL D
• Application Number:
  US10/133,500
• Publication Number:
  US 20030002717A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,611 Days
• Field of Search: 382124-125, 382/126
• US Class Current: 382/124
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1306 non-optical, e.g. ultrasonic or capacitive sensing
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1335 Combining adjacent partial images (e.g. slices) to create a composite input or reference pattern; Tracking a sweeping finger movement

Abstract

A fingerprint sensing device and recognition system includes a capacitive array of sense elements. A plurality of images is combined to form a composite image having an area that is greater than the area of a single captured image. The sensing device also features a spacer or spacers to allow for a reproducible sensing of the same fingerprint. Optionally, the spacer or spacers include a roller or rollers, which further optionally in conjunction with a monitoring device for determining motion of a surface being imaged device. Also optionally, th sensing devices includes a guiding channel as to allow for a well defined motion of the biological surface to be imaged. A method for sensing a biological surface using the fingerprint sensing device is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A biometric sensing device comprising:

a swipe sensing pad for having a biological surface passed there across in a swipe direction and comprising an array of sensing elements having at least two rows and two columns for sensing variation in the biological surface and for providing image data forming an image data sample in dependence thereon; and

at least one spacer adjacent said swipe sensing pad in said swipe direction, the axis of the spacer being parallel to the longitudinal direction of the swipe sensing pad, for providing a reproducible separation of a biological surface being imaged from the swipe sensing pad during imaging of the biological surface, and for substantially effecting a same distortion due to friction in the image data for different image data samples from a same biometric information source.

2. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 1,

wherein the spacer includes a roller disposed on one side of the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction for providing a reproducible separation of the biological surface being imaged from the swipe sensing pad during imaging of the biological surface.

3. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 2,

wherein the roller comprises a monitoring device for monitoring the motion of a biological surface when moved across the roller.

4. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 2,

wherein the swipe sensing pad and the roller guide a biological surface across the roller and the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction, the axis of the roller being parallel to and adjacent a side of the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction.

5. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 2,

wherein the swipe sensing pad and the roller guide a biological surface across the roller and the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction, the axis of the roller being parallel to a longitudinal direction of the swipe sensing pad, the longitudinal direction defined by a greater number of sensors disposed along the longitudinal direction than along a latitudinal direction of the swipe sensing pad.

6. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 2,

wherein the spacer includes a second roller disposed on an opposing side of the swipe sensing pad from the roller in the swipe direction for providing a reproducible separation of a biological surface being imaged from the swipe sensing pad during imaging of the biological surface.

7. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 1,

wherein the spacer includes a raised profile disposed on one side of the swipe sensing pad for providing a reproducible separation of a biological surface being imaged from the swipe sensing pad during imaging of the biological surface.

8. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 7,

wherein spacer includes a second raised profile disposed on an opposing side of the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction for providing a reproducible separation of a biological surface being imaged from the swipe sensing pad during imaging of the biological surface.

9. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 1,

wherein the spacer is a roller on which the swipe sensing pad is disposed such that frictional distortion is reduced over swipe sensing.

10. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 9,

wherein the roller comprises a monitoring device for monitoring the motion of a biological surface when moved across the roller.

11. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 1,

wherein the spacer comprises side walls parallel to the swipe direction used for maintaining the swipe direction within a predetermined range of directions less than 360 degrees.

12. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 1,

wherein the spacer comprises a guiding channel in the swipe direction disposed for receiving the biological surface and for restricting a motion of the biological surface in a direction across the swipe sensing pad to one direction, the guiding channel containing a plurality of rollers disposed on respective sides of the biological surface so as to rotate in the swipe direction as the biological surface is imaged.

13. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 1,

wherein the spacer comprises a motion limiting structure, the motion limiting structure being used for maintaining the swipe direction within a predetermined range of directions less than 360 degrees, and for limiting the pressure applied to the biometric sensing device by the biological surface to be lower than a predefined threshold pressure.

14. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 12,

wherein the spacer comprises a guiding channel in the swipe direction disposed for receiving the biological surface and for restricting a motion of the biological surface in a direction across the swipe sensing pad to one direction, the guiding channel containing a plurality of rollers disposed on respective sides and a top and a bottom of the biological surface so as to rotate in the swipe direction as the biological surface is imaged.

15. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 1,

wherein the array of sensing elements comprises capacitive sensors.

16. A biometric sensing device comprising:

a swipe sensing pad for having a biological surface passed there across in a swipe direction and comprising an array of sensing elements having at least two rows and two columns for sensing variation in the biological surface and for providing image data forming an image data sample in dependence thereon;

at least one spacer adjacent said swipe sensing pad in said swipe direction, the axis of the spacer being parallel to the longitudinal direction of the swipe sensing pad, for providing a reproducible separation of a biological surface being imaged from the swipe sensing pad during imaging of the biological surface, and for substantially effecting a same distortion due to friction in the image data for different image data samples from a same biometric information source; and

a processor for receiving the image data from the swipe sensing pad and for processing the received image data to form a composite image of the biological surface from the image data.

17. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 16,

wherein the spacer includes a roller disposed on one side of the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction for providing a reproducible separation of the biological surface being imaged from the swipe sensing pad during imaging of the biological surface.

18. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 17,

wherein the roller comprises a monitoring device for monitoring the motion of a biological surface when moved across the roller.

19. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 18 comprising:

a processor for receiving motion data from the monitoring device and processing said data.

20. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 19,

wherein the processor for receiving image data from the swipe sensing pad and for processing said data is the same processor for receiving motion data from the monitoring device and processing said data.

21. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 17,

wherein the swipe sensing pad and the roller guide a biological surface across the roller and the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction, the axis of the roller being parallel to and adjacent a side of the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction.

22. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 17,

wherein the swipe sensing pad and the roller guide a biological surface across the roller and the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction, the axis of the roller being parallel to a longitudinal direction of the swipe sensing pad, the longitudinal direction being defined by a greater number of sensors disposed along the longitudinal direction than along a latitudinal direction of the swipe sensing pad.

23. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 21,

wherein the spacer includes a second roller disposed on an opposing side of the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction for providing a reproducible separation of a biological surface being imaged from the swipe sensing pad during imaging of the biological surface.

24. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 16,

wherein the spacer includes a raised profile disposed on one side of the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction for providing a reproducible separation of a biological surface being imaged from the swipe sensing pad during imaging of the biological surface.

25. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 22,

wherein the spacer includes a second raised profile disposed on an opposing side of the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction for providing a reproducible separation of a biological surface being imaged from the swipe sensing pad during imaging of the biological surface.

26. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 16,

wherein the spacer is a roller on which the swipe sensing pad is disposed such that frictional distortion is reduced over swipe sensing.

27. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 26,

wherein the roller comprises a monitoring device for monitoring the motion of a biological surface when moved across the roller.

28. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 16,

wherein the spacer comprises a motion limiting structure, the motion limiting structure being used for maintaining the swipe direction within a predetermined range of directions less than 360 degrees.

29. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 28,

wherein the spacer comprises a guiding channel in the swipe direction disposed for receiving the biological surface and for restricting a motion of the biological surface in a direction across the swipe sensing pad to one direction, the guiding channel containing a plurality of rollers disposed on respective sides of the biological surface so as to rotate in the swipe direction as the biological surface is imaged.

30. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 16,

wherein the spacer comprises a motion limiting structure, the motion limiting structure being used for maintaining the swipe direction within a predetermined range of directions less than 360 degrees, and for limiting the pressure applied to the biometric sensing device by the biological surface to be lower than a predefined threshold pressure.

31. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 29,

wherein the spacer comprises a guiding channel in the swipe direction disposed for receiving the biological surface and for restricting a motion of the biological surface in a direction across the swipe sensing pad to one direction, the guiding channel containing a plurality of rollers disposed on respective sides and a top and a bottom of the biological surface so as to rotate in the swipe direction as the biological surface is imaged.

32. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 16,

wherein the array of sensing elements comprises capacitive sensors.

33. A biometric sensing device comprising:

a swipe sensing pad for having a biological surface passed there across in a swipe direction and comprising an array of sensing elements having at least two rows and two columns for sensing variation in the biological surface and for providing image data forming an image data sample in dependence thereon;

a processor for receiving and processing data, the swipe sensing pad being connected to the processor;

at least one roller, the roller being provided adjacent the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction, the axis of the roller being parallel to the longitudinal direction of the swipe sensing pad, where the swipe direction is perpendicular to the axis of the roller; and

wherein the height of the roller is higher than the height of the swipe sensing pad.

34. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 33,

wherein the at least one roller comprises a monitoring device for monitoring the motion of a biological surface when moved across the at least one roller, the monitoring device being connected to the processor.

35. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 33 comprising:

at least two rollers, the axes of the rollers being parallel to each other, the at least two rollers being disposed on opposing sides of the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction; and

wherein the height of the second roller is equal to the height of the first roller above the swipe sensing pad.

36. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 35,

wherein the at least one roller comprises a monitoring device for monitoring the motion of a biological surface when moved across at least one roller, the monitoring device being connected to the processor.

37. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 35,

wherein said at least two rollers comprise a monitoring device for monitoring the motion of a biological surface when moved across at least one of the rollers, the monitoring devices being connected to the processor.

38. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 33,

wherein the array of sensing elements comprises capacitive sensors.

39. A biometric sensing device comprising:

a swipe sensing pad for having a biological surface passed there across in a swipe direction and comprising an array of sensing elements having at least two rows and two columns for sensing variation in the biological surface and for providing image data forming an image data sample in dependence thereon;

a processor for receiving and processing data, the swipe sensing pad being connected to the processor; and

at least one roller, the roller being provided adjacent the swipe sensing pad in the swipe direction, the axis of the roller being parallel to the longitudinal direction of the swipe sensing pad, where the swipe direction is perpendicular to the axis of the roller; and

,

a guiding channel having a base and two side units, the base and the two side units constituting the boundaries of the guiding channel, the side units being attached to the base, and spaced apart by a predefined distance defining side boundaries constraining the biological surface to movement in the swiping direction.

40. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 39 comprising:

side units that are spaced apart by approximately 1 to 3 cm.

41. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 39,

wherein at least one of the boundaries of the guiding channel comprises at least one roller.

42. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 39,

wherein all the boundaries of the guiding channel comprise at least two rollers.

43. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 41,

wherein the at least one roller comprises a monitoring device for monitoring the motion of a biological surface when moved across the at least one roller, the monitoring device being connected to the processor.

44. A biometric sensing device as defined in claim 39,

wherein the guiding channel further comprises a top section, the base and the top section being spaced apart by approximately 1 to 3 cm;

and

wherein the base, the side units and the top section define a cavity of a predefined size for accepting the biological surface.

45. A biometric sensing device as defined in claim 44,

wherein said top section is hingedly attached to the base so as to open and close the cavity defined by the base, the side units and the top section.

46. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 39,

wherein the array of sensing elements comprises capacitive sensors.

47. A biometric sensing device comprising:

a swipe sensing pad for having a biological surface passed there across in a swipe direction and comprising an array of sensing elements having at least two rows and two columns for sensing variation in the biological surface and for providing image data forming an image data sample in dependence thereon;

a processor for receiving and processing data, the swipe sensing pad being connected to the processor; and

a generally cylindrical platen having a continuous outer surface for supporting the plurality of arrays of sensing elements, where the swipe direction is perpendicular to the axis of the platen; and

, the platen being rollingly engaged to a base so as to rotate in the swipe direction.

48. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 47, comprising:

a flexible body for supporting the cylindrical platen.

49. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 47,

wherein the cylindrical platen is disposed substantially surrounded by a rigid boarder in said base and countersunk therein.

50. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 47,

wherein the array of sensing elements comprises capacitive sensors affixed to a surface of said cylindrical platen.

53. A biometric sensing device defined in claim 47,

wherein the array of sensing elements comprises capacitive sensors embedded within a surface of said cylindrical platen.

51. A method for sensing a biological surface comprising the steps of:

providing a reproducible separation of a biological surface to be imaged from a swipe sensing pad using at least one spacer adjacent said swipe sensing pad in a swipe direction, the axis of the spacer being parallel to the longitudinal direction of the swipe sensing pad, during imaging of the biological surface;

moving said biological surface to be imaged across said swipe sensing pad in a swipe direction; and

restricting the motion of the biological surface to follow the swipe direction within a guide path restricted on either side of said guide path while maintaining said separation from said swipe sensing pad while moving across the swipe sensing pad.

52. A method defined in claim 51, further comprising the step of:

monitoring the motion of the biological surface while being moved across the swipe sensing pad.