Identification and/or authentication method

• US 7,673,149 B2
• Filed: 10/11/2005
• Issued: 03/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital CE Patent Holdings SAS (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Swisscom AG (Government of Switzerland)
• Inventors: Ritter, Rudolf, Lauper, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Parthasarathy; Pramila
• Application Number:
  US11/247,487
• Publication Number:
  US 20060080525A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,603 Days
• Field of Search: 713/186, 713/185, 713/182, 379/93.02, 708/135, 726 1- 36, 235380-3825, 705 65- 69, 382/115, 902/3, 155 4- 10, 704/270.1
• US Class Current: 713/186
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/13 Sensors therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/065 Continuous authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/68 Gesture-dependent or behaviour-dependent

Abstract

A method and apparatus for identifying and/or authenticating a user of a mobile device in a server on the basis of fingerprints of the user that have been read through haptic input means of the mobile device with a fingerprint reader in the mobile device.

Claims

1. Method for identifying and/or authenticating a user of a mobile device including an identification module for identifying the user and/or the mobile device, in a server application on the basis of fingerprints of said user, that are recorded through haptic input means, said method comprising the steps of:

the user enters commands with said haptic input means, in order to access a freely accessible part of a server,

simultaneously with accessing said freely accessible part of the server, finger prints of said user are recorded through said haptic input means,

when said user wishes to access a secure part of the server that requires an identification of the user, the user is identified on the basis of said fingerprints,

access to said secure part of the server is granted without issuing an explicit identification request to the user if the user has been identified on the basis of said fingerprints,

wherein the user is identified in that several fingerprints recorded consecutively during the same session are compared with reference fingerprints of the user,

wherein Hidden Markov Models and/or neural networks are used for comparing fingerprints recorded during a session with reference fingerprints of the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein an explicit identification respectively authentication is required if said user has not been identified respectively authenticated reliably through said fingerprints.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the user is invited to have his fingerprints read once again if he has not been identified respectively authenticated reliably through said fingerprints.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the user is invited to enter a password if he has not been identified respectively authenticated reliably through said fingerprints.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the use is considered identified respectively authenticated if the probability of a wrong identification respectively authentication is smaller than a predetermined threshold.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said threshold is set by the operator of said server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein

said user is identified in a first step on the basis of data in said identification module or on the basis of self-entered indications, and wherein

the user identity determined during said first step is verified on the basis of fingerprints recorded during movement of the user in said freely accessible part of the server in order to authenticate said user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said server is designed in such a manner that several fingerprints of the user are read with said haptic input means when this user navigates in said freely accessible part with said haptic input means in order to reach said secure part.

9. The method of claim 1, with a registration process during which reference fingerprints of the user are stored in a reference database of said server.

10. The method of claim 1, with a registration process during which reference prints of the user are stored in a reference database in said mobile device.

11. The method of claim 1, with a registration process during which reference fingerprints of the user are stored in a database in the server of a third party that performs user identifications for several servers of different providers.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said identification respectively authentication occurs in said server.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said identification respectively authentication occurs in the server of a third party that performs user identifications for several servers of different providers.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said identification respectively authentication occurs in said mobile device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein a user identification program is downloaded in said mobile device.

16. The method of claim 15, said program being signed electronically.

20. Program product that can be loaded directly in a memory area, with a program that executes the method of one of the claims 1 to 16 if it runs on a processor.

17. A server that is accessible by an input device adapted to record the fingerprint of a user, said server comprising:

a freely accessible part;

a secure part;

a processor executing software for providing a menu system to the input device, wherein a user can access, using the input device with the aid of commands, said freely accessible part, and wherein one or more fingerprints of a user are recorded by the input device during said access; and

a comparator for comparing the user fingerprints recorded during said access with reference fingerprints,

wherein said menu system is adapted such that access to said secure part of the server is granted without issuing an explicit invitation for identification to the user if the user has been identified while accessing said freely accessible part on the basis of said comparing;

wherein the user is identified in that several fingerprints recorded consecutively during the same session are compared with reference fingerprints of the user,

wherein Hidden Markov Models and/or neural networks are used for comparing fingerprints recorded during a session with reference fingerprints of the user.

18. The server of claim 17, wherein the user is invited to have his fingerprints read several times if the user wishes to move from said freely accessible part into said secure part and if the user has not been previously identified respectively authenticated.

19. The server of claim 17, further comprising a reference database for storing said reference fingerprints.