System for and method of finger initiated actions

• US 7,697,729 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: AuthenTec Incorporated (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Howell, Mark J., Tsuchiya, Marcia, Chen, Frank H., Russo, Anthony P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahmed; Samir A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bayat; Ali
• Application Number:
  US10/882,787
• Publication Number:
  US 20050169503A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,113 Days
• Field of Search: 382/107, 382/115, 382/124, 382/312, 382/232, 345/174, 345/173, 345/156, 345/143, 345/157, 713/202, 713/186, 250/221, 235/492
• US Class Current: 382/115
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/13 Sensors therefor

Abstract

A device for and method of performing a task associated with fingerprint data is disclosed. The method comprises reading fingerprint data, matching the read fingerprint data to stored fingerprint data, the stored fingerprint data having an associated task, and performing the task. The associated task is part of a chain of tasks that are automatically executed when the read fingerprint data is matched to the stored fingerprint data. Preferably, at least one task has associated user profile data that is used to perform the task. An electronic device that can be controlled in accordance with the present invention includes, but is not limited to, a telephone, a personal computer, a personal digital assistant, and a remote controlled device.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a housing;

a finger biometric sensor carried by said housing; and

a central processing unit and a mapping storage unit cooperating therewith and carried by said housing for mapping a plurality of different tasks associated with different fingers of a user;

said central processing unit and said mapping storage unit being configured to perform a user authentication based upon said finger biometric sensor sensing an enrolled finger of the user;

said central processing unit and a mapping storage unit being further configured to perform, after the user authentication, a sequence of nested subtasks for a given task from among the plurality thereof based upon said finger biometric sensor sensing the corresponding finger of the user, each of the nested subtasks in the sequence being different.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of different tasks comprises a plurality different Website launches.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of different tasks comprises at least one email application.

4. The electronic device according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of different tasks comprises at least one word processing application.

5. The electronic device according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of different tasks comprises at least one telephone application.

6. The electronic device according to claim 1 wherein said central processing and said mapping storage unit map the plurality of different tasks associated with different combinations of fingers of the user.

7. The electronic device according to claim 1 further comprising a wireless transceiver carried by said housing and coupled to said central processing unit for external communication.

8. The electronic device according to claim 1 wherein said finger biometric sensor comprises a sweep fingerprint sensor.

9. The electronic device according to claim 1 wherein said finger biometric sensor comprises a placement fingerprint sensor.

10. The electronic device according to claim 1 wherein said finger biometric sensor comprises an integrated circuit fingerprint sensor.

11. A method for operating an electronic device comprising a housing, a finger biometric sensor carried by the housing, and a central processing unit and a mapping storage unit cooperating therewith and carried by the housing, the method comprising:

mapping a plurality of different tasks associated with different fingers of a user using the central processing unit and mapping storage unit;

using the central processing unit and the map in storage unit for performing a user authentication based upon the finger biometric sensor sensing an enrolled finger of the user; and

using the central processing unit to perform, after the user authentication, a sequence of nested subtasks for a given task from among the plurality thereof based upon the finger biometric sensor sensing the corresponding finger of the user, each of the nested subtasks in the sequence being different.

12. The method according to claim 11 wherein the plurality of different tasks comprises a plurality different Website launches.

13. The method according to claim 11 wherein the finger biometric sensor comprises an integrated circuit fingerprint sensor.