Method and apparatus for choosing and evaluating sample size for biometric training process

• US 7,809,170 B2
• Filed: 08/10/2006
• Issued: 10/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Louisiana Tech University Foundation (Louisiana Tech University)
• Original Assignee: Louisiana Tech University Foundation (Louisiana Tech University)
• Inventors: Phoha, Vir V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehta; Bhavesh M
• Assistant Examiner(s): DULANEY, KATHLEEN YUAN
• Application Number:
  US11/503,427
• Publication Number:
  US 20080037832A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,517 Days
• Field of Search: 382/115, 713/186, 340/5.8, 704/246, 902/3
• US Class Current: 382/115
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/25 Fusion techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/70 Multimodal biometrics, e.g. combining information from different biometric modalities

Abstract

At least two biometric measurements of a person are collected, then a statistical measure based on the measurements is computed. The statistical measure is a bounded estimate of the discriminative power of a test based on the measurements. While the discriminative power is less than a target value, additional biometric measurements are collected. When enough measurements have been collected, a biometric template is constructed from the measurements and stored for use in future identifications. Systems and software to implement similar methods are also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

collecting a plurality of biometric measurements of a person;

computing a statistical measure based on the plurality of biometric measurements;

while the statistical measure is less than a target value, collecting a supplemental biometric measurement of the person and updating the statistical measure based on the supplemental biometric measurement; and

storing a biometric template constructed from the plurality of biometric measurements and any supplemental biometric measurements, wherein the statistical measure is proportional to “

m”

a number of elements in one biometric measurement, is proportional to “

σ

²”

an upper bound for an error variance, and is inversely proportional to “

Δ

²”

a maximum allowable difference.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the statistical measure is proportional to

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing an estimate of a discriminative power of a biometric identification system based on the plurality of biometric measurements and any supplemental biometric measurements; and

displaying the estimate of the discriminative power.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing an estimate of a number of supplemental biometric measurements required to complete enrollment; and

displaying the estimate to the person.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

collecting a candidate biometric measurement of a candidate;

comparing the candidate biometric measurement to the biometric template; and

granting access to a resource to the candidate if the candidate biometric measurement matches the biometric template.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein each biometric measurement comprises a plurality of keystroke timing measurements collected while the person types on a keyboard.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions to cause a programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

collecting a plurality of biometric measurements of a person;

computing a statistical measure based on the plurality of biometric measurements;

while the statistical measure is less than a target value, collecting a supplemental biometric measurement of the person and updating the statistical measure based on the supplemental biometric measurement; and

storing a biometric template constructed from the plurality of biometric measurements and any supplemental biometric measurements, wherein the statistical measure is proportional to “

m”

a number of elements in one biometric measurement, is proportional to “

σ

²”

an upper bound for an error variance, and is inversely proportional to “

Δ

²”

a maximum allowable difference.

8. A system comprising:

an input device to measure a characteristic of an enrolling user;

biometric sample collection logic to collect a plurality of biometric measurements of a person from the input device;

statistical analysis logic to compute a statistical measure based on the plurality of biometric measurements, and while the statistical measure is less than a target value, collect a supplemental biometric measurement of the person and updating the statistical measure based on the supplemental biometric measurement, wherein the statistical measure is proportional to “

m”

a number of elements in one biometric measurement, is proportional to “

σ

²”

an upper bound for an error variance, and is inversely proportional to “

Δ

²”

a maximum allowable difference; and

a database to store a biometric template constructed from the plurality of biometric measurements and any supplemental biometric measurements.