Method and apparatus for providing identification

• US 8,009,873 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2005
• Issued: 08/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Neotec Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Neotec Holdings Limited
• Inventors: Chapman, Bryan P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehta; Bhavesh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zeilberger; Daniel
• Application Number:
  US11/145,852
• Publication Number:
  US 20050258238A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,276 Days
• Field of Search: 235/375, 235/380, 235/382, 235/382.5, 235/384, 340/5.82, 340/5.83, 382115-127
• US Class Current: 382/115
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07381 with deactivation or otherwise incapacitation of at least a part of the circuit upon detected tampering
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/077 Constructional details, e.g. mounting of circuits in the carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07779 the inductive antenna being a coil
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/00 Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points handling coins or valuable papers, e.g. banknotes, G07D; apparatus for vending or hiring articles or services activated by coins, credit cards, paper currency or the like G07F7/00, G07F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/25 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/27 with central registration
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence

Abstract

A method of providing identification of an entity includes maintaining a database of identification data specific to the appearance and condition of entities, providing a unique description for each entity enabling access to the entity'"'"'s identification data in the database, providing identification means adapted for portage with the entity and containing the unique description and maintaining secondary databases containing the entity'"'"'s identification data as acquired from prior encounters so that multiple comparisons can be made to assure that the individual bearing the identification means is the same individual to whom the identification means were issued.

Claims

1. An identity checking method for verifying the identity of an individual including the steps of:

(a.) capturing the individual'"'"'s initial biometric data at an initial time and storing it on a database;

(b.) associating the initial biometric data captured in step (a) with a unique description, storing said data and description in said database and storing said biometric data and said unique description in an electronic document issued to the individual;

(c.) capturing contemporary biometric data and said unique description of the individual by remote sensing means at a point of departure of the individual;

(d.) interrogating said database for said initial biometric data corresponding to said captured unique description;

(e.) comparing said contemporary biometric data with corresponding initial biometric data retrieved from interrogating step (d);

(f.) making a decision on the basis of the degree of correlation in comparing step (e);

(g.) forwarding data including said captured contemporary biometric data and unique description to a local database at a point of arrival of the individual;

(h.) capturing arrival biometric data and said unique description of the individual by remote sensing of the individual at said point of arrival;

(i.) comparing the captured arrival biometric data and unique description of step (h) with the forwarded captured contemporary biometric data and unique description of step (g);

(j.) making a decision on the basis of identity between the forwarded and captured unique descriptions of steps (g) and (h) and the degree of correlation between the forwarded and captured biometric data of steps (g) and (h);

(k.) interrogating said database for the initial biometric data corresponding to the unique description captured in step (h);

(l.) comparing said arrival biometric data captured in step (h) with said corresponding initial biometric data; and

(m.) making a decision on the basis of the degree of correlation of biometric data in step (l),

whereby passage through said point of arrival is conditioned upon favorable decisions made in all of the comparing steps.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said database includes protected identification data specific to the appearance and\or condition of an individual.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said database includes unique information in regard to medical condition, blood type and other detectable health parameters.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein confirmation of an individual'"'"'s identity at said destination can be used by a medical practitioner to remotely prescribe drugs and other treatment.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said electronic document includes a radio frequency responsive identification device including distinguishing means by which a receiving station can distinguish said identification device from other radio frequency responsive devices.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said distinguishing means includes a built-in time delay for delaying the transmission of the signal.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 and further including a validation step for checking the validity of the biometric data information obtained.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the validation step includes the step of sensing the document, to determine if the unique description stored therein is identical to the unique description stored in said database and, if not, flagging the document for further investigation.

9. A method according to claim 1, including a data protection step wherein at least some of the accessible data on said electronic document is protected by a method selected from encryption, encoding and associating said data with a secure access code.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1 including an encryption step wherein information transmitted to a receiving station may be understood only by a receiving station utilizing a corresponding decrypting apparatus.

11. The identity checking method of claim 1, further including the steps of:

(n) associating a watch list value according to the individual'"'"'s known watch status with said initial biometric data to form a watch database;

(o) comparing said contemporary biometric data with the items of initial biometric data associated with the stored watch list value; and

(p) making a decision on the basis of the degree of correlation in step (o) to an entry in said watch list database,

whereby the individual'"'"'s watch list status can be used to control further movement.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein said database is a national database of the citizens of that nation.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein said database further includes data of past visitors to said nation.

14. A method according to claim 12, wherein said electronic document is a national identification card.

15. A method according to claim 12, wherein said national database forms part of an international database and can be networked with the corresponding database of at least one other nation.

16. A method according to claim 1, wherein said electronic document contains data enabling said document to function as a passport.

17. The method of claim 1 in which said document has a surface in which machine readable information can be encoded that serves as a unique description of the document throughout its useful life.

18. The method of claim 17 including the further steps of:

(n.) including in the encoding the unique description of the document with the unique description of the entity with which the document is associated; and

(o.) at each comparing step, confirming that the entity and assigned document are still together and signaling any instance when the document is not accompanying the entity to which it has been assigned.

19. The method of claim 17 in which the document unique description includes the identity of the issuer of the document.

20. The method of claim 1 including the further step of issuing a receipt to the individual.

21. An identity checking method for verifying the identity of an individual including the steps of:

a. capturing the individual'"'"'s initial biometric data at an initial time and storing it on an enrollment database;

b. associating the initial biometric data captured in step (a) with a unique description, storing said data and description in said enrollment database and storing said biometric data and said unique description in an electronic database in a document issued to the individual;

c. capturing departure biometric data and said unique description of the individual by sensing means at a point of departure of the individual;

d. forwarding data captured at the point of departure, including said captured biometric data and unique description to a local database at a point of arrival of the individual;

e. capturing arrival biometric data and said unique description of the individual by sensing means at said point of arrival;

f. comparing the captured arrival biometric data and description of step (e) with the forwarded captured departure biometric data and unique description of step (d);

g. making a decision on the basis of identity between the forwarded and captured unique descriptions of steps (d) and (e) and the degree of correlation between the forwarded and captured biometric data of steps (d) and (e);

h. interrogating said enrollment database for the initial biometric data corresponding to the unique description captured in step (e);

i. comparing said arrival biometric data captured in step (e) with corresponding initial biometric data; and

j. making a decision on the basis of the degree of correlation of biometric data in step (i),

whereby passage through said point of arrival is conditioned upon a high degree of correlation in said comparing steps to continue travel and a low degree of correlation to limit future passage.

22. The method of claim 21 including the steps of capturing data from the document database and comparing such data with other captured data to allow further passage if such comparisons are favorable.

23. The method of claim 22 including the further step of comparing data from the document database with data from said enrolling database and conditioning future passage on a positive comparison.

24. The identity checking method of claim 21 above, including the additional steps of:

k. sensing said document database at the point of arrival and capturing the unique description and biometric data stored therein;

l. comparing the unique description captured from said document database with unique description data forwarded from the point of departure;

m. correlating the biometric data forwarded from the point of departure with the biometric data captured from the electronic document; and

n. conditioning future passage on the degree of correlation, whereby a high correlation allows continued travel and a low degree of correlation limits future passage.

25. An identity checking method for verifying the identity of an individual including the steps of:

a. capturing the individual'"'"'s initial biometric data at an initial time and storing it on an enrollment database;

b. associating the initial biometric data captured in step (a) with a unique description, storing said data and description in an electronic database in a document issued to the individual;

c. capturing departure biometric data and said unique description of the individual from the document at a point of departure of the individual;

d. forwarding data captured at the point of departure, including said captured biometric data and unique description to a local database at a point of arrival of the individual;

e. capturing arrival biometric data and said unique description of the individual from the document at said point of arrival;

f. comparing the captured arrival biometric data and unique description of step (e) with the forwarded captured departure biometric data and unique description of step (d);

g. making a decision on the basis of identity between the forwarded and captured unique descriptions of steps (d) and (e) and the degree of correlation between the forwarded and captured biometric data of steps (d) and (e);

h. interrogating said enrollment database for the initial biometric data corresponding to the unique description captured in step (e);

i. comparing said arrival biometric data captured in step (e) with corresponding initial biometric data; and

j. making a decision on the basis of the degree of correlation of biometric data in step (i),

whereby passage through said point of arrival is conditioned upon a high degree of correlation in said comparing steps to continue travel and a low degree of correlation to limit future passage.