Personal verification device

• US 8,479,274 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2010
• Issued: 07/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd. (MinebeaMitsumi Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd. (MinebeaMitsumi Inc.)
• Inventors: Furukawa, Kenichi, Hirabayashi, Shinji, Tatsumi, Naoki, Nagasaka, Minenori, Sakanushi, Yoshihiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Lipman, Jacob
• Application Number:
  US13/062,134
• Publication Number:
  US 20120028710A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,166 Days
• Field of Search: 726/9
• US Class Current: 726/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints

Abstract

Provided is a personal verification device capable of easily performing personal verification of a user. In the device, under the condition that a user grasps a case (110) of a game controller (10), a vibration control unit (152) causes a vibration motor (120) arranged inside of the case (110) to vibrate in different patterns. A triaxial acceleration sensor (140) detects vibration generated by the vibration motor (120) which vibrates in the different patterns, and a storage unit (153) stores a plurality of pieces of measurement data obtained by the detection for each of the users. A determination unit (154) performs the personal verification by comparing and collating the data in the storage unit (153) with the measurement data obtained by vibrating the vibration motor (120) under the condition that the user grasps the case (110).

Claims

1. A personal authentication apparatus comprising:

a vibration source provided inside a housing;

a vibration control section that causes said vibration source to vibrate in a plurality of different patterns when a user is gripping said housing;

a multiaxial sensor that detects a plurality of vibrations in n-dimensional directions;

a storage section that stores, on a user-by-user basis, a plurality of measurement data obtained by detection by said multiaxial sensor of vibration generated by a vibration source that vibrates in a different pattern; and

a determination section that performs personal biometric authentication by comparing and collating measurement data obtained by causing said vibration source to vibrate according to the plurality of different patterns when a user is gripping said housing with data of said storage section.

2. The personal authentication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said vibration control section causes said vibration source to vibrate in the plurality of different patterns by switching a voltage supplied to said vibration source.

3. The personal authentication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said multiaxial sensor is a triaxial sensor, and amplifies a value of data detected for an axis for which a detected amount of vibration is small at a time of data acquisition or at a time of measurement.

4. The personal authentication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

said storage section stores a plurality of history data of past measurement data; and

said determination section determines that a user for which data has the highest degree of similarity with measurement data among all said history data is a same person.

5. The personal authentication apparatus according to claim 4, wherein:

said storage section stores said history data and average-value data obtained from said history data; and

said determination section determines that a user corresponding to data that has the highest degree of similarity with measurement data among said history data and said average-value data is a same person.

6. A personal authentication apparatus comprising:

a vibration source provided inside a housing of a game controller;

a vibration control section that causes said vibration source to vibrate in a plurality of different patterns when a user is gripping said housing;

a triaxial acceleration sensor that detects a plurality of vibrations in 3-dimensional directions;

a storage section that stores, on a user-by-user basis, history data of a plurality of occasions of a plurality of measurement data obtained by detection by said triaxial acceleration sensor of vibration generated by said vibration source that vibrates at a different voltage; and

a determination section that performs personal biometric authentication by comparing and collating measurement data obtained by causing said vibration source to vibrate according to the plurality of different patterns when a user is gripping said housing with data of said storage section,

wherein said determination section determines a user for which history data has the highest degree of similarity with measurement data among all said history data to be a candidate for being a same person.

7. The personal authentication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein candidate users biometrically determined to be candidates for a single user by said determination section are displayed sequentially.

8. A personal authentication apparatus comprising:

a vibration source provided inside a housing;

a vibration control section that causes said vibration source to vibrate and continuously changes a frequency of that vibration source when a user is gripping said housing;

a multiaxial vibration detection section that detects vibration by said vibration source;

an extraction section that extracts respective frequency components from a plurality of measurement data obtained by detection by said multiaxial vibration detection section for each frequency of said vibration source that changes continuously;

a processing section that performs processing and output for each said frequency component;

a storage section that stores processed said frequency components on a user-by-user basis; and

a determination section that performs personal authentication by comparing and collating a frequency component extracted from measurement data obtained by causing said vibration source to vibrate when a user is gripping said housing with a frequency component stored in said storage section.

9. The personal authentication apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said multiaxial vibration detection section comprises:

a triaxial acceleration sensor that detects acceleration in three axial directions; and

a gyrosensor that detects rotation about each axis of said triaxial acceleration sensor.

10. The personal authentication apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said processing section performs weighting for each frequency component.

11. The personal authentication apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said processing section extracts a peak value of said frequency components.

12. The personal authentication apparatus according to claim 8, wherein:

said storage section stores a plurality of personal data with processed said frequency components associated with each user; and

said determination section determines that a user with data that has the highest degree of similarity with a frequency component among all of stored said personal data is a same person.

13. A personal authentication apparatus comprising:

a vibration source provided inside a housing of a game controller;

a vibration control section that causes said vibration source to vibrate and continuously changes a frequency of that vibration source when a user is gripping said housing;

a multiaxial vibration detection section that detects vibration by said vibration source;

an extraction section that extracts respective frequency components from a plurality of measurement data obtained by detection by said multiaxial vibration detection section for each frequency of said vibration source that changes continuously;

a processing section that performs processing and output for each said frequency component;

a storage section that stores processed said frequency components on a user-by-user basis; and

a determination section that performs personal authentication by comparing and collating a frequency component extracted from measurement data obtained by causing said vibration source to vibrate when a user is gripping said housing with a frequency component stored in said storage section,

wherein said determination section determines a user associated with a frequency component having the highest degree of similarity with a current frequency component among all said frequency components to be a candidate for being a same person.

14. The personal authentication apparatus according to claim 13, wherein candidate users biometrically determined to be candidates for a single user by said determination section are displayed sequentially.

15. A program that causes a computer enabling communication with a game controller in which a vibration source and a triaxial acceleration sensor that detects a plurality of vibrations in 3-dimensional directions and a communication section are installed inside a housing to function as:

a vibration control section that causes said vibration source to vibrate in a plurality of different patterns when a user is gripping said housing;

a storage section that stores, on a user-by-user basis, a plurality of measurement data obtained by detection by said triaxial acceleration sensor of vibration generated by a vibration source that vibrates in a different pattern; and

a determination section that performs personal biometric authentication by comparing and collating measurement data obtained by causing said vibration source to vibrate according to the plurality of different patterns when a user is gripping said housing with data of said storage section.