Authentication system

• US 9,189,680 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Information & Telecommunication Engineering, Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Information & Telecommunication Engineering, Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Yoshinaga, Tomoaki, Someya, Satoshi, Nagayoshi, Hiroto, Matsubara, Daisuke, Komatsu, Yuto
• Primary Examiner(s): Czekaj, Dave
• Assistant Examiner(s): Slater, Alison
• Application Number:
  US13/613,772
• Publication Number:
  US 20130063581A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,160 Days
• Field of Search: 382/118, 382/115
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/50 Maintenance of biometric data or enrolment thereof

Abstract

It is provided an authentication system, comprising: a reader for obtaining identification information assigned to an identification device held by a subject; an authentication device for authenticating the identification information obtained by the reader; a camera for photographing a facial image of the subject; and a management device which is coupled to a terminal for issuing an alarm and which includes an image database in which the facial image photographed by the camera is accumulated, in which the management device is configured to: search the image database by using information obtained by at least one of the reader and the camera on an occasion of the authentication; determine a reliability of the authentication based on a result of analyzing the retrieved facial image; and transmit data for issuing the alarm to the terminal in a case where it is determined that the reliability is low.

Claims

1. An authentication system, comprising:

a camera configured to photograph a facial image of a subject;

a reader configured to obtain identification information assigned to an identification device held by the subject;

an authentication device configured to authenticate the identification information obtained by the reader

and

a management device coupled to a terminal for issuing an alarm and including an image database in which the facial image photographed by the camera is accumulated, wherein the management device is configured to;

search, before the reader obtains the identification information, the image database by using, as a key, at least one of a plurality of images obtained by the camera;

search, after the reader obtains the identification information, the image database by using information obtained by the reader and the plurality of images obtained by the camera;

determine a reliability of an authentication based on a result of analyzing a retrieved facial image retrieved from the image database; and

transmit data for issuing the alarm to the terminal in a case where it is determined that the reliability is low.

2. The authentication system according to claim 1, wherein the management device is further configured to:

perform first determination processing for determining a first similarity between the photographed facial image and an image accumulated in the image database with a trigger of an event that the camera photographs the facial image;

perform second determination processing for searching the image database by using the information obtained by the reader and determining a second similarity between the facial image photographed by the camera and the retrieved image with a trigger of an event that the reader obtains the information; and

determine the reliability based on a result of the first determination processing and a result of the second determination processing.

3. The authentication system according to claim 2, wherein:

the first determination processing starts after the camera photographs the facial image and stops after the reader obtains the information; and

the second determination processing starts after the reader obtains the information to perform processing on a part of the image database that has not been processed by the first determination processing.

4. The authentication system according to claim 2, wherein the second determination processing is performed only on the photographed facial image that has been determined to be similar by the first determination processing.

5. The authentication system according to claim 2, wherein it is determined that the reliability is high without executing the second determination processing in a case where the first similarity is determined to be high by the first determination processing.

6. The authentication system according to claim 1, wherein:

the authentication device is configured to accumulate the facial image in the image database after assigning a subject-basis identifier to the facial image photographed by the camera; and

the authentication device is configured to delete a part of a plurality of facial images assigned with the subject-basis identifier from the image database in a case where an identifier-basis total size of the plurality of facial images accumulated in the image database exceeds a predetermined first threshold value defined corresponding to the subject-basis identifier, such that the part of the plurality of the facial images assigned with the subject-basis identifier exceeding the predetermined first threshold value is deleted from the image database.

7. The authentication system according to claim 6, wherein:

the authentication device is configured to calculate, as third similarities, similarities between facial images whose photographing dates and times fall within a predetermined date and time range from a current date and time and facial images whose photographing dates and times fall out of the predetermined date and time range among the facial images accumulated in the image database; and

the authentication device is configured to delete a part of the facial images whose photographing dates and times fall out of the predetermined date and time range and whose third similarities are larger than a predetermined second threshold value.

8. The authentication system according to claim 7, wherein the authentication device is configured to delete the facial images whose third similarities are larger than the predetermined second threshold value and whose photographing dates and times fall out of the predetermined date and time range and earlier than a predetermined first reference date and time.

9. The authentication system according to claim 7, wherein the authentication device is configured to keep, from being deleted, facial images whose third similarities are larger than the predetermined threshold value and whose photographing dates and times fall out of the predetermined date and time range and fall within a range between the first reference date and time and a second reference date and time that is later than the first reference date and time and earlier than the current date and time.

10. The authentication system according to claim 1, wherein the management device is configured to determine, before the reader obtains the identification information, the reliability of the authentication based on a result of analyzing a first facial image that is retrieved from the image database by using, as a key, the at least one of the plurality of images obtained by the camera.

11. The authentication system according to claim 1, wherein the management device is configured to search, after the reader obtains the identification information, the image database by using, as a key, the information obtained by the reader to obtain facial images associated with the information obtained by the reader.

12. The authentication system according to claim 1, wherein the management device is configured to determine, after the reader obtains the identification information, the reliability of the authentication based on a result of analyzing a second facial image that is retrieved from the image database by using, as a key, the information obtained by the reader.