On-the go touchless fingerprint scanner

• US 9,489,560 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2015
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Zeroconzero LLC
• Original Assignee: Advanced Optical Systems
• Inventors: Balch, Michael Kevin, Fox, Stephen Harris, Hartman, Richard Leon, Rosetti, Nicholas Clark
• Primary Examiner(s): Roz, Mark
• Application Number:
  US14/620,238
• Publication Number:
  US 20150227774A1
• Time in Patent Office: 635 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/11 Hand-related biometrics; Hand pose recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1312 direct reading, e.g. contactless acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1365 Matching; Classification

Abstract

On-the-go fingerprint scanners and methods of capturing fingerprints on-the-go are disclosed. In some aspects, the on-the-go fingerprint scanner can include a scanning area and a beam break sensor disposed coincident to the scanning area such that the beam break sensor detects when an object passes through the scanning area. The scanner can also include at least one hand camera configured to capture a video image of the scanning area such that when the beam break sensor detects that an object has passed through the scanning area, the hand camera detects whether the object is a human hand and the location of any fingers on said hand, and at least one fingerprint camera configured to receive the location of any fingers within the scanning area from the hand camera and capture a high-resolution image of at least a portion of any of said fingers passing through the scanning area.

Claims

1. An on-the-go fingerprint scanner, comprising:

a scanning area;

a beam break sensor disposed coincident to the scanning area such that the beam break sensor detects when an object passes through the scanning area;

at least one hand camera configured to capture a video image of the scanning area such that when the beam break sensor detects that an object has passed through the scanning area, the hand camera;

acquires an image of the object,

detects whether the object is a human hand by determining a contour around the perimeter of the object, applying landmark points to the contour, and comparing the contour to a previously trained Active Shape Model of a hand,

detects a location of any fingers on said detected hand by processing the location of the landmark points, and

detects the presence or absence of any fingers using a neural network; and

at least one fingerprint camera configured to receive the location of any fingers within the scanning area from the hand camera and capture a plurality of high-resolution images of at least a portion of any of said fingers passing through the scanning area.

2. The fingerprint scanner of claim 1, wherein the hand camera acquires an image of the object by acquiring a last frame from the hand camera video image after the beam brake sensor detects the presence of the object.

3. The fingerprint scanner of claim 1, wherein the fingerprint scanner is configured to determine a focus metric for each of the plurality of high-resolution images and retain those images with the highest focus metric for further processing.

4. The fingerprint scanner of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of high-resolution images is further processed by at least one of:

downsampling the image to 500 PPI, performing a full-frame brightness correction, applying a ridge detection algorithm, processing for both binary and grey level output, or any combination thereof.

5. The fingerprint scanner of claim 1, further comprising:

an illumination system configured to illuminate an object passing through the scanner area, the illumination system having any of a high-power extended light source, a compound hyperbolic concentrator, a lens, a diffuser, or any combination thereof.

6. The fingerprint scanner of claim 5, wherein the illumination system further includes a baffle.