User authenticating method and head mounted device supporting the same

• US 9,836,663 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2016
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2015
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Yun, In-kuk, Yu, Je-in, Kwak, Byeong-hoon, Kim, Hyun-jung, Na, In-hak, Moon, Bo-seok, Park, Jae-hyun, Lee, Young-eun, Han, Ji-yeon
• Primary Examiner(s): Mariam, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US15/014,652
• Publication Number:
  US 20160259986A1
• Time in Patent Office: 671 Days
• Field of Search: 382117
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/35 by template matching
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6803 Head-worn items, e.g. helmets, masks, headphones or goggles
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0138 comprising image capture systems, e.g. camera
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/014 comprising information/image processing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0141 characterised by the informative content of the display
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0178 Eyeglass type eyeglass details G02C
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0187 slaved to motion of at least a part of the body of the user, e.g. head, eye
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0172 characterised by optical features
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/15 Biometric patterns based on physiological signals, e.g. heartbeat, blood flow
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/193 Preprocessing; Feature extraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/197 Matching; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/70 Multimodal biometrics, e.g. combining information from different biometric modalities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/33 using wearable devices, e.g. using a smartwatch or smart-glasses

Abstract

A head mounted device (HMD) includes an imaging unit configured to capture at least one image of a partial region of an iris, an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor configured to receive an ECG signal, and a control unit configured to acquire at least one image of the partial region of the iris and ECG signals, and authenticate a user by using the acquired image(s) of the partial region of the iris and the ECG signals.

Claims

1. A head mounted device (HMD) comprising:

at least one camera configured to capture one or more partial region images of an iris;

an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor configured to receive ECG signals; and

at least one processor configured to authenticate a user by acquiring at least one of the one or more partial region images, which are captured by the at least one camera, and the ECG signals, which are received through a plurality of electrodes,

wherein the at least one processor is further configured to generate a normalized image to authenticate the user, by combining the one or more partial region images and by using a curvature of an inner contour line of the iris, which is included in the one or more partial region images.

2. The HMD of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor sets an authentication level for an application.

3. The HMD of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive a user input to execute the application,

wherein when the user input is received, the at least one processor authenticates the user by using one or both of the at least one partial region image and the ECG signals, which is set according to the authentication level.

4. The HMD of claim 3, wherein when one of the one or more partial region images and the ECG signals is not acquired, the at least one processor is configured to control at least one of the at least one camera and the ECG sensor so as to acquire an appropriate one of the one or more partial region images and the ECG signals.

5. A head mounted device (HMD) comprising:

at least one camera configured to acquire one or more partial images of an iris of a user; and

at least one processor configured to generate a normalized image for user authentication by combining the one or more partial images,

wherein the at least one processor generates the normalized image by using a curvature of an inner contour line of the iris, which is included in the one or more partial images.

6. The HMD of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor generates the normalized image by using at least one of an outer contour line of the iris and an inner contour line of the iris, which are included in the one or more partial images.

7. The HMD of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor determines positions to be occupied in the normalized image by the one or more partial images and combines the one or more partial images based on the determined positions.

8. The HMD of claim 5, wherein the at least one camera is configured to capture an image of the iris of the user two or more times to generate the normalized image.

9. The HMD of claim 5, wherein, when the one or more partial images includes the inner contour line of the iris, the at least one processor estimates a size of a pupil from a radius of a virtual circle including the inner contour line by using the curvature of the inner contour line.

10. The HMD of claim 5, wherein, when the one or more partial images includes an outer contour line of the iris, the at least one processor estimates a size of the iris from a radius of a virtual circle including the outer contour line by using a curvature of the outer contour line.

11. The HMD of claim 5, further comprising a display configured to provide a user interface for capturing an image of the iris of the user, and configured to provide a user interface for guiding a position to be viewed by a user'"'"'s eye so as to acquire partial images of specific parts the iris.

12. A head mounted device (HMD) comprising:

a plurality of electrodes configured to detect ECG signals disposed in the HMD; and

at least one processor configured to;

receive ECG signals through the plurality of electrodes,

measure a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received ECG signals,

compare the SNR of the received ECG signals to a threshold value,

perform user authentication based on the received ECG signals when the SNR of the received ECG signals is greater than or equal to the threshold value, and

perform the user authentication based on biometric information received from at least one biometric sensor when the SNR of the received ECG signals is less than the threshold value, wherein the at least one biometric sensor is different from an ECG sensor.

13. The HMD of claim 12, wherein the plurality of electrodes are disposed in at least one of a first contact portion that is disposed on an inner side of the HMD and contacts a user'"'"'s head when the user wears the HMD, and a second contact portion that is contactable with other body parts except for the head.

14. The HMD of claim 12, wherein, when a plurality of ECG signals are received from the plurality of electrodes disposed in the HMD, the at least one processor determines at least one of the plurality of ECG signals for the user authentication according to a setting, and performs the user authentication based on the determined at least one ECG signal.

15. The HMD of claim 14, further comprising a display,

wherein, when it is determined that the HMD is not worn by the user, the at least one processor controls the display to output guidance for wearing the HMD.

16. The HMD of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor determines whether the HMD is worn by the user.

17. The HMD of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:

receive a user input for the user authentication through the at least one biometric sensor,

receive the biometric information of the user through the at least one biometric sensor,

determine a first matching rate between the received biometric information of the user and preregistered biometric information corresponding to the biometric information,

determine a second matching rate between the ECG signals received through the plurality of electrodes and the preregistered ECG signal, and

perform the user authentication by combining the first matching rate and the second matching rate.

18. The HMD of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

receive a user input to execute an application,

confirm electrodes set for the user authentication for the application, for which the user input is received, among the plurality of electrodes, and

receive ECG signals through the confirmed electrodes.

19. The HMD of claim 12, further comprising a display, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:

determine a third matching rate between the ECG signals received through the plurality of electrodes and a preregistered ECG signal,

compare the third matching rate with at least one fourth matching rate determined based on at least one ECG signal received for a predetermined time before the reception of the ECG signals, and

control the display to output a message indicating that the user has health problems when the third matching rate is less than the at least one fourth matching rate.