Systems and methods for authenticating a user based on a biometric model associated with the user

• US 10,666,648 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2018
• Issued: 05/26/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jakobsson, Bjorn Markus
• Primary Examiner(s): Smithers, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US16/196,884
• Publication Number:
  US 20190199716A1
• Time in Patent Office: 553 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2103 Challenge-response
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/11 Hand-related biometrics; Hand pose recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/67 by interactive indications to the user
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3231 Biological data, e.g. fingerprint, voice or retina network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using biometrical features in a packet data network H04L63/0861
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/068 using credential vaults, e.g. password manager applications or one time password [OTP] applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/069 using certificates or pre-shared keys
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/68 Gesture-dependent or behaviour-dependent

Abstract

Systems and methods as provided herein may create a biometric model associated with a user. The created biometric model may be used to generate challenges that are presented to the user for authentication purposes. A user response to the challenge may be compared to an expected response, and if the user response matches within a predetermined error of the expected response, the user may be authenticated. The systems and methods may further generate challenges that are adaptively designed to address weaknesses or errors in the created model such that the model is more closely associated with a user and the user is more likely to be the only person capable of successfully responding to the generated challenges.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a non-transitory memory;

one or more sensors configured to detect biometric responses;

a global positioning system configured to detect a location of the device;

a network interface component; and

one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the device to perform operations comprising;

providing a challenge to a user, the challenge generated by a biometric model application configured to authenticate the user against a biometric model tailored to the user;

detecting, from the one or more sensors, a response from the user to the provided challenge;

detecting, by the global positioning system, the location of the device;

determining whether the detected response matches an expected response based on the biometric model within a predetermined degree of accuracy to identify the user;

transmitting, via the network interface component, an indication of successful authentication in response to determining the detected response matches the expected response within the predetermined degree of accuracy; and

receiving access to a service based on the detected response matching the expected response within the predetermined degree of accuracy and the detected location of the device.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing, in response to determining the detected response does not match the expected response within the predetermined degree of accuracy, a subsequent challenge based on the biometric model to the user.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a tier of access to a service based on the detected response matching the expected response within the predetermined degree of accuracy and an error associated with the matching being below a threshold.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the tier of access comprises a first tier of access and the threshold comprises a first threshold, the operations further comprise:

receiving a second tier of access to the service lower than the first tier of access, based on the error being above the first threshold and below a second threshold within the predetermined degree of accuracy.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

modifying the biometric model in response to a biometric change of the user, the modifying including providing one or more additional challenges to the user.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing an instruction to the user for aligning a biometric identifier associated with the biometric model to complete the challenge.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

tailoring the challenge to a three-dimensional biometric identifier of the user obtained as the response from the one or more sensors, wherein the one or more sensors comprises an optical sensor.

8. A method for authenticating a user, comprising:

providing, by one or more processors of a device, a challenge to the user generated by a biometric model application configured to authenticate the user against a biometric model tailored to the user;

detecting, by one or more sensors of the device, a biometric response from the user to the provided challenge;

determining, by the one or more processors, whether the detected biometric response matches an expected response based on the biometric model above a threshold degree of accuracy;

providing, by the one or more processors, a subsequent challenge in response to determining that the detected biometric response does not match the expected response above the threshold degree of accuracy; and

receiving, by the device, access to a service in response to an acceptable response to the subsequent challenge matching the expected response above the threshold degree of accuracy.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

transmitting, by a transceiver of the device prior to the receiving, an indication of a successful authentication.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the access to the service comprises a tier of access to the service based on the acceptable response matching above the threshold degree of accuracy for the subsequent challenge and an error associated with the matching being below a threshold.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

retraining, by the one or more processors, the biometric model in response to a biometric change of the user.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

providing, by the one or more processors, an instruction to the user on how to complete the challenge using a biometric identifier.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

tailoring the subsequent challenge to a three-dimensional biometric identifier of the user obtained as the acceptable response from the one or more sensors.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

generating a challenge for a user from a biometric model tailored to the user, and an expected response based on the biometric model;

comparing a detected response to the challenge from the user to the expected response;

generating, in response to the detected response not matching the expected response above a threshold degree of accuracy, a new challenge and a new expected response based on the biometric model; and

transmitting an indication of a successful authentication in response to an acceptable response to the new challenge.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining an error level of the matching between the acceptable response and the expected response to the new challenge.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a first level of access to a service in response to transmitting the indication of successful authentication and in response to the error level being below a first threshold; and

receiving a second level of access to the service in response to the transmitting the indication of successful authentication and in response to the error level being above the first threshold and below a second threshold within a threshold degree of accuracy, the second level of access being lower than the first level of access.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing an instruction to the user on how to complete the challenge with a timer indicating a remaining amount of time in which to complete the challenge.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the indication of successful authentication comprises a secure identifier.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving access to a service based on the acceptable response matching the expected response within a predetermined degree of accuracy and a detected location of the machine.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

modifying the biometric model in response to a biometric change of the user, the modifying including providing one or more additional challenges to the user.