Apparatus and method of fingerprint recognition for a mobile terminal

• US 20060210126A1
• Filed: 03/06/2006
• Published: 09/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Cho, Young-Hoon
• Granted Patent: US 7,634,117 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/124
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition

Abstract

An apparatus for recognizing a fingerprint includes a fingerprint sensing unit for scanning a fingerprint of a user; a storage using for storing a comparison model of the fingerprint of the user and various threshold values; a control unit for obtaining similarity between the fingerprint of the user scanned by fingerprint sensing unit and the comparison model stored in the storage unit, comparing it with a certain threshold value, and controlling a mobile terminal according to the comparison result; and a display unit for transferring a result (success or failure) of the fingerprint recognition or a request from the control unit to the user.

Claims

1. An apparatus for recognizing a fingerprint of a mobile terminal comprising:

a fingerprint sensing unit for scanning a fingerprint of a user;

a storage unit for storing a comparison model of the fingerprints of the user; and

a controller for comparing a similarity between the scanned fingerprint and the comparison model with a certain threshold value, and releasing a lock function set in a mobile terminal or releasing the lock function and updating the comparison model according to the comparison result.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein if the similarity is equal to or greater than a first threshold value but smaller than a second threshold value, the controller releases the lock function set in the mobile terminal.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first threshold value is a reference value set for user authentication.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the second threshold value is a reference value set for updating the comparison model.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein if the similarity is equal to or greater than the second threshold value, the controller releases the lock function set in the mobile terminal and registers the scanned fingerprint as a new comparison model.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein if the similarity is smaller than the first threshold value, the controller re-scans the fingerprint of the user to obtain similarity of the user fingerprint, and compares the obtained similarity with the certain threshold value again.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein if the decision that the similarity is smaller than the first threshold value is detected by a certain number of times or more, the controller lowers a security level of the fingerprint recognition.

8. A method for recognizing a fingerprint of a mobile terminal comprising:

scanning a fingerprint of a user;

obtaining similarity between the scanned fingerprint and a comparison model; and

comparing the similarity with a certain threshold value, or releasing a lock function set in a mobile terminal according to the comparison result.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein if the similarity is equal to or greater than a first threshold value but smaller than a second threshold value, the lock function set in the mobile terminal is released.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first threshold value is a reference value set for user authentication.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the second threshold value is a reference value set for updating the comparison model.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein if the similarity is equal to or greater than the second threshold value, the lock function set in the mobile terminal is released and the scanned fingerprint is registered as a new comparison model.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein if the similarity is smaller than the first threshold value, the fingerprint of the user is re-scanned.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein if the decision that the similarity is smaller than the first threshold value is detected by a certain number of times or more, a security level of the fingerprint recognition is lowered.

15. A mobile terminal apparatus comprising:

a fingerprint sensor to recognize a fingerprint inputted from a user;

a memory to store a reference fingerprint of the user; and

a processor cooperating with the fingerprint sensor and the memory to perform the steps of,

determining whether the inputted fingerprint matches the stored reference fingerprint,

authorizing the user if the determining results in a match, and

updating the memory to replace the stored reference fingerprint with the inputted fingerprint, if the inputted fingerprint has a quality that exceeds a threshold value.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor, the fingerprint sensor, and the memory cooperate to perform the determining step a plurality of times according to security conditions that were previously set.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein if the determining failed to result in a match and the authorizing is not performed, the processor adjusts the security conditions to be more lenient to allow the determining step to be additionally performed.