Voice-capable system and method for providing input options for authentication

• US 8,539,242 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2005
• Issued: 09/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Jung, Edward K. Y., Levien, Royce A., Lord, Robert W., Malamud, Mark A., Rinaldo, John D. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tabor, Amare F
• Application Number:
  US11/314,940
• Publication Number:
  US 20070143625A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,827 Days
• Field of Search: 713/182, 713/185, 713/186, 704/E17.016, 726/17, 726/19
• US Class Current: 713/182
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/24 the user being prompted to utter a password or a predefined phrase

Abstract

A system and method for use with a voice-capable system, includes but is not limited to a method including receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences, and preparing one or more categories of authentication questions based on the one or more user-centric authentication preferences.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences in response to a user-centric query of a user of a voice-capable system, the user-centric query providing one or more questions associated with one or more categories of authentication questions;

determining whether at least some of the one or more categories of authentication questions meet a diversity standard for an authentication requirement;

preparing the one or more categories of authentication questions based on at least one of the one or more user-centric authentication preferences;

generating one or more questions for a future authentication session, wherein the generating one or more questions for the future authentication session includes;

(a) receiving from the user the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in the form of a prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions, including;

(1) notifying the user when the prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions results in an invalid authentication configuration, including;

(A) cautioning the user when the prioritization of the one or more categories results in excluding a category; and

(B) providing the user with an option to at least one of reinstate an excluded category or add a category; and

wherein at least one of the receiving, the determining, the preparing, or the generating is implemented using one or more processing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

receiving the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in response to one or more user-centric query of the user of the voice-capable system.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in response to the one or more user-centric query of the user of the voice-capable system includes:

parsing the one or more user-centric authentication preferences to identify the one or more categories of authentication questions;

storing one or more parsed user-centric authentication preferences according to the one or more categories of authentication questions; and

determining whether the one or more categories of authentication questions meet the diversity standard associated with the authentication requirement.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in response to the one or more user-centric query of the user of the voice-capable system includes:

verifying an identity of the user according to an authentication protocol; and

providing the user-centric query of the user during a voice-capable setup procedure.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating one or more questions for a future authentication session includes:

selecting the one or more questions for the future authentication session via a weighting of the one or more categories of authentication questions in accordance with the one or more user-centric authentication preferences.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating one or more questions for a future authentication session includes:

generating the one or more questions for the future authentication session using family data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the generating the one or more questions for the future authentication session using family data includes:

consulting family data, the family data including one or more of financial records, personal data, or timely events of a member within a household of the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

receiving from the user the user-centric authentication preferences including an indication of the one or more categories of authentication questions to be avoided.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

receiving from the user the user-centric authentication preferences including an indication of one or more categories of authentication questions the user prefers to receive during an authentication session.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the preparing the one or more categories of authentication questions based on at least one of the one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

parsing the user-centric authentication preferences for one or more matching preferences; and

prioritizing the one or more matching preferences to create the one or more categories of authentication questions.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the preparing the one or more categories of authentication questions based on at least one of the one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

prioritizing the one or more categories of authentication questions in one or more of near real time or as prior to a next authentication session.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the preparing the one or more categories of authentication questions based on at least one of the one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

preparing the one or more categories as default categories, the default categories determined according to one or more organization dependent criteria.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the preparing the one or more categories of authentication questions based on at least one of the one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

preparing the one or more categories to include questions concerning one or more of financial transactions, recurring transactions, calendared events, personal relationships, names of joint account holders, names of family members, numbers of siblings, relatives, computing activities, personal inventory, or recent personal contacts.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more categories of authentication questions are predetermined to be appropriate for one or more authentication purposes, wherein the one or more authentication purposes includes a bank transaction.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the preparing the one or more categories of authentication questions based on at least one of the one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

preparing the one or more categories as default categories, the default categories determined according to one or more organization dependent criteria, including industry specific criteria.

16. A method comprising:

receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences in response to a user-centric query of a user of a voice-capable system, the user-centric query providing one or more questions associated with one or more categories of authentication questions;

determining whether at least some of the one or more categories of authentication questions meet a diversity standard for an authentication requirement;

preparing the one or more categories of authentication questions based on at least one of the one or more user-centric authentication preferences;

generating one or more questions for a future authentication session, wherein the generating one or more questions for the future authentication session includes;

(a) receiving from the user the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in the form of a prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions, including;

(1) notifying the user when the prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions results in an invalid authentication configuration, including;

(A) consulting a threshold related to the one or more categories of authentication questions, the threshold determined via a metric identifying at least one of a number of categories or authentication questions required for a predetermined security requirement, wherein the consulting a threshold related to the one or more categories of authentication questions, the threshold determined via a metric identifying at least one of a number of categories or authentication questions required for a predetermined security requirement includes;

 

(i) determining the threshold by performing evaluation testing to measure a security level associated with Rae one or more possible thresholds, and

wherein at least one of the receiving, the determining, the preparing, or the generating is implemented using one or more processing devices.

17. A method comprising:

receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences in response to a user-centric query of a user of a voice-capable system, the user-centric query providing one or more questions associated with one or more categories of authentication questions;

determining whether at least some of the one or more categories of authentication questions meet a diversity standard for an authentication requirement;

preparing the one or more categories of authentication questions based on at least one of the one or more user-centric authentication preferences;

generating one or more questions for a future authentication session, wherein the generating one or more questions for the future authentication session includes;

(a) receiving from the user the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in the form of a prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions, including;

(1) notifying the user when the prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions results in an invalid authentication configuration, including;

(A) consulting a threshold related to the one or more categories of authentication questions, the threshold determined via a metric identifying at least one of a number of categories or authentication questions required for a predetermined security requirement, wherein the consulting a threshold related to the one or more categories of authentication questions, the threshold determined via a metric identifying at least one of a number of categories or authentication questions required for a predetermined security requirement includes;

 

(i) altering the threshold according to the metric identifying the at least one of the number of categories or authentication questions required for the predetermined security requirement to achieve a predetermined success rate, and

wherein at least one of the receiving, the determining, the preparing, or the generating is implemented using one or more processing devices.

18. A computer program product comprising:

at least one non-transitory signal bearing medium bearing one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processing devices, perform a process including;

receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences in response to a user-centric query of a user of a voice-capable system, the user-centric query providing one or more questions associated with one or more categories of authentication questions;

determining whether at least some of the one or more categories of authentication questions meet a diversity standard for an authentication requirement;

preparing the one or more categories of authentication questions based on at least one of the one or more user-centric authentication preferences; and

generating one or more questions for a future authentication session, wherein the one or more instructions for generating one or more questions for a future authentication session includes;

(a) receiving from the user the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in the form of a prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions, including;

(1) notifying the user when the prioritization of the one or more categories results in an invalid authentication configuration, including;

(A) cautioning the user when the prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions results in excluding a category; and

(B) providing the user with an option to at least one of reinstate an excluded category or add a category.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the-computer readable medium comprises:

a transmission medium.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

receiving the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in response to one or more user-centric query of the user of the voice-capable system.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein receiving the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in response to one or more user-centric query of the user of the voice-capable system includes:

parsing the one or more user-centric authentication preferences to identify the one or more categories of authentication questions;

storing one or more parsed user-centric authentication preferences according to the one or more categories of authentication questions; and

determining whether the one or more categories of authentication questions meet a diversity standard associated with the authentication requirement.

22. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein receiving the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in response to the one or more user-centric query of the user of the voice-capable system includes:

verifying an identity of the user according to an authentication protocol; and

providing the user-centric query of the user during a voice-capable setup procedure.

23. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the-computer readable medium comprises:

a recordable medium.

24. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein notifying the user if the prioritization of the one or more categories results in an invalid authentication configuration includes:

consulting a threshold related to the one or more categories, the threshold determined via at least one of a metric identifying a number of categories or authentication questions required for a predetermined security requirement.

25. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the generating one or more questions for a future authentication session includes:

generating the one or more questions for the future authentication session using family data.

26. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the generating the one or more questions for the future authentication session using family data includes:

consulting family data, the family data including one or more of financial records, personal data, or timely events of a member within a household of the user.

27. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

receiving from a user the user-centric authentication preferences including an indication of one or more categories of authentication questions to be avoided.

28. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

receiving from a user the user-centric authentication preferences including an indication of one or more categories of authentication questions the user prefers to receive during an authentication session.

29. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the preparing one or more categories of authentication questions based on the one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

parsing the user-centric authentication preferences for one or more matching preferences; and

prioritizing the one or more matching preferences to create the one or more categories of authentication questions.

30. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein preparing one or more categories of authentication questions based on the one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

prioritizing the one or more categories of authentication questions in one or more of near real time or as prior to a next authentication session.

31. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein preparing one or more categories of authentication questions based on the one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

preparing the one or more categories as default categories, the default categories determined according to one or more organization dependent criteria.

32. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein preparing one or more categories of authentication questions based on the one or more user-centric authentication preferences includes:

preparing the one or more categories to include questions concerning one or more of financial transactions, recurring transactions, calendared events, personal relationships, names of joint account holders, names of family members, numbers of siblings, relatives, computing activities, personal inventory, or recent personal contacts.

33. A computer-program product comprising:

at least one non-transitory signal bearing medium bearing one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processing devices, perform a process including;

receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences in response to a user-centric query of a user of a voice-capable system, the user-centric query providing one or more questions associated with one or more categories of authentication questions;

determining whether at least some of the one or more authentication questions meet a diversity standard for an authentication requirement;

preparing the one or more categories of authentication questions based on at least one of the one or more user-centric authentication preferences; and

generating one or more questions for a future authentication session, including;

(a) receiving from the user the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in the form of a prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions, including;

(1) notifying the user when the prioritization of the one or more categories results in an invalid authentication configuration, wherein the one or more instructions for notifying the user when the prioritization of the one or more categories results in an invalid authentication configuration includes;

(A) consulting a threshold related to the one or more categories of authentication questions, the threshold determined via a metric identifying at least one of a number of categories or authentication questions required for a predetermined security requirement, wherein the consulting a threshold related to the one or more categories of authentication questions, the threshold determined via a metric identifying at least one of a number of categories or authentication questions required for a predetermined security requirement includes;

 

determining the threshold by performing evaluation testing to measure a security level associated with the one or more thresholds.

34. A computer program product comprising:

at least one non-transitory signal bearing medium bearing one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processing devices, perform a process including;

receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences in response to a user-centric query of a user of a voice-capable system, the user-centric query providing one or more questions associated with one or more categories of authentication questions;

determining whether at least some of the one or more categories of authentication questions meet a diversity standard for an authentication requirement;

preparing the one or more categories of authentication questions based on at least one of the one or more user-centric authentication preferences; and

generating one or more questions for a future authentication session, wherein the one or more instructions for generating one or more questions for a future authentication session includes;

(a) receiving from the user the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in the form of a prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions, including;

(1) notifying the user when the prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions results in an invalid authentication configuration, wherein the notifying the user when the prioritization of the one or more categories results in an invalid authentication configuration includes;

(A) consulting a threshold related to the one or more categories, the threshold determined via a metric identifying at least one of a number of categories or authentication questions required for a predetermined security requirement, wherein the consulting a threshold related to the one or more categories, the threshold determined via a metric identifying at least one of a number of categories or authentication questions required for a predetermined security requirement includes;

 

(i) altering the threshold according to the metric identifying at least one of the number of categories or authentication questions required for the predetermined security requirement to achieve a predetermined success rate.

35. A voice-capable system comprising:

a processor;

at least one of audio input or output circuitry coupled to the processor;

a memory coupled to the processor; and

a security module coupled to the processor, the security module configured to implement a secure protocol, the secure protocol configured to implement an automated system with one or more questions related to security/authentication, the security module configured to include;

an access module for receiving one or more user-centric authentication preferences;

a determination module for determining whether at least some of the one or more categories of authentication questions meet a diversity standard for an authentication requirement;

a category preparation module for preparing one or more categories of authentication questions based on the one or more user-centric authentication preferences; and

a generating module for generating one or more questions for a future authentication session, including;

(a) receiving from the user the one or more user-centric authentication preferences in the form of a prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions, including;

(1) notifying the user when the prioritization of the one or more categories of authentication questions results in an invalid authentication configuration, including;

 

(A) cautioning the user when the prioritization of the one or more categories results in excluding a category; and

 

(B) providing the user with an option to at least one of reinstate an excluded category or add a category.

36. The voice-capable system of claim 35, wherein the security module is at least one of coupled to the processor, located within the processor, or located in the memory.

37. The voice-capable system of claim 35, wherein the memory is one or more of a random access memory, a read only memory, an optical memory, or a subscriber identity module memory.

38. The voice-capable system of claim 35, wherein the at least one of the audio input or output circuitry includes one or more of a microphone, a speaker, a transducer, audio input or output circuitry.

39. The voice-capable system of claim 35, further comprising a housing coupled to the processor, the housing encasing at least one of the memory, the processor, the audio input or the output circuitry.