Document distribution and interaction

• US 9,432,368 B1
• Filed: 02/19/2015
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Saxena, Neha, Kumar, Divij, Pandey, Aditya Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): AVERY, JEREMIAH L
• Application Number:
  US14/625,852
• Publication Number:
  US 20160248765A1
• Time in Patent Office: 558 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: 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 63/0876 based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0866 involving user or device identifiers, e.g. serial number, physical or biometrical information, DNA, hand-signature or measurable physical characteristics
• 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: H04L 9/3242 involving keyed hash functions, e.g. message authentication codes [MACs], CBC-MAC or HMAC

Abstract

A document originator establishes rules for authenticating an electronic signature. Such rules may require that any user who wishes to assent to the document terms provide biometric data in the form of an ocular image. In one implementation, such rules, as well as the document itself, are provided to a document recipient. If the document recipient assents to the document, an electronic signature is acquired from the document recipient, along with the required ocular image. The image is acquired using an infrared-enabled camera in the case of an iris image, or a retinal scanner in the case of a retina image. The acquired image can be authenticated by comparison to a trusted reference image, for example which may have been obtained from the document recipient during an initial registration process. If the comparison matches with a sufficiently high degree of confidence, then the electronic signature is considered authentic.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented document processing method that comprises:

receiving, from a document originator, metadata that identifies a document that is to be distributed to a document recipient as part of a workflow, wherein the document includes one or more document terms;

designating a protocol for authenticating an assent to the one or more document terms that is provided by the document recipient, wherein the protocol establishes an ocular recognition technology;

providing, to the document recipient in response to a received request, instructions for processing an ocular image in accordance with the protocol;

receiving, from the document recipient, the assent and a processed ocular image acquired from the document recipient in accordance with the protocol;

comparing the processed ocular image with a reference ocular image stored in an authentication data repository; and

in response to determining that the processed ocular image and the reference ocular image were derived from the document recipient, (a) updating audit data associated with the document to indicate that the document recipient has assented to the one or more document terms, (b) adding to the document a graphical representation of the processed ocular image, and (c) adding to the document a link to the updated audit data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the document originator a notification indicating that the document recipient provided the assent, and that the assent was authenticated using the ocular recognition technology.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying a one-way cryptographic hashing algorithm to the processed ocular image, thereby producing a hash of the processed ocular image, wherein said comparing comprises comparing the hash of the processed ocular image to a hash of the reference ocular image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the processed ocular image comprises a one-way cryptographic hash of an ocular image acquired from the document recipient.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the received request is received from the document recipient.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata received from the document originator further defines the protocol for authenticating the assent to the one or more document terms.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the protocol establishes that an iris image should be acquired from the document recipient.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the protocol establishes that a retinal image should be acquired from the document recipient.

9. An electronic signature system that comprises:

a document repository storing a document comprising a plurality of document terms;

an authentication data repository storing a plurality of reference ocular image datasets for a corresponding plurality of users, wherein each reference ocular image dataset is associated with user identification information that identifies one of the users;

a configuration module adapted to generate instructions for processing an ocular image in accordance with an ocular recognition technology, and to associate the instructions with the document;

an interactivity module configured to (a) receive, from a document recipient, an assent to the document terms and an ocular image dataset that is acquired in accordance with the instructions, and (b) authenticate the assent by matching the received ocular image dataset with one of the reference ocular image datasets stored in the authentication data repository; and

a document status module configured to (a) update audit data associated with the document to indicate that the document recipient has assented to the document terms, and (b) add a visual indicium to the document in response to authentication of the asset, wherein the visual indicium comprises a link to the audit data and a graphical representation of the received ocular image dataset.

10. The electronic signature system of claim 9, further comprising a registration module configured to (a) receive a reference ocular image dataset from the document recipient, and (b) store the reference ocular image dataset that is received from the document recipient in the authentication data repository.

11. The electronic signature system of claim 9, wherein the assent comprises an electronic signature generated as a result of an interaction between the document recipient and one or more user interface elements that are generated by the interactivity module and transmitted to the document recipient.

12. The electronic signature system of claim 9, wherein the audit data associated with the document is stored in the document repository.

13. The electronic signature system of claim 9, wherein:

the received ocular image dataset comprises a greyscale ocular image; and

the interactivity module is further configured to generate an encrypted version of the received ocular image dataset using a one-way cryptographic hashing function.

14. A computer program product encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes a document workflow process to be carried out, the process comprising:

receiving, from a document originator, metadata that identifies a document that is to be distributed to a document recipient as part of a workflow, wherein the document includes a plurality of document terms;

designating a protocol for authenticating an assent to the document terms that is provided by the document recipient, wherein the protocol establishes an ocular recognition technology;

providing, to the document recipient in response to a received request, instructions for processing an ocular image in accordance with the protocol;

receiving, from the document recipient, the assent and a processed ocular image acquired from the document recipient in accordance with the protocol;

comparing the processed ocular image with a reference ocular image stored in an authentication data repository; and

in response to determining that the processed ocular image and the reference ocular image were derived from the document recipient, (a) updating status data associated with the document to indicate that the document recipient has assented to the document terms, and (b) adding a visual indicium to the document in response to determining that the processed ocular image and the reference ocular image were derived from the document recipient,

wherein the visual indicium comprises a link to the status data and a graphical representation of the processed ocular image.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the process further comprises:

receiving geolocation data that corresponds to a geographic location where the assent occurred; and

providing the geolocation data to the document originator along with a notification indicating that the document recipient provided an authenticated assent.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the protocol establishes that at least one of an iris image and a retinal image should be acquired from the document recipient.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the received request is automatically generated as part of the workflow.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the processed ocular image comprises a one-way cryptographic hash that is encoded using a salt that is associated with the document recipient.