Fingerprint sensor with feature authentication

Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing user access to a secured application. In one exemplary embodiment, a detector apparatus comprises a fingerprint sensor having a receiving portion that is configured to accept an authentication article. The fingerprint sensor detects one or more predetermined features of the authentication article and reads at least a portion of a fingerprint of a user. The authentication article may include a precious gem such as a diamond. The detector apparatus may further comprise a feature detection sensor in operative relation with the fingerprint sensor. The feature detection sensor detects the one or more of the predetermined features. The fingerprint sensor may be detachably coupled to a portable device having an interface for operably communicating with a computer system to determine an identity of the user. A method, comprising: reading the fingerprint of a user with a fingerprint sensor; detecting one or more features of an authentication article with the fingerprint sensor; analyzing at least a portion of the fingerprint to derive a first indication for verifying an identity of the user; analyzing at least one of the one or more features of the authentication article to derive a second indication for authenticating the fingerprint; and combining the first and second indications for selectively providing access to the secured application to the user.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] This invention is related to sensors, and more particularly to sensors providing user information including fingerprint information and authentication article feedback to an attached electronic system for verifying the fingerprint information. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Modem society demands that people may be identified for many reasons. These include limiting access to bank accounts, limiting access to certain facilities such as a security area, a computer room, a police department, or a military facility, limiting which people are authorized to pick up a child from a day care center, limiting access to government welfare checks and health benefits, determining which prisoner to parole, and limiting access to adult activities such as electronic gambling. This has led to increasing use of identification cards, passwords, and PIN numbers to supplement, in those instances where automated identification is either necessary or desirable, ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention provides an apparatus and method for verifying a fingerprint with an authentication article to authenticate the user. The apparatus includes a fingerprint sensor and a feature detection sensor for detecting the authentication article. The fingerprint sensor reads the user's fingerprint and the feature detection sensor detects the predetermined features of the authentication article. The apparatus analyzes the fingerprint and the features of the authentication article to determine the user's identity and selectively provide access to the secured application. The technical effects of the invention include improved security and access control for user verification."

Problems solved by technology

These include limiting access to bank accounts, limiting access to certain facilities such as a security area, a computer room, a police department, or a military facility, limiting which people are authorized to pick up a child from a day care center, limiting access to government welfare checks and health benefits, determining which prisoner to parole, and limiting access to adult activities such as electronic gambling.

Biometric identification has gained interest in recent years because certain personal characteristics have been found to be substantially unique to each person and difficult to reproduce by an impostor.

Further, the recording and analysis of biometric data is generally susceptible to automation owing to the increased use of computer-controlled electronics and digital recording techniques.

Hand or palm print techniques typically evaluate the shape of a person's hand or other significant features such as creases in the palm, but these techniques may be fooled by templates or models of the hand of an authorized person.

A drawback of this technique is that the blood vessel pattern may vary over time, e.g., when alcohol is in the blood stream or during irregular use of glasses or contact lenses.

Also, a user may feel uneasy about having his or her eye illuminated for retina scanning or the possibility of eye contamination if there is contact between the eye and the scanning apparatus.

Using voice patterns as the identifying characteristic encounters difficulties owing to the wide variations in a person's voice over time, the presence of background noise during an evaluation and the potential for an impostor to fool the system with a recording of the voice of an authorized person.

However, a fingerprint-based identification system having fingerprint sensor(s) may be fooled by an image of the fingerprint.

Thus, compromising access to a secured environment.

Accordingly, a fingerprint sensor reading only a fingerprint may be unreliable in providing controlled access to a secured application, system, or device.

A problem with this technology has been that such conventional systems are relatively complicated and require the use of a separate card reader, such as for reading a magnetic stripe carried by the card, as well as a separate fingerprint reader to obtain the fingerprint from the user's finger.

Accordingly, such a dual sensor system is relatively expensive and may be complicated.

Another problem with this technology has been that in fingerprint-based access control systems, authorization or access by an authorized person, other than the person with the matching fingerprint, can be difficult to implement using a conventional fingerprint sensor.

One unsatisfactory approach, in an attempt to solve the above-discussed problems typically involves using a large and bulky sensor integrated with a fingerprint sensor.

However, a disadvantage of this approach is that a relatively large and / or bulky fingerprint sensor results having cumbersome peripherals to carry around.

Heretofore, the requirements of providing more secure access to a controlled environment without compromising security and / or portability referred to above have not been fully met.

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