Autonomous Vehicle Rider Identification Using Voiceprint and Face Matching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face challenges in efficiently and securely identifying users upon entry, particularly in the absence of a human driver to verify rider identity, which affects user privacy and comfort.
Innovation Solution
A method that uses voiceprint recognition to identify users by receiving a ride request, accessing and recording the user's voice characteristics, and unlocking the vehicle door upon matching the voiceprint, while also providing alternative identification methods such as facial recognition and conversational prompts to ensure accurate user authentication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If smartphone-based entry methods are used, then user identification can be achieved, but user comfort and privacy are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces smartphone-based mechanical/electronic entry methods with voiceprint recognition and facial recognition systems. The voiceprint system captures acoustic characteristics of the user's voice, while facial recognition uses optical sensors to detect facial features, eliminating the need for users to interact with smartphones at the vehicle entry point and thereby improving privacy and comfort while maintaining identification accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces voiceprint characteristics and facial recognition technology as intermediary elements between the user and the vehicle access system. Instead of direct smartphone-vehicle communication, the system uses biometric intermediaries (voice patterns and facial features) to authenticate users, providing a more natural and privacy-preserving interaction method
2Ease of operation
If a human driver is present to verify rider identity, then user privacy and comfort are maintained, but the vehicle cannot operate autonomously
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables the autonomous vehicle to perform identity verification independently without human driver assistance. The vehicle's system autonomously captures voiceprints, processes facial recognition data, and makes access decisions, allowing the vehicle to serve itself in the identity verification function that previously required a human driver
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the human driver's manual identity verification process with automated biometric recognition systems. The mechanical/electronic systems (microphones for voiceprint, cameras for facial recognition, processors for pattern matching) substitute for the human driver's visual and cognitive verification processes, enabling autonomous operation while maintaining privacy and comfort
3Measurement precision
If multiple identification methods are provided, then user authentication accuracy is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the identification system into distinct functional modules: voiceprint recognition module with microphone arrays and acoustic processing, facial recognition module with optical sensors and image processing, and access control module. This segmentation allows each subsystem to be optimized independently while working together to provide multi-modal authentication, improving accuracy without overwhelming system complexity
Data Source
AI summary
One variation of a method for identifying a user entering an autonomous vehicle includes: receiving a ride request from the user, the ride request specifying a pickup location; at the autonomous vehicle, autonomously navigating to the pickup location, scanning a field near the autonomous vehicle for a human approaching the autonomous vehicle, and, in response to detecting the human proximal the autonomous vehicle, recording an image of the human; detecting a face of the human in the image; accessing a faceprint characterizing facial features of the user; and, in response to the face of the human detected in the image exhibiting features represented in the faceprint, identifying the human as the user and triggering a door of the autonomous vehicle to unlock for the user.