Image analysis – Applications – Personnel identification
Reexamination Certificate
1994-11-07
2001-04-03
Couso, Jose L. (Department: 2721)
Image analysis
Applications
Personnel identification
Reexamination Certificate
active
06212290
ABSTRACT:
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to (copyright or mask work) protection. The (copyright or mask work) owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all (copyright or mask work) rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention system and related methods are directed to the automatic identification of fingerprints by video scanning and digitizing analysis of the scanned fingerprint, and to the general field of verification of the identity of a person to be identified, such verification being accomplished by comparing a non-minutiae digitized numeric identifier indicative of a fingerprint of a person to be identified with a numeric identifier recorded within the confines of a portable personnel identification means, personal to the person to be identified, which identification means can be of numerous kinds such as a retail credit card, a smart card, or others as set forth hereinafter. The numeric identifier of such portable personnel identification means is previously derived in accordance with the teachings of the present invention and then recorded within the identification means to enable identity verification, accomplished by comparison.
It is most desirable to have automatic means and methods for identifying human beings. Millions of individuals are checked on a daily basis by cumbersome and unreliable methods in banks, retail stores, classified areas, security environments, and by law enforcement officials. The problem of verifying the identity of an individual to a personnel identification card means held and offered as proof of identification by such individual, is one of the most common faced in the everyday duties of commerce, industry and government. Present day fingerprint verification methods are too time consuming and cumbersome to be expediently implemented into the civilian and military affairs of today's society. What is clearly needed is a means of, and methods for, providing automatic, rapid and positive verification of a person's identification.
The system invention, and the inventive methods utilized therein and related thereto, satisfy this long felt need for methods and means for providing automatic verifiable identification of an individual submitting him or herself for identification for the purpose of: retail credit card purchases, authorized entry, check cashing, obtaining a driver's license, showing proof of age via a driver's license, verification of the identity of a holder of a passport, etc.
A further great need is the development of such a system and methods for providing a verifiable fingerprint identifier which is most applicable to and recordable within a magnetic-stripe of a portable personnel identification card means, such as a magnetic stripe of a credit card. The least number of bytes within a verifiable fingerprint identifier, known to the inventors of the present invention, is a 400 byte numeric identifier developed by FINGERMATRIX. This known development is not at all applicable to a portable personnel identification card of the magnetic-stripe type for reasons well known to those skilled in this art.
The presently disclosed system invention and the inventive methods thereof fully satisfy this further need by providing a verifiable non-minutiae fingerprint identifier having but 24 bytes of fingerprint identification data which affords recordability to magnetic-stripe identification cards.
The invention includes the actual taking of an individual's fingerprint via an inkless means each time an identification is to be made. The print can be taken of any digit of a person, i.e. index finger or thumb or toe, and the image of a digitprint is video scanned to produce image data which is digitized in accordance with the teachings of the invention to produce a non-minutiae digitized numerical identifier indicative of the digit print image, and this digitized numerical identifier is compared with a numerical identifier read from an identification card means identifying the person to be identified, to verify the identity of that person.
Various other objects and advantages of the invention methods and system will be apparent from that set forth hereinafter, and some of the specific objectives of the invention are recited hereinbelow.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a biometric means for comparing the fingerprint of an individual whereby a rapid and highly fraud-proof check may be made.
It is another object of the invention to make the fingerprint image expediently available for immediate analysis to render approval or disapproval of the identity of a given person from whom the fingerprint is taken.
It is a general objective of the invention to provide a system and related methods by which an individual fingerprint may be video-scanned and digitized in such a manner that the procedure produces a numeric identifier uniquely related to the pattern of the fingerprint, this identifier consisting of a specified number of digits or bytes to identify the fingerprint against an actual fingerprint of an individual at the time positive identification is required.
It is a specific object of the invention to provide a non-minutiae digitized numerical identifier having less than 400 bytes of fingerprint identification data, and in particular, a verifiable identifier having less than 100 bytes of fingerprint identification data for application to mag-stripe personnel identification cards, as exemplified by the provision disclosed herein of a non-minutiae digitized numerical identifier having 24 bytes of fingerprint identification data.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide means by which a fingerprint image format may be positioned automatically in relation to the video scanning means, in such a way that the position is predetermined and will be reestablished each time that a print format means is placed before the video scanner, thus insuring that a subsequent scanning operation will always produce consistent and reliable field of scan results.
It is still another object of the invention to provide means and methods for selectively analyzing, electronically, on a non-minutiae basis, a plurality of different fingerprint image parts of the stored fingerprint image data and computing a ridge count for each of the plurality of fingerprint image parts, and then compiling a data matrix comprised of a plurality of ridge counts computed for the plurality of fingerprint image parts to provide a non-minutiae digitized numerical identifier indicative of the image of a fingerprint of a person to be identified.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a predetermined sequence of selectively analyzing, electronically, on a non-minutiae basis, a plurality of different fingerprint image parts of the stored fingerprint image data, which fingerprint pattern parts exist within a fingerprint identity window defined by the invention.
It is yet still another object of the invention to provide a non-minutiae digitized numerical identifier indicative of an image of a fingerprint of a person to be identified, which is recordable within the magnetic stripe of a credit card personal to the person and therefore, the present invention facilitates the use of a credit card as a verifiable identification card for entitling the user to certain services such as charged purchases and check cashing.
It is even a further object of the invention to provide a fingerprint identification system and inventive methods utilized therein, which can be completely software controlled and automated to eliminate the possibility of human error, to increase the reliability of the identification being made and to eliminate any constant supervision as usually required with conventional identification procedures. The invention, by utilizing an unchanging characteristic of an individual for making an
Gagne Patricia C.
Puterko Carol M.
Couso Jose L.
Del Giudice Paul V.
TMS Inc.
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