Image analysis – Applications – Personnel identification
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-02
2001-12-25
Bella, Matthew C. (Department: 2621)
Image analysis
Applications
Personnel identification
C382S313000, C396S018000, C351S206000, C351S210000, C351S221000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06333988
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to personal identification and apparatus, methods and uses therefor.
2. Related Art
In today's world of electronic communication and commerce, the ability to identify a person, for the purposes of security in remote transactions is paramount. A common form of security is a simple password which, for example, is entered when a user wishes to access a computer network. Another form of security, which is widely used in bank automatic teller machines (ATMs), is a personal identification card, which holds on a magnetic strip encoded information such as the owner's personal details and account number, which is used in combination with a personal identification number (PIN) entered by the user when the transaction is initiated.
Various ways have been demonstrated of fraudulently by-passing the above-described and other commonly used security measures to gain access to private information or resources. Such security problems are discussed in the article entitled “Industrial Cryptography” in the IEE Review dated May 1996. As the title suggests, this article focuses on how cryptography can be used effectively as a way of increasing security.
Another way of ensuring the identity of a user is to capture and encode a biometric from the party and compare the result with a previously-stored, or enrolled, result, for example stored on a remote database system. A biometric, for the present purposes, is a statistical or quantitative measure of a biological feature of a person. The most well-known biometric for humans, used for identification purposes, is the fingerprint. A ‘robust’ biometric, such as a fingerprint, is one which can be used reliably and repeatedly to identify a person.
Recently, the use of the iris of an eye as a robust biometric for identification purposes has been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,560, dated Mar. 1, 1994, describes a method of encoding the image of an iris into a 256-byte iris code. It has been shown that such a code can be used as a very reliable personal identifier.
One proposed example of the use of an iris code is for identifying a customer attempting to withdraw cash from an ATM (automatic teller machine). The proposed ATM includes an imaging system which comprises a window through which the customer looks and an auto-focusing camera. The camera is positioned directly in the line of sight of the customer. When the customer looks through the window and, for example, inserts his bank card into the ATM, the camera captures an image of his eye.
Once the system has captured a suitable representation of an eye, the representation is digitised (if not already in digital form) and encoded to form an iris code. This iris code can then be compared with a stored iris code of allegedly the same person. If the two codes are sufficiently similar, the identity of the customer is verified and cash withdrawal, for example, is permitted.
This system is designed to be non-intrusive and can be used by anyone wishing to withdraw money from the ATM.
Another apparatus which identifies/verifies a user by imaging the eye is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,669. This patent discloses a mobile retinal scan identifier.
Both the known apparatuses suffer from a drawback in that it is difficult for the user to align his eye with the apparatus accurately. If the user's eye is not accurately aligned then the apparatus may be unable to identify the user.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided an apparatus for providing an information signal characteristic of an eyes, said apparatus comprising:
a housing having an entrance window;
an image capture device mounted within the housing, in optical communication with said entrance window, and operable to provide an image signal representing one or more features of the eye responsive to non-visible light reflected from the eye;
an illumination source operable to illuminate the eye with light, at least a portion of which is non-visible.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention there is provided an apparatus for providing an information signal characteristic of an eye, said apparatus comprising:
a housing having an entrance window;
an image capture device mounted within the housing, in optical communication with said entrance window, and operable to provide an image signal representing one or more features of the eye responsive to non-visible light reflected from the eye;
an illumination source operable to illuminate the eye with light at least a portion of which is non-visible;
a target object visible, in use, through said entrance window by the eye;
an optical element intersposed, in use, between said target object and the eye, said optical element being substantially transparent to said non-visible light, and having a first region which is less transparent to visible light from said target object than a second region.
In using an apparatus according to the present invention, a user is encouraged to look through (i.e. align his pupil with) the second region so that he obtains a clearer view of the target object. The image capture apparatus ‘looks’ through both regions of the optical element. By suitable arrangement of the first and second regions the field of view of the image capture apparatus relative to the pupil can be determined.
The apparatus may be adapted to be brought by the user to his own eye. Alternatively, the apparatus may be fixed, requiring the person whose eye is being investigated to align his head accordingly.
Preferably, the first region is surrounded by the second region this enables an image of the eye around the pupil to be captured. If the first region is substantially at the centre of the second region then, advantageoulsy, an image centreed around the pupil of the user is obtained. In embodiments of the invention, correct eye alignment may be achieved by providing a window having a major region which is relatively less transmissive to visible optical radiation than a minor region of the window. The minor region would preferably be situated near or at the centre of the window and would be sufficiently small to require the pupil of an eye to be positioned close to the window, in alignment with the minor region, to see a reasonable field of view of, for example, the target equipment through the apparatus. Then, in use, the person looking through the window would be encouraged to align the pupil of their eye with the minor region of the window thereby ensuring that the iris of the eye would be substantially centrally positioned and thus correctly aligned with respect to the window for the purposes of information capture. Also, to some extent, appropriate sizing of the minor region would control the distance the user places his eye from the screen. This would be beneficial in terms of reducing or removing any need to focus the imaging means.
The minor region of the window may comprise a material having a different optical composition from the major region. The different composition would typically appear substantially transparent to visible wavelengths of optical radiation and comprise, for example, clear glass or plastics material. Alternatively, the minor region may simply be a hole appropriately positioned in the window material of the major region. The major region might comprise, for example, a gelatin filter which is transparent to IR and NIR radiation.
Preferably, when using non-visible wavelengths of optical radiation, for example IR or NIR radiation, for the purposes of eye illumination and image capture, the window is substantially uniformly transparent over the window area to those wavelengths. Thus, while the window has only a minor region suitable for viewing, and thus aligning, purposes, the whole area of the window can be used for image capture purposes.
In preferred embodiments, the target object comprises a second window which provides a “line-of-sight” for the user, through the first window, to allow the user to view the environment beyond the apparatus. The second wind
Gifford Maurice Merrick
McCartney David John
Seal Christopher Henry
Bella Matthew C.
British Telecommunications PLC
Nixon & Vanderhye,. P.C.
Werner Brian P.
LandOfFree
Personal identification does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Personal identification, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Personal identification will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2576161