Patent US6836554B1 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
US6836554B1
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US
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System and method for distorting a biometric for transactions with enhanced security and privacy
Assignee: Uniloc 2017 LLC
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Filing: 2000-06-16
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Granted: 2004-12-28
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Expires: 2020-06-16
Abstract
Abstract Authentication methods are very important in several applications. Existing methods of authentication based on possessions or knowledge have several problems that can be overcome by using biometrics. Unfortunately biometrics-based authentication is unrevocable today and has many privacy concerns in users' minds. The proposed technique employs signal scrambling and morphing techniques to intentionally distort the original biometrics signal in a non-invertible fashion. If the security is compromised, the system can cancel a particular distortion and reacquire the signal with a new distortion function. This provides functionality as good as non-biometric authentication methods in terms of their power of revocation.
Inventors
- 👤 Rudolf Maarten Bolle
- 👤 Jonathan H. Connell
- 👤 Nalini K. Ratha
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 10:25
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06F; G06F21/00; G06F21/30; G06F21/31; G06F21/32; G06F21/60; G06F21/62; G06F21/6218; G06F21/6245; G06V; G06V40/00; G06V40/10; G06V40/12; G06V40/1347; G07; G07C; G07C9/00; G07C9/30; G07C9/32; G07C9/37
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 27
Claim 1
Independent Claim
137 words
A computer system comprising one or more central processing units and one or more memories, the system further comprising: one or more sensors that sense one or more characteristics of a user and convert the characteristics into a first digital representation that is stored in one or more of the memories, the first digital representation having one or more subcharacteristics, the subcharacteristics being invariant over time, insensitive to common sensing artifacts, and capable of being repeatably extracted; a distortion process that selectably distorts the first digital representation into a distorted digital representation by distorting at least one of the subcharacteristics, the distortion process being repeatable and non-invertible; and a comparison process that compares one or more sets of the distorted subcharacteristics to one or more stored sets of distorted subcharacteristics to determine the identity of the user.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
137 words
A computer system comprising one or more central processing units and one or more memories, the system further comprising: one or more sensors that sense one or more characteristics of a user and convert the characteristics into a first digital representation that is stored in one or more of the memories, the first digital representation having one or more subcharacteristics, the subcharacteristics being invariant over time, insensitive to common sensing artifacts, and capable of being repeatably extracted; a distortion process that selectably distorts the first digital representation into a distorted digital representation by distorting at least one of the subcharacteristics, the distortion process being repeatable and non-invertible; and a comparison process that compares one or more sets of the distorted subcharacteristics to one or more stored sets of distorted subcharacteristics to determine the identity of the user.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
41 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the characteristics include any one or more of the following: a fingerprint, a face, a hand, an iris of an eye, a pattern of subdermal blood vessels, a spoken phrase, and a signature.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
44 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the subcharacteristics include any one or more of the following: a complete biometric, a partial biometric, a feature, a feature position, a feature property, a relation between two or more features, a subregion of an image.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
23 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the distortion is applied to a orthogonal Cartesian grid partitioning of the first digital representation.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
23 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the distortion is applied to a circular polar-coordinate grid partitioning of the first digital representation.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
20 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the distortion process is a geometric distortion of the first digital representation.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
20 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the distortion process is a block scrambling of the first digital representation.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
18 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the first digital representation is quantized at a particular level.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
25 words
A system, as in claim 8 , where the distorted digital representation has a larger range relative to a range of the first digital representation.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
24 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the distortion process is applied within a canonical reference frame associated with the first digital representation.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
44 words
A system, as in claim 10 , where the characteristic being sensed is a fingerprint and the canonical reference frame is defined with its origin at a position of a core point and with one axis passing through a position of a delta point.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
43 words
A system, as in claim 10 , where the characteristic being sensed is a face and the canonical reference frame is defined with its origin at the position of one eye and with one axis passing through the position of the other eye.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
31 words
A system, as in claim 10 , where a previously stored representation is aligned with the current representation, the parameters of the alignment being used to derive a canonical reference frame.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
34 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the comparison process provides either a unique recognition ID for the user corresponding to one of the people enrolled in the database or a non-recognition indication.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
33 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the matching process takes as an additional input the proposed ID of the user and verifies this identity by returning a yes or no answer.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
28 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the second digital representation is discarded and replaced by a new second digital representation distorted by a new distorted process.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
44 words
A system, as in claim 16 , where the new second digital representation replaces the second digital representation in one or more of the following circumstances: a passage of time; invalid access attempts, a customer request, a second user request, a physical user request.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
73 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the sets of the distorted subcharacteristics correspond to one or more of the following: one or more minutiae in a fingerprint, a location of eyes, nose, and mouth in a face, a phase and contrast of optical texture in an iris, a set of formant frequencies and their time derivatives in a speech signal, and one or more joint lengths and widths in a hand.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
20 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the distortion process is a geometric distortion of the first digital representation.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
20 words
A system, as in claim 1 , where the distortion process is a block scrambling of the first digital representation.
Claim 22
Independent Claim
73 words
A method for generating a biometric comprising the steps of: selectably distorting a first digital representation of one or more biometrics into a distorted digital representation by distorting at least one subcharacteristic of the biometric, the distortion process being repeatable and non-invertible; and comparing one or more sets of the distorted subcharacteristics to one or more stored sets of distorted subcharacteristics, distorted by the distortion process, to determine the identity of a user.
Claim 23
Independent Claim
73 words
A method for generating a biometric comprising the steps of: selectably distorting a first digital representation of one or more biometrics into a distorted digital representation by distorting at least one subcharacteristic of the biometric, the distortion process being repeatable and non-invertible; and comparing one or more sets of the distorted subcharacteristics to one or more stored sets of distorted subcharacteristics, distorted by the distortion process, to determine the identity of a user.
Claim 24
Independent Claim
74 words
A system for generating a biometric comprising: means for selectably distorting a first digital representation of one or more biometrics into a distorted digital representation by distorting at least one subcharacteristic of the biometric, the distortion process being repeatable and non-invertible; and means for comparing one or more sets of the distorted subcharacteristics to one or more stored sets of distorted subcharacteristics, distorted by the distortion process, to determine the identity of a user.
Claim 25
Independent Claim
74 words
A system for generating a biometric comprising: means for selectably distorting a first digital representation of one or more biometrics into a distorted digital representation by distorting at least one subcharacteristic of the biometric, the distortion process being repeatable and non-invertible; and means for comparing one or more sets of the distorted subcharacteristics to one or more stored sets of distorted subcharacteristics, distorted by the distortion process, to determine the identity of a user.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
73 words
A computer program product that executes the no following steps: selectably distorting a first digital representation of one or more biometrics into a distorted digital representation by distorting at least one subcharacteristic of the biometric, the distortion process being repeatable and non-invertible; and comparing one or more sets of the distorted subcharacteristics to one or more stored sets of distorted subcharacteristics, distorted by the distortion process, to determine the identity of a user.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
73 words
A computer program product that executes the no following steps: selectably distorting a first digital representation of one or more biometrics into a distorted digital representation by distorting at least one subcharacteristic of the biometric, the distortion process being repeatable and non-invertible; and comparing one or more sets of the distorted subcharacteristics to one or more stored sets of distorted subcharacteristics, distorted by the distortion process, to determine the identity of a user.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2007-12-28 | 2008-06-28 | 2008-12-28 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2011-12-28 | 2012-06-28 | 2012-12-28 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2015-12-28 | 2016-06-28 | 2016-12-28 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |