Biometric authentication techniques

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10929515-B2
Application number	US-201816049933-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 31, 2018
Priority date	Aug 1, 2017
Publication date	Feb 23, 2021
Grant date	Feb 23, 2021

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed relating to biometric authentication, e.g., facial recognition. In some embodiments, a device is configured to verify that image data from a camera unit exhibits a pseudo-random sequence of image capture modes and/or a probing pattern of illumination points (e.g., from lasers in a depth capture mode) before authenticating a user based on recognizing a face in the image data. In some embodiments, a secure circuit may control verification of the sequence and/or the probing pattern. In some embodiments, the secure circuit may verify frame numbers, signatures, and/or nonce values for captured image information. In some embodiments, a device may implement one or more lockout procedures in response to biometric authentication failures. The disclosed techniques may reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of spoofing and/or replay attacks, in some embodiments.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a camera unit;
one or more processing elements configured to:
determine a pseudo-random sequence of image capture modes for a plurality of groups of image captures, wherein each group includes at least a capture using a first illumination mode and a capture using a second illumination mode, wherein the ordering of the first and second illumination modes for each group is pseudo-randomly determined;
receive image information for a set of image captures, wherein the image information is indicated as being captured by the camera unit; and
determine whether to authorize facial recognition in response to analyzing the image information and determining whether the image information was captured using the pseudo-random sequence of image capture modes.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first illumination mode uses flood illumination and the second illumination mode uses multiple discrete points of illumination and each group is a pair of captures using the first illumination mode and the second illumination mode.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the second illumination mode uses vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) illumination to determine depth.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processing elements include a secure circuit, wherein the apparatus is configured not to allow access to hardware resources of the secure circuit other than via messages sent to a predefined set of one or more memory locations; and
wherein the secure circuit is configured to determine whether the image information was captured using the pseudo-random sequence of image capture modes.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the secure circuit is configured to generate a different cryptographic nonce for ones of different facial recognition sessions, provide a cryptographic nonce to the camera unit, and confirm that each image in the sequence includes the cryptographic nonce.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the secure circuit is configured to communicate with the camera unit using an elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) session and wherein the secure element is configured to use a different ECDH exchanged secret key for communications during each of multiple different facial recognition sessions with the camera unit.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the secure circuit is configured to verify signature information for frames of image data in a facial recognition session, wherein the signature information is generated by the camera unit using a secret key.

8. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the secure circuit is configured to verify frame count information for frames of image data captured during a facial recognition session.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processing elements are configured to communicate with the camera unit via a dedicated bus and wherein the apparatus is configured to require a user to manually enter one or more authentication credentials to access the apparatus in response to a disconnect of the dedicated bus.

10. A method, comprising:
determining, by a computing device, a pseudo-random sequence of image capture modes for a plurality of groups of image captures, wherein each group includes at least captures using a first illumination mode and a second illumination mode, wherein the ordering of the first and second illumination modes for each pair is pseudo-randomly determined;
receiving, by circuitry of the computing device, image information indicated as being captured by a known camera unit; and
determining, by the circuitry, whether to authorize facial recognition in response to analyzing the image information and determining whether the image information was captured using the pseudo-random sequence of image capture modes.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first illumination mode uses flood illumination and the second illumination mode uses multiple discrete points of illumination.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the circuitry is a secure circuit and the computing device is configured not to allow access to hardware resources of the secure circuit other than via messages sent to a predefined set of one or more memory locations.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
generating, by the circuitry, a different cryptographic nonce for ones of different facial recognition sessions;
providing a cryptographic nonce to the camera unit; and
confirming that each image in the sequence includes the cryptographic nonce.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
using, by the circuitry, a different ECDH exchanged secret key for communications during each of multiple different facial recognition sessions with a camera unit of the computing device.

15. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
requiring a user to manually enter one or more authentication credentials to access the computing device in response to a disconnect of a bus used to communicate with a camera unit of the computing device.

16. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon design information that specifies a design of at least a portion of a hardware integrated circuit in a format recognized by a semiconductor fabrication system that is configured to use the design information to produce the circuit according to the design, including:
one or more processing elements configured to:
determine a pseudo-random sequence of image capture modes for a plurality of groups of image captures, wherein each group includes a capture using a first illumination mode and a capture using a second illumination mode, wherein the ordering of the first and second illumination modes for each pair is pseudo-randomly determined;
receive image information for a set of image captures by a camera unit; and
determine whether to authorize facial recognition in response to analyzing the image information and determining whether the image information was captured using the pseudo-random sequence of image capture modes.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the first illumination mode uses flood illumination and the second illumination mode uses multiple discrete points of illumination.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the one or more processing elements include a secure circuit, wherein the circuit is configured not to allow access to hardware resources of the secure circuit other than via messages sent to a predefined set of one or more memory locations; and
wherein the secure circuit is configured to determine whether the image information was captured using the pseudo-random sequence of image capture modes.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the secure circuit is configured to verify signature information for frames of image data in a facial recognition session, wherein the signature information is generated by a camera unit using a secret key.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the secure circuit is configured to generate a different cryptographic nonce for ones of different facial recognition sessions, provide a cryptographic nonce to a camera unit, and confirm that each image in the sequence includes the cryptographic nonce.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Prakash Deepti S
• Ballard Lucia E
• Hauck Jerrold V
• Tang Feng
• Littwin Etai
• Vasu Pavan Kumar Ansosalu
• Littwin Gideon
• Gernoth Thorsten
• Kucerova Lucie
• Kostka Petr
• Hotelling Steven P
• Hirsh Eitan
• Kaitz Tal
• Pokrass Jonathan
• Kolin Andrei
• Laifenfeld Moshe
• Waldon Matthew C
• Mensch Thomas P
• Youngs Lynn R
• Zeleznik Christopher G
• Malone Michael R
• Hendel Ziv
• Krstic Ivan
• Sharma Anup K

Classifications

• G06V40/40

  Spoof detection, e.g. liveness detection · CPC title

• G06V40/172

  Classification, e.g. identification · CPC title

• G06V40/166

  using acquisition arrangements · CPC title

• G06F21/83

  input devices, e.g. keyboards, mice or controllers thereof · CPC title

• H04L9/3228

  One-time or temporary data, i.e. information which is sent for every authentication or authorization, e.g. one-time-password, one-time-token or one-time-key · CPC title