Electronic device, information processing method, and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11295127-B2
Application number	US-201715855444-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 27, 2017
Priority date	Jan 31, 2017
Publication date	Apr 5, 2022
Grant date	Apr 5, 2022

Abstract

Provided is an electronic device including: a determination unit configured to determine, on a basis of information regarding an environment for acquiring biological information for use in biometric authentication regarding an eye, a method of realizing an environment for acquiring biological information suitable for the biometric authentication; and a control unit configured to perform control corresponding to the method.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device comprising:
a determination unit configured to:
determine whether acquired biological information regarding an eye of a target user is unsuitable for biometric authentication; and
determine, on a basis of information regarding a state of the target user or a state of a surrounding environment of the target user,
(i) a cause of the unsuitability and
(ii) a method by which the target user may perform predetermined steps in order to correct the cause of the unsuitability and thus realize an environment for acquiring additional biological information that is suitable for the biometric authentication when the acquired biological information is unsuitable for biometric authentication; and

a control unit configured to inform the target user of the cause of the unsuitability, prompt the target user to perform the predetermined steps, and perform control corresponding to the method,
wherein the determination unit and the control unit are each implemented via at least one processor, wherein the cause of the unsuitability is at least one selected from the group consisting of direct sunlight, an eye not being open, movement of the target user, movement of an image capturing device, obstruction, shifting of a contact lens, and color of a contact lens.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit performs control of the electronic device or an external device.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
the determination unit determines the method on the basis of information regarding the state of the target user.

4. The electronic device according to claim 3 , wherein
the information regarding the state of the target user includes at least one of information regarding a degree of opening of the eye, information regarding a line of sight of the target user, information regarding a body part of the target user, information regarding a place in which the target user is located, information regarding a movement of the target user, information regarding transportation used by the target user, information regarding an awake state, a state of excitement, or a state of fatigue of the target user, or information regarding a contact lens worn by the target user.

5. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
the determination unit determines the method on the basis of information regarding the state of the surrounding environment of the target user.

6. The electronic device according to claim 5 , wherein
the information regarding the state of the surrounding environment of the target user includes at least one of weather information of a place in which the target user is located, geographical information of a place in which the target user is located, information regarding brightness in surroundings of the target user, information regarding a radiation direction of light, or information regarding an object existing around the target user.

7. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
the determination unit determines whether acquired biological information regarding the eye of a target user is unsuitable for biometric authentication after biometric authentication.

8. The electronic device according to claim 1 , further comprising
an authentication unit configured to perform the biometric authentication on a basis of a captured image in which an image of the eye is captured,
wherein the authentication unit is implemented via at least one processor.

9. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
the biometric authentication is iris authentication.

10. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
the electronic device is a smartphone or an eyeglass-type wearable terminal.

11. An information processing method that is executed by a computer, the information processing method comprising:
determining whether acquired biological information regarding an eye of a target user is unsuitable for biometric authentication,
determining, on a basis of information regarding a state of the target user or a state of a surrounding environment of the target user,
(i) a cause of the unsuitability and
(ii) a method by which the target user may perform predetermined steps in order to correct the cause of the unsuitability and thus realize an environment for acquiring additional biological information that is suitable for the biometric authentication when the acquired biological information is unsuitable for biometric authentication; and

informing the target user of the cause of the unsuitability, prompting the target user to perform the predetermined steps, and performing control corresponding to the method,
wherein the cause of the unsuitability is at least one selected from the group consisting of direct sunlight, an eye not being open, movement of the target user, movement of an image capturing device, obstruction, shifting of a contact lens, and color of a contact lens.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having embodied thereon a program, which when executed by a computer causes the computer to execute a method, the method comprising:
determining whether acquired biological information regarding an eye of a target user is unsuitable for biometric authentication;
determining, on a basis of information regarding a state of the target user or a state of a surrounding environment of the target user,
(i) a cause of the unsuitability and
(ii) a method by which the target user may perform predetermined steps in order to correct the cause of the unsuitability and thus realize an environment for acquiring additional biological information that is suitable for the biometric authentication when the acquired biological is unsuitable for biometric authentication, and

informing the target user of the cause of the unsuitability, prompting the target user to perform the predetermined steps, and performing control corresponding to the method,
wherein the cause of the unsuitability is at least one selected from the group consisting of direct sunlight, an eye not being open, movement of the target user, movement of an image capturing device, obstruction, shifting of a contact lens, and color of a contact lens.

13. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the determination unit determines, prior to biometric authentication, whether acquired biological information regarding the eye of the target user is unsuitable for biometric authentication.

14. The electronic device according to claim 4 , wherein the information regarding the state of the target user includes a degree of opening of the eye.

15. The electronic device according to claim 4 , wherein the information regarding the state of the target user includes information regarding a movement of the target user.

16. The electronic device according to claim 4 , wherein the information regarding the state of the target user includes information regarding transportation used by the target user.

17. The electronic device according to claim 4 , wherein the information regarding the state of the target user includes information regarding a contact lens worn by the target user.

18. The electronic device according to claim 6 , wherein the information regarding the state of the surrounding environment of the target user includes weather information of a place in which the target user is located.

19. The electronic device according to claim 6 , wherein the information regarding the state of the surrounding environment of the target user includes information regarding brightnes

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Yoshikawa Kiyoshi
• Yokoyama Masayuki

Classifications

• G06V40/67

  by interactive indications to the user · CPC title

• G06V40/193

  Preprocessing; Feature extraction · CPC title

• G06F21/32 Primary

  using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints · CPC title

• G06V40/19 Primary

  Sensors therefor · CPC title

• G06K9/0061

  Physics · mapped topic