Supplementing biometric identification with device identification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9436816-B2
Application number	US-97010010-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2010
Priority date	Dec 16, 2010
Publication date	Sep 6, 2016
Grant date	Sep 6, 2016

Abstract

A computer may identify an individual according to one or more biometrics based on various physiological aspects of the individual, such as metrics of various features of the face, gait, fingerprint, or voice of the individual. However, biometrics are often computationally intensive to compute, inaccurate, and unable to scale to identify an individual among a large set of known individuals. Therefore, the biometric identification of an individual may be supplemented by identifying one or more devices associated with the individual (e.g., a mobile phone, a vehicle driven by the individual, or an implanted medical device). When an individual is registered for identification, various device identifiers of devices associated with the individual may be stored along with the biometrics of the individual. Individuals may then be identified using both biometrics and detected device identifiers, thereby improving the efficiency, speed, accuracy, and scalability of the identification.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of identifying individuals using a computer having a processor, a data store, a biometric detector, and a device detector, the method comprising:
executing on the processor instructions that cause the computer to:
for respective individuals, store in the data store a biometric association of an individual identity and a biometric measurement exhibited by the individual;
while detecting, during a first individual presence of the individual, a first device presence of a device that is identifiable by a device identifier, storing in the data store a device association of the device identifier of the device and the individual identity of the individual, where the device association indicates that possession of the device having the device identifier establishes the individual identity of the individual; and
during a second presence of an individual in possession of an individual device, identify the individual by:
using the biometric detector, detecting a biometric measurement exhibited by the individual;
using the device detector, identifying the device identifier of the device in the possession of the individual;
determining, according to the biometric association and the device association stored in the data store, that the individual exhibiting the biometric measurement associated with the individual identity, and also in possession of the device identified by the device identifier associated with the individual identity, establishes the individual identity of the individual; and
subsequently interacting with the individual according to the individual identity established according to the biometric measurement and the device identifier.

2. The method of claim 1 :
the biometric detector comprising a face detection component; and
at least one biometric measurement associated with the individual comprising a face biometric measurement.

3. The method of claim 1 :
at least one device associated with at least two individuals; and
the instructions configured to, while detecting an individual and upon identifying two individual identities that are associated with a device identifier of the device:
identify at least one biometric measurement differentiating the individual identities; and
using the biometric detector, detecting the biometric measurement associated with the individual.

4. The method of claim 1 , storing the individual identity in the data store comprising: storing the individual identity in the data store upon receiving an individual identity registration request to register the individual identity.

5. The method of claim 4 , storing the individual identity in the data store comprising:
upon the biometric detector detecting a biometric measurement, search the data store for an individual identity comprising the biometric measurement; and
upon not finding in the data store an individual identity comprising the biometric measurement, storing the individual identity in the data store.

6. The method of claim 4 , storing the individual identity comprising:
searching for devices that are detectable by the computer; and
upon receiving at least one device identifier identifying the device during the first individual presence of the individual, storing the device identifier in the data store associated with the individual.

7. The method of claim 6 :
the device comprising at least one user interface configured to communicate with the individual; and
storing the device identifier in the data store comprising:
presenting to an individual through the user interface an offer to associate the device with the individual identity of the individual; and
upon receiving from the individual through the user interface an acceptance of the offer, storing the device identifier in the data store associated with the individual identity of the individual.

8. The method of claim 1 , the instructions configured to:
upon detecting a device identifier, search the data store for an individual identity comprising the network adapter identifier; and
upon failing to find in the data store an individual identity comprising the device identifier:
ask at least one individual having an individual identity to claim the device; and
upon receiving from an individual having an individual identity a claim of the device, associating the device identifier identifying the device with the individual identity of the individual in the data store.

9. The method of claim 1 , the device configured to detect the at least one biometric measurement of an individual upon detecting the first individual presence of the individual.

10. The method of claim 9 :
the device comprising at least one user interface configured to communicate with the individual; and
the instructions configured to:
upon detecting an individual using the biometric measurement, present to the individual through the user interface an offer to identify the individual; and
upon receiving from the individual through the user interface an acceptance of the offer to identify the individual, detect the at least one biometric measurement of the individual.

11. The method of claim 1 :
the device detector having a variable device detector range; and
the instructions configured to, upon receiving from an individual a device detector range, set the device detector range of the device detector.

12. The method of claim 1 :
the computer comprising a device blacklist identifying the device identifier of at least one blacklisted device; and
receiving the at least one device identifier identifying the device further comprising: responsive to determining that the device is identified as a blacklisted device in the device blacklist, refraining from identifying the identifying the individual according to the blacklisted device.

13. The method of claim 1 :
the device comprising an individual whitelist identifying the device identifier of at least one device that is associated with at least one whitelisted individual; and
retrieving an individual identity from the data store comprising:
searching the individual identities from the data store to retrieve an individual identity of at least one whitelisted individual that is associated with the device identifier of the device; and
upon failing to find in the data store an individual identity of any whitelisted individual in the individual whitelist that is associated with the device identifier of the device, refraining from identifying the individual according to the device identifier.

14. The method of claim 1 , the instructions configured to, upon retrieving from the data store an individual identity comprising the biometric measurement and the device identifier, notifying the individual associated with the individual identity of an identification of the individual.

15. The method of claim 1 , the instructions configured to, upon identifying an individual identity of an individual associated with a biometric measurement detected by the biometric detector and a device identifier detected by the device detector, store in the data store a detected indicator associated with the individual in the data store.

16. The method of claim 15 , the instructions configured to, after storing a detected indicator associated with the individual in the data store and upon not detecting a biometric measurement identifying the individual, replace the detected indicator with a present indicator associated with the individual in the data store.

17. The method of claim 16 , the instructions configured to, after storing a present indicator associated with the

Assignees

• Nice Nir
• Krupka Eyal
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Nice Nir
• Krupka Eyal

Classifications

• G06F21/32 Primary

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

• H04L63/101

  Access control lists [ACL] · CPC title

• H04L63/102

  Entity profiles · CPC title

• H04L63/0861 Primary

  using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231) · CPC title

• G06Q50/265

  Personal security, identity or safety · CPC title