Multi-factor authentication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9600647-B2
Application number	US-201414521316-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 22, 2014
Priority date	Nov 18, 2013
Publication date	Mar 21, 2017
Grant date	Mar 21, 2017

Abstract

Methods, systems and devices for multi-factor authentication (MFA) are described. An MFA device includes a plurality of tiles, a frame to hold the tiles and a stylus movable over the frame and the tiles. Each of the tiles includes at least one of visible indicia and tactile indicia, for representing a notation, and at least one track of acoustic code generation indicia. The acoustic code generation indicia of each tile, on being swiped, generate a complex sound waveform that encodes a composite binary pattern. The composite binary pattern comprises information blocks including a device identifier block for a device identifier associating the MFA device with a user, a biometric block for at least a part of a biometric pattern of the user, and a data block for the notation of the corresponding tile.

First claim

We claim:

1. A multi-factor authentication device for authenticating a user to whom the multi-factor authentication device is issued, the multi-factor authentication device comprising:
a plurality of tiles, each of the plurality of tiles including:
at least one of visible indicia and tactile indicia for representing a notation; and
at least one track of acoustic code generation indicia;
a frame to hold the tiles; and

a stylus movable over the frame and the plurality of tiles to swipe the acoustic code generation indicia of each of the plurality of tiles;
wherein, on being swiped, the acoustic code generation indicia of each of the plurality of tiles generate a corresponding sound waveform that encodes a composite binary pattern to facilitate authentication of the user, wherein the composite binary pattern comprises information blocks forming an acoustic code, the information blocks comprising:
a device identifier block corresponding to a device identifier that associates the multi-factor authentication device with the user;
a biometric block corresponding to at least a part of a biometric pattern of the user; and
a data block corresponding to the at least one of the visible indicia and the tactile indicia of the corresponding tile.

2. The multi-factor authentication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the information blocks further comprise a start block corresponding to a start sequence of the acoustic code, an end block corresponding to an end sequence of the acoustic code, and an account identifier block corresponding to an account id of the user, and wherein each of the information blocks are separated by delimiters.

3. The multi-factor authentication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the stylus comprises at least one pin to swipe the acoustic code generation indicia, and wherein the at least one pin is adapted to generate the sound waveform at a predefined frequency selected from an audible frequency, an ultrasonic frequency, a subsonic frequency, and a supersonic frequency.

4. The multi-factor authentication device as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the stylus further comprises a combinatorial lock configured to release at least one decoy pin when an erroneous combination is selected, and wherein the at least one decoy pin is adapted to generate at least a part of the sound waveform at an incorrect frequency.

5. The multi-factor authentication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of tiles includes the acoustic code generation indicia in multiple tracks, and wherein the multiple tracks comprise a reference track for reconstructing the composite binary pattern.

6. The multi-factor authentication device as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the stylus comprises multiple pins, a pin corresponding to each of the multiple tracks, and wherein each of the multiple pins is configured to generate a part of the sound waveform at a corresponding predefined frequency.

7. The multi-factor authentication device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising an auxiliary unit including one or more of:
a device interface to couple the multi-factor authentication device to an MFA authentication system; and
a transducer to capture and convert the sound waveform into an electrical signal.

8. The multi-factor authentication device as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the auxiliary unit is coupled to a biometric reader to read a live biometric pattern from the user.

9. The multi-factor authentication device as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the live biometric pattern corresponds to at least one of fingerprint pattern, iris pattern, retina pattern, palm vein pattern, finger vein pattern, signature pattern, olfactory pattern, vascular patterns, keystroke pattern, voice signature pattern, face biometric pattern, hand geometry, DNA pattern, earlobe biometric pattern, and heart beat pattern.

10. The multi-factor authentication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the frame includes at least one supplementary acoustic code generation indicia to generate an ancillary sound waveform that encodes an ancillary composite binary pattern to facilitate performance of a user action.

11. The multi-factor authentication device as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the user action corresponds to at least one of logging in, locking, unlocking, calling back, resetting, blocking access, initiating cross-channel verification, and navigating through a shortcut to a nested menu on a user interface of the underlying application.

12. A computer implemented multi-factor authentication system for authenticating a user to whom a multi-factor authentication device is issued, the multi-factor authentication system comprising:
a hardware processor;
a communications interface to connect the multi-factor authentication system to an auxiliary unit to receive electrical signals from the multi-factor authentication device;
a code reconstruction module, coupled to the hardware processor, to
obtain a binary data stream from the electrical signals corresponding to a complex sound waveform generated on swiping the acoustic code generation indicia of the multi-factor authentication device, wherein the corresponding sound waveform encodes a composite binary pattern to facilitate authentication of the user, wherein the composite binary pattern comprises information blocks forming an acoustic code, the information blocks comprising:
a device identifier block corresponding to a device identifier that associates the multi-factor authentication device with the user;
a biometric block corresponding to at least a part of a biometric pattern of the user; and
a data block corresponding to at least one of visible indicia and tactile indicia and forming a part of a passphrase; and

generate a reconstructed data stream of data segments from the binary data stream, wherein each data segment corresponds to an information block; and
an authentication module, coupled to the hardware processor, to authenticate the user based on a comparison of one or more of the data segments with authentication data corresponding to the user.

13. The computer implemented multi-factor authentication system as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the code reconstruction module is configured to group bits in the binary data stream into the data segments based on length of the data segments and extracting peaks at predetermined spacing in the frequency spectrum, corresponding to presence of binary digit, to form the reconstructed data stream.

14. The computer implemented multi-factor authentication system as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the authentication module performs the comparison by:
comparing the data segments corresponding to the device identifier block with the device identifier associated with the user in the authentication data;
comparing the data segments corresponding to the account identifier block with the account identifier associated with the user account in the authentication data;
gathering the data segments corresponding to the data block in the sequence of the swiped acoustic code generation indicia; and
comparing the gathered data segments with a passphrase of the user stored in the authentication data.

15. The computer implemented multi-factor authentication system as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the authentication module receives a live biometric pattern and compares data segments corresponding to the biometric block with the live biometric pattern to authenticate the user.

16. The computer implemented multi-factor authentication system as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the authentication module receives a live biometric pattern and compares

Assignees

• Tata Consultancy Services Ltd

Inventors

• Thomas Annie
• Garg Shalin
• Bose Sneha
• Vallat Sathish

Classifications

• G07C9/37

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

• G06F21/32

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

• G06F21/34 Primary

  involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards · CPC title

• G06F21/31 Primary

  User authentication · CPC title

• G06F21/35

  communicating wirelessly · CPC title