Electronic device including sub-array based deblurring of a blurred finger image and related methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9865040-B2
Application number	US-201715617041-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 8, 2017
Priority date	Aug 6, 2013
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

An electronic device may include a finger biometric sensor that includes an array of electric field sensing pixels and image data output circuitry coupled thereto and capable of processing the image data from each of sub-arrays of the array of electric field sensing pixels. The electronic device may also include a dielectric layer over the array of electric field sensing pixels and causing electric field diffusion so that the image data output circuitry generates image data corresponding to a blurred finger image. The electronic device also includes deblurring circuitry coupled to the image data output circuitry and capable of processing the image data from each of the plurality of sub-arrays of the array of electric field sensing pixels to produce processed image data representative of a deblurred finger image.

First claim

That which is claimed is:

1. An electronic device comprising:
a finger biometric sensor;
a dielectric layer over the finger biometric sensor and causing blurred finger image data; and
deblurring circuitry coupled to the finger biometric sensor and configured to
store a plurality of deblurring coefficients, and
process the blurred finger image data using the plurality of deblurring coefficients to produce deblurred finger image data.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of deblurring coefficients comprises a respective set of deblurring coefficients for each of a plurality of different deblurring functions.

3. The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the finger biometric sensor is configured to generate a plurality of image regions; and wherein the deblurring circuitry is configured to process the blurred finger image data based upon a respective deblurring function for each image region.

4. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the finger biometric sensor is configured to generate a plurality of image regions having a border; and wherein the plurality of image regions comprises at least one border image region adjacent to the border.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the finger biometric sensor is configured to generate a plurality of image regions having a border; and wherein the plurality of image regions comprises at least one internal image region spaced inwardly from the border.

6. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the finger biometric sensor is configured to generate a plurality of image regions; wherein the blurred finger image data is based upon a diffusion function; and wherein the deblurring circuitry is configured to process the blurred finger image data in accordance with respective different deblurring functions for each of the image regions based upon the diffusion function.

7. The electronic device of claim 6 , wherein the diffusion function comprises a Gaussian function and the respective deblurring functions each comprises an inverse Gaussian function.

8. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the dielectric layer has a non-uniform thickness.

9. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the deblurring circuitry comprises a deblurring processor and memory coupled thereto.

10. A method for finger biometric sensing comprising:
operating a finger biometric sensor and a dielectric layer thereover causing blurred finger image data; and
processing the blurred finger image data using a plurality of stored deblurring coefficients to produce deblurred finger image data.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of deblurring coefficients comprises a respective set of deblurring coefficients for each of a plurality of different deblurring functions.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein processing comprises processing the blurred finger image data based upon a respective deblurring function for each image region from the finger biometric sensor.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein a plurality of image regions from the finger biometric sensor have a border; and wherein the plurality of image regions comprises at least one border image region adjacent to the border.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein a plurality of image regions from the finger biometric sensor have a border; and wherein the plurality of image regions comprises at least one internal image region spaced inwardly from the border.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the blurred finger image data is based upon a diffusion function; and wherein processing comprises processing the blurred finger image data in accordance with respective different deblurring functions for each of a plurality of image regions from the finger biometric sensor based upon the diffusion function.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the diffusion function comprises a Gaussian function and the respective deblurring functions each comprises an inverse Gaussian function.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium for finger biometric processing, the non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions configured to perform operations comprising:
operating a finger biometric sensor and a dielectric layer thereover causing blurred finger image data; and
processing the blurred finger image data using a plurality of stored deblurring coefficients to produce deblurred finger image data.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the plurality of deblurring coefficients comprises a respective set of deblurring coefficients for each of a plurality of different deblurring functions.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18 , wherein processing comprises processing the blurred finger image data based upon a respective deblurring function for each image region from the finger biometric sensor.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein a plurality of image regions from the finger biometric sensor have a border; and wherein the plurality of image regions comprises at least one border image region adjacent to the border.

21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein a plurality of image regions from the finger biometric sensor have a border; and wherein the plurality of image regions comprises at least one internal image region spaced inwardly from the border.

22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the blurred finger image data is based upon a diffusion function; and wherein processing comprises processing the blurred finger image data in accordance with respective different deblurring functions for each of a plurality of image regions from the finger biometric sensor based upon the diffusion function.

23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 22 , wherein the diffusion function comprises a Gaussian function and the respective deblurring functions each comprises an inverse Gaussian function.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Setlak Dale R
• Subert Martin
• Konopka Ondrej
• Kohout Petr
• Mrazek Pavel
• Gozzini Giovanni

Classifications

• G06V40/1306 Primary

  non-optical, e.g. ultrasonic or capacitive sensing · CPC title

• G06K9/00006

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06K9/00013

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06K9/0002

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T5/003 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic