Technologies for performing orientation-independent bioimpedance-based user authentication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9934372-B1
Application number	US-201715476995-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Apr 1, 2017
Priority date	Apr 1, 2017
Publication date	Apr 3, 2018
Grant date	Apr 3, 2018

Abstract

Technologies for performing orientation-independent bioimpedance-based user authentication include a compute device. The compute device includes a plurality of electrodes usable to transmit an alternating current and measure a bioimpedance in a section of the body of a user. The compute device is to transmit, with a pair of the electrodes, an alternating current through the section of the body of the user, measure, with a pair of the electrodes, a bioimpedance of the section of the body to the transmitted alternating current, generate a tomographic image as a function of the measured bioimpedance, identify a position of a fiduciary marker in the tomographic image, rotate the tomographic image to a predefined orientation as a function of the position of the fiduciary marker, extract one or more biometric features from the rotated tomographic image, and perform authentication of the user as a function of the extracted one or more biometric features.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A compute device to perform orientation-independent bioimpedance-based user authentication, the compute device comprising:
a plurality of electrodes usable to transmit an alternating current and measure a bioimpedance of a section of the body of a user;
a biometric authentication manager to transmit, with a first pair of the electrodes, an alternating current through the section of the body of the user, measure, with a second pair of the electrodes, a bioimpedance of the section of the body to the transmitted alternating current, generate a tomographic image as a function of the measured bioimpedance, wherein the tomographic image is indicative of a physiology of the section of the body, identify a position of a fiduciary marker in the tomographic image, rotate the tomographic image to a predefined orientation as a function of the position of the fiduciary marker, extract one or more biometric features from the rotated tomographic image, and perform authentication of the user as a function of the extracted one or more biometric features.

2. The compute device of claim 1 , wherein to measure, with a second pair of the electrodes, a bioimpedance of the section of the body comprises to measure, with a second pair of the electrodes that is different from the first pair of the electrodes, the bioimpedance of the section of the body.

3. The compute device of claim 1 , wherein the biometric authentication manager is further to measure, with multiple other pairs of the electrodes, the bioimpedance of the section of the body, prior to generation of the tomographic image.

4. The compute device of claim 1 , wherein to transmit, with the first pair of the electrodes, the alternating current comprises to transmit, with a pair of adjacent electrodes, the alternating current.

5. The compute device of claim 1 , wherein to measure, with the second pair of electrodes, the bioimpedance comprises to measure, with a pair of adjacent electrodes, the bioimpedance.

6. The compute device of claim 1 , wherein to transmit the alternating current comprises to sequentially transmit the alternating current at each of a plurality of different frequencies and to measure the bioimpedance comprises to measure the bioimpedance with multiple different pairs of electrodes for each of the different frequencies.

7. The compute device of claim 6 , wherein to generate a tomographic image comprises to generate a separate tomographic image associated with each of the different frequencies.

8. The compute device of claim 6 , wherein to sequentially transmit the alternating current at each of a plurality of different frequencies comprises to sequentially transmit the alternating current at each of a plurality of frequencies over of a range of 1 kHz to 50 kHz.

9. The compute device of claim 8 , wherein to sequentially transmit the alternating current at each of a plurality of frequencies over the range of 1 kHz to 50 kHz comprises to transmit the alternating current at each of ten frequencies over the range of 1 kHz to 50 kHz.

10. The compute device of claim 1 , wherein to transmit the alternating current through the section of the body of the user comprises to transmit the alternating current through a section of a wrist of the user.

11. The compute device of claim 10 , wherein to identify a position of a fiduciary marker in the tomographic image comprises to identify the positions of one or more bones in the wrist.

12. The compute device of claim 11 , wherein to identify the positions of one or more bones in the wrist comprises to identify the positions of the radius and ulna bones.

13. One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a compute device, cause the compute device to:
transmit, with a first pair of electrodes in a plurality of electrodes, an alternating current through a section of the body of a user;
measure, with a second pair of the electrodes, a bioimpedance of the section of the body to the transmitted alternating current;
generate a tomographic image as a function of the measured bioimpedance, wherein the tomographic image is indicative of a physiology of the section of the body;
identify a position of a fiduciary marker in the tomographic image;
rotate the tomographic image to a predefined orientation as a function of the position of the fiduciary marker;
extract one or more biometric features from the rotated tomographic image; and
perform authentication of the user as a function of the extracted one or more biometric features.

14. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13 , wherein to measure, with a second pair of the electrodes, a bioimpedance of the section of the body comprises to measure, with a second pair of the electrodes that is different from the first pair of the electrodes, the bioimpedance of the section of the body.

15. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13 , wherein the plurality of instructions, when executed, further cause the compute device to measure, with multiple other pairs of the electrodes, the bioimpedance of the section of the body, prior to generation of the tomographic image.

16. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13 , wherein to transmit, with the first pair of the electrodes, the alternating current comprises to transmit, with a pair of adjacent electrodes, the alternating current.

17. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13 , wherein to measure, with the second pair of the electrodes, the bioimpedance comprises to measure, with a pair of adjacent electrodes, the bioimpedance.

18. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13 , wherein to transmit the alternating current comprises to sequentially transmit the alternating current at each of a plurality of different frequencies and to measure the bioimpedance comprises to measure the bioimpedance with multiple different pairs of electrodes for each of the different frequencies.

19. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 18 , wherein to generate a tomographic image comprises to generate a separate tomographic image associated with each of the different frequencies.

20. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 18 , wherein to sequentially transmit the alternating current at each of a plurality of different frequencies comprises to sequentially transmit the alternating current at each of a plurality of frequencies over of a range of 1 kHz to 50 kHz.

21. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 20 , wherein to sequentially transmit the alternating current at each of a plurality of frequencies over the range of 1 kHz to 50 kHz comprises to transmit the alternating current at each of ten frequencies over the range of 1 kHz to 50 kHz.

22. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13 , wherein to transmit the alternating current through the section of the body of the user comprises to transmit the alternating current through a section of a wrist of the user.

23. A method for performing orientation-independent bioimpedance-based user authentication, the method comprising:
transmitting, by a compute device and with a first pair of electrodes in a plurality of electrodes, an alternating current through a section of the body

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Cornelius Cory
• Sheller Micah J
• Martin Jason

Classifications

• G06F21/32 Primary

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

• A61B5/6803

  Head-worn items, e.g. helmets, masks, headphones or goggles · CPC title

• A61B5/0024

  for multiple sensor units attached to the patient, e.g. using a body or personal area network · CPC title

• A61B5/0536

  Impedance imaging, e.g. by tomography · CPC title

• A61B5/117

  Identification of persons (methods or arrangements for recognising patterns, e.g. fingerprints, G06F18/00, G06V40/00; identification of persons by analysing their voice or speech G10L17/00) · CPC title