US20170032203A1

US20170032203A1 - Biometric device and method thereof and wearable carrier

Info

Publication number: US20170032203A1
Application number: US15/221,615
Authority: US
Inventors: Chia-Hsin Chao; Yen-Hsiang Fang; Ming-Hsien Wu
Original assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute ITRI
Current assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute ITRI
Priority date: 2015-07-29
Filing date: 2016-07-28
Publication date: 2017-02-02
Also published as: CN111242092A; US11037007B2; US20210264180A1; CN106407881A; CN106407881B; US20200042810A1

Abstract

A biometric device includes a substrate, an image sensor, an optical layer and at least one infrared light emitting diode (IR LED). The image sensor is disposed on the substrate. The optical layer is disposed on the image sensor and includes a diffraction pattern. The IR LED is disposed on the diffraction pattern of the optical layer. The optical layer is located between the IR LED and the image sensor.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority benefits of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 62/198,645, filed on Jul. 29, 2015 and Taiwan application serial no. 105120683, filed on Jun. 30, 2016. The entirety of each of the above-mentioned patent applications is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates to a recognition device and a method thereof, and particularly relates to a biometric device and a method thereof and a wearable carrier using the biometric device.
Description of Related Art
Biometrics plays a more and more important role in today's society, where types of the biometrics mainly include face recognition, iris recognition, vein recognition, fingerprint recognition, etc.
In terms of a current technique, solution for identity (ID) recognition on a smart wearable device is still not developed, and a reason thereof is that the wearable device generally requires a light and thin ID recognition system. Moreover, taking finger, palm vein recognition as an example, a vein image is generally captured first, and regarding the current technique, a data amount of the image is relatively large, a processing speed thereof is very slow, and power consumption of the whole image capturing operation is relatively large, which is not suitable for ID recognition of the smart wearable device. Therefore, how to design a biometric device with low power consumption, thinned modules and a fast processing speed has become an important technical challenge in design of the biometric device.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The disclosure is directed to a biometric device, which adopts an optical layer to achieve a thinning effect.
The disclosure is directed to a biometric method, which is adapted to sequentially light infrared light emitting diodes to decrease a data amount and increase a processing speed.
The disclosure is directed to a wearable carrier, which has the aforementioned biometric device.
The disclosure provides a biometric device, which is adapted to recognize a biological characteristic of a region of a biological body. The biometric device includes a substrate, an image sensor, an optical layer and at least one infrared light emitting diode (IR LED). The image sensor is disposed on the substrate. The optical layer is disposed on the image sensor and includes a diffraction pattern. The IR LED is disposed on the diffraction pattern of the optical layer, where and the optical layer is located between the IR LED and the image sensor.
The disclosure provides a biometric device, which is adapted to recognize a biological characteristic of a region of a biological body. The biometric device includes a substrate, an image sensor, a plurality of infrared light emitting diodes (IR LEDs) and an optical layer. The image sensor is disposed on the substrate and includes a plurality of photosensing units. The IR LEDs are disposed on the substrate, where the IR LEDs and the photosensing units are arranged in interleaving. The optical layer includes a plurality of lens portions, where the lens portions are aligned to a part of the photosensing units, an orthogonal projection of each of the lens portions on the substrate is overlapped with an orthogonal projection of the corresponding photosensing unit on the substrate.
The disclosure provides a wearable carrier, which is adapted to be worn on a user. The wearable carrier includes a display unit, a strip unit and a biometric device. The strip unit is connected to the display unit at a first edge and a second edge opposite to each other. The biometric device is disposed on the display unit or the strip unit for recognizing a biological characteristic of a region of a biological body. The biometric device includes a substrate, an image sensor, an optical layer and at least one infrared light emitting diode (IR LED). The image sensor is disposed on the substrate. The optical layer is disposed on the image sensor and includes a diffraction pattern. The IR LED is disposed on the diffraction pattern of the optical layer, where the IR LED is located between the region of the biological body and the image sensor, and the optical layer is located between the IR LED and the image sensor.
The disclosure provides a wearable carrier, which is adapted to be worn on a user. The wearable carrier includes a display unit, a strip unit and a biometric device. The strip unit is connected to the display unit at a first edge and a second edge opposite to each other. The biometric device is disposed on the display unit or the strip unit for recognizing a biological characteristic of a region of a biological body. The biometric device includes a substrate, an image sensor, a plurality of infrared light emitting diodes (IR LEDs) and an optical layer. The image sensor is disposed on the substrate and includes a plurality of photosensing units. The IR LEDs are disposed on the substrate, where the IR LEDs and the photosensing units are arranged in interleaving. The optical layer includes a plurality of lens portions, where the lens portions are aligned to a part of the photosensing units, an orthogonal projection of each of the lens portions on the substrate is overlapped with an orthogonal projection of the corresponding photosensing unit on the substrate, and the lens portion is located between the region of the biological body and the corresponding photosensing unit.
The disclosure provides a biometric method including following steps. A characteristic image data is received. A region of a biological body is coupled to a biometric device, where the biometric device includes a plurality of photosensing units and a plurality of infrared light emitting diodes (IR LEDs), and the photosensing units are disposed corresponding to the IR LEDs, and each of the IR LEDs is adapted to emit a light to the region of the biological body. At least a part of the IR LEDs is sequentially lighted and the corresponding photosensing units are sequentially turned on, and the corresponding photosensing units receive the lights scattered by the region to respectively generate a recognition sensing image. The recognition sensing image is compared with the characteristic image data, and a recognition result is output according to a comparison result.
According to the above description, since the biometric device of an embodiment of the disclosure adopts the design of the optical layer to replace the conventional optical module with a large volume, the biometric device of the disclosure has an advantage of thinning tendency. Moreover, in the biometric device of another embodiment of the disclosure, the optical layer thereof has the lens portion, such that the biometric device may provide a planar light source to decrease intensity and power consumption of the IR LEDs may in subsequent recognition illumination. In addition, since the biometric method of the disclosure adopts a method of sequentially lighting the IR LEDs, the amount of data processed by the image sensor is decreased, such that an image processing speed is accelerated to quickly obtain a recognition result.
In order to make the aforementioned and other features and advantages of the disclosure comprehensible, several exemplary embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

FIG. 1A is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 1B is a partial top view of an exploded schematic diagram of the biometric device of FIG. 1A.

FIGS. 2A-2E are schematic diagrams of diffraction figures of a plurality of different embodiments in the optical layer.

FIG. 3A is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to another embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3B is a partial enlarged cross-sectional view of the biometric device of FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4A is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4B is a partial top view of the biometric device of FIG. 4A.

FIG. 4C is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to another embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4D is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to another embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to another embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to another embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a wearable carrier according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a biometric method according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a biological characteristic of a region of a biological body.

FIGS. 10A-10H are enlarged views of a region A to a region H in FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is a partial top view of a biometric device according to another embodiment of the disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1A is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 1B is a partial top view of an exploded schematic diagram of the biometric device of FIG. 1A. Referring to FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, in the present embodiment, the biometric device 100 a is adapted to recognize a biological characteristic of a region 12 of a biological body 10, where the region 12 of the biological body 10 is, for example, a wrist of a human body, and the biological characteristic is, for example, a vein network image characteristic. The biometric device 100 a includes a substrate 110, an image sensor 120 a, an optical layer 130 a and at least one infrared light emitting diode (IR LED) 140 a (in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, a plurality of IR LEDs is schematically illustrated). The image sensor 120 a is disposed on the substrate 110. The optical layer 130 a is disposed on the image sensor 120 a and includes a diffraction pattern 132 a. The IR LEDs 140 a are disposed on the diffraction pattern 132 a of the optical layer 130 a, where the IR LEDs 140 a are located between the region 12 of the biological body 10 and the image sensor 120 a, and the optical layer 130 a is located between the IR LEDs 140 a and the image sensor 120 a.
In detail, the image sensor 120 a includes a plurality of photosensing units 122 a, where the photosensing units 122 a are arranged in an array. The optical layer 130 a further includes a transparent substrate 134 a, and the diffraction pattern 132 a is disposed on the transparent substrate 134 a to define a plurality of slits S. As shown in FIG. 1B, the transparent substrate 134 a of the optical layer 130 a of the present embodiment can be divided into a plurality of blocks, for example, blocks D1, D2, D3, and each block D1 (or the block D2, the block D3) is configured with a diffraction figure DF1 (or a diffraction figure DF2, a diffraction figure DF3), and the diffraction figures DF1, DF2, DF3 define the diffraction pattern 132 a. The diffraction figure DF1 in the block D1, for example, comprises a plurality of line images of the same size, and the diffraction figure DF2 in the block D2, for example, comprises a plurality of line images with different widths, and the diffraction figure DF3 in the block D3, for example, comprises a plurality of line images of the same size, and the line images are intersected with each other to form a grid, though the disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, the shape of the diffraction figure can be any shape of diffraction figures DF4-DF8 shown in FIG. 2A-FIG. 2E or other shapes, which is not limited by the disclosure. It should be noted that the transparent substrate 134 a of the optical layer 130 a can be divided into the required number of blocks according to an actual requirement, and these blocks can be respectively configured with the required diffraction figure to define the diffraction pattern 132 a of different types.
Since the diffraction pattern 132 a is an opaque pattern and is disposed on the transparent substrate 134 a, the slits S are defined on the transparent substrate 134 a (i.e. the region without the diffraction pattern 132 a). The IR LEDs 140 a are disposed on the diffraction pattern 132 a, i.e. a light L emitted by the IR LED 140 a does not enter the optical layer 130 a from the position where the IR LED 140 a is located, but is incident to the region 12 of the biological body 10, and is scattered by the region 12 of the biological body 10 to form a scattered light LS, and the scattered light LS enters the optical layer 130 a. Then, the scattered light LS passes through the slits S to produce a diffraction effect for imaging, and the image sensor 120 a receives the scattered light LS, and obtains a recognition result after image processing and image analysis and comparison.
Since the optical layer 130 a of the present embodiment is embodied as a single layer type optical layer, compared to the conventional optical module consisting of multilayer of lenses, the optical layer 130 a of the present embodiment may have a thinner volume. Therefore, the biometric device 100 a of the present embodiment adopts the optical layer 130 a to replace the conventional large-volume optical modules, by which the whole volume and thickness can be greatly decreased to cope with a thinning tendency.
It should be noticed that reference numbers of the components and a part of contents of the aforementioned embodiment are also used in the following embodiment, wherein the same reference numbers denote the same or like components, and descriptions of the same technical contents are omitted. The aforementioned embodiment can be referred for descriptions of the omitted parts, and detailed descriptions thereof are not repeated in the following embodiment.
FIG. 3A is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to another embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 3B is a partial enlarged cross-sectional view of the biometric device of FIG. 3A. Referring to FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B, the biometric device 100 b of the present embodiment is similar to the biometric device 100 a of FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, and a main difference there between is that the structure of the optical layer 130 b of the present embodiment is different to the structure of the optical layer 130 a of the aforementioned embodiment. In detail, the optical layer 130 b of the present embodiment further includes a first silicon oxide layer 131 b, a silicon nitride layer 133 b and a second silicon oxide layer 135 b. The silicon nitride layer 133 b is located between the first silicon oxide layer 131 b and the second silicon oxide layer 135 b, and the diffraction pattern 132 b is located impartial region of an upper surface 130 b 1 of the first silicon oxide layer 131 b, and the second silicon oxide layer 135 b is located between the silicon nitride layer 133 b and the image sensor 120 a. Moreover, the optical layer 130 b of the present embodiment further includes a metal layer 137 b and at least one conductive through hole 139 b. The metal layer 137 b is disposed on the upper surface 130 b 1 of the first silicon oxide layer 131 b and covers a part of the diffraction pattern 132 b. The conductive through hole 139 b is electrically connected between the metal layer 137 b and the image sensor 120 a, and the IR LED 140 a is electrically connected to image sensor 120 a through the metal layer 137 b and the conductive through hole 139 b, where the metal layer 137 b can also be replaced by a conductive light-shielding material.
As shown in FIG. 3B, the IR LED 140 a can be electrically connected to the metal layer 137 b through a conductive bump 145. The light L emitted by the IR LED 140 a is incident to the region 12 of the biological body 10, and is scattered by the region 12 of the biological body 10 to form the scattered light LS, and the scattered light LS enters the optical layer 130 b. Then, the scattered light LS passes through the diffraction pattern 132 b to generate diffracted lights L1, L2, L3 of different orders, and the diffracted lights L1, L2, L3 of different orders are diffracted towards different directions and are received by the photosensing units 122 a of the image sensor 120 a, and then a recognition result is obtained after image processing and image analysis and comparison.
FIG. 4A is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 4B is a partial top view of the biometric device of FIG. 4A. For simplicity's sake, a part of the components is omitted in FIG. 4B. Referring to FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B, the biometric device 100 c of the present embodiment is similar to the biometric device 100 a of FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, and a main difference there between is that the IR LEDs 140 c and the photosensing units 122 c are arranged in interleaving. The optical layer 130 c includes a plurality of lens portions 132 c and a transparent panel portion 134 c, where the transparent panel portion 134 c covers the IR LEDs 140 c and the photosensing units 122 c, and the lens portions 132 c are disposed on a top surface 135 c of the transparent panel portion 134 c and are aligned to a part of the photosensing units 122 c. An orthogonal projection of each of the lens portions 132 c on the substrate 110 is overlapped with an orthogonal projection of the corresponding photosensing unit 122 c on the substrate 110, and the lens portion 132 c is located between the region 12 of the biological body 10 and the corresponding photosensing unit 122 c. Namely, the number of the lens portions 132 c is less than the number of the photosensing units 122 c, and the lens portions 132 c may cover a part of the photosensing units 122 c.
To be specific, the photosensing units 122 c of the present embodiment and the IR LEDs 140 c are, for example, (but not limited to be) located on a same horizontal plane. Moreover, in the present embodiment, a height of the photosensing unit 122 c is, for example, greater than a height of the IR LED 140 c, though the disclosure is not limited thereto.
As shown in FIG. 4A, a light LS′ emitted by the IR LED 140 c is incident to the region 12 of the biological body 10, and is scattered by the region 12 of the biological body 10 to form the scattered light LS′, and the scattered light LS′ enters the optical layer 130 c. Then, a part of the scattered light LS′ passes through the lens portions 132 c and is received by the photosensing units 122 c under the lens portions 132 c, and the other part of the scattered light LS′ is directly received by the photosensing units 122 c uncovered by the lens portions 132 c. Then, image processing is performed to process the lights passing through the lens portions 132 c and the lights without passing through the lens portion 132 c that are sensed by the photosensing units 122 c, and after comparison and analysis, a vein image is obtained. Herein, the vein image is a biological characteristic of a user, and a vein image database comprises a plurality of vein images.
Since the optical layer 130 c of the present embodiment is embodied as a single layer type optical layer, compared to the conventional optical module consisting of multilayer of lenses, the optical layer 130 a of the present embodiment may have a thinner volume. Therefore, the whole volume and thickness can be greatly decreased to cope with the thinning tendency. Moreover, in the present embodiment, the IR LEDs are arranged in an array to provide a planar light source. In this way, the intensity and power consumption of the IR LEDs 140 can be effectively decreased in subsequent recognition illumination.
FIG. 4C is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to another embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to FIG. 4C, the biometric device 100 d of the present embodiment is similar to the biometric device 100 c of FIG. 4A, and a main difference there between is that a height of a first upper surface 142 d of the IR LED 140 d is higher than a height of a second upper surface 123 d of the photosensing unit 122 d. Namely, the height of the IR LED 140 d of the present embodiment is higher than the height of the photosensing unit 122 d. Since the height of the IR LED 140 d of the present embodiment is higher than the height of the photosensing unit 122 d, in order to avoid a situation that the photosensing unit 122 d receives a lateral light of the IR LED 140 d, a surrounding surface 143 d of the IR LED 140 d of the present embodiment has a reflective material layer 144 d, where reflectivity of the reflective material layer 144 d is, for example, greater than 70%, and a material of the reflective material layer 144 d is, for example, gold, silver, aluminium, though the disclosure is not limited thereto. The reflective material layer 144 d is configured to reflect the lateral light of the IR LED 140 d for emitting in a normal direction.
Certainly, in other embodiments, different structure designs can be adopted to prevent the lateral light of the IR LED 140 d from entering the photosensing unit 122 d. Referring to FIG. 4D, the biometric device 100 e of the present embodiment is similar to the biometric device 100 d of FIG. 4C, and a main difference there between is that the biometric device 100 e of the present embodiment further includes a plurality of wall structures 150. The wall structures 150 are disposed on the substrate 110 and surround each of the IR LEDs 140 e, where each of the wall structures 150 has a third upper surface 152, and the third upper surface 152 is higher than the first upper surface 142 e. The wall structures 150 may change the lateral light of the IR LED 140 e from a lateral transmission direction into an upward transmission direction, such that the light transmitted in the lateral manner can be effectively used.
FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to another embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to FIG. 5, the biometric device 100 f of the present embodiment is similar to the biometric device 100 c of FIG. 4A, and a main difference there between is that the IR LEDs 140 f and the photosensing units are not arranged in interleaving. To be specific, similar to the embodiment of FIG. 1A where the image sensor 120 a is disposed on the substrate 110, and the optical layer 130 a and the IR LEDs 140 a are disposed on the image sensor 120 a, in the present embodiment, the image sensor 120 f is disposed on the substrate 110, and the IR LEDs 140 f, the optical layer 130 f and the lens portions 132 f thereof are disposed on the image sensor 120 f.
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a biometric device according to another embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to FIG. 6, the biometric device 100 g of the present embodiment is similar to the biometric device 100 f of FIG. 5, and a main difference there between is that the optical layer 130 g of the present embodiment further includes a transparent panel portion 134 g, where the transparent panel portion 134 g is disposed on the IR LEDs 140 g, and the transparent panel portion 134 g, the IR LEDs 140 g and the image sensor 120 g define a plurality of air gaps AG. The air gaps AG are located between the IR LEDs 140 g, and the lens portions 132 g are located on a top surface 135 g of the transparent panel portion 134 g.
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a wearable carrier according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to FIG. 7, the wearable carrier 200 of the present embodiment is adapted to be worn on a user. The wearable carrier 200 includes a display unit 210, a strip unit 220 and one of the aforementioned biometric devices 100 a˜100 h. As shown in FIG. 7, the wearable carrier 200 is embodied by a watch, though the disclosure is not limited thereto. In other embodiments that are not shown, a sport bracelet or other types of wearable carrier is also applicable.
In detail, the display unit 210 of the present embodiment may, for example, display time information, where the display unit 210 has a first edge 210 a and a second edge 210 b opposite to each other and a display surface 212 and a back surface 214 opposite to each other. The strip unit 220 is connected to the first edge 210 a and the second edge 210 b of the display unit 210, and is adapted to be fixed on a wrist of the user, though the disclosure is not limited thereto. The biometric device 100 a (or the biometric devices 100 b˜100 h) can be configured on the display surface 212 of the display unit 210. Certainly, in other embodiments that are not shown, the biometric device 100 a (or the biometric devices 100 b˜100 h) can also be disposed on the back surface 214 of the display unit 210, or on an outer surface 222 of the strip unit 220, or on an inner surface 224 of the strip unit 220.
Since the biometric device 100 a (or the biometric devices 100 b-100 h) adopts the optical layer 130 a (or 130 b, 130 c, 130 f, 130 g) to replace the conventional optical module consisting of multilayer of lenses, the surface of the optical layer is similar to a planar optical layer, such that the biometric device 100 a (or the biometric devices 100 b-100 h) of the present embodiment have an advantage of thinning tendency. When the biometric device 100 a (or the biometric devices 100 b˜100 h) is integrated with the wearable device to form a wearable carrier 200, besides that the wearable carrier 200 has the original functions (for example, a time display function), it also has a biometric function, which satisfies user's appeal for multi-function on products.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a biometric method according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a biological characteristic of a region of a biological body. FIGS. 10A-10H are enlarged views of a region A to a region H in FIG. 9. Referring to FIG. 8, the biometric method of the present embodiment includes following steps. First, in step S1, a biological characteristic of a user is registered, and a characteristic image data is received in a first use and is stored in the device to serve as a comparison reference. Establishment of the characteristic image data is, for example, to capture an image of the region 12 of the biological body 10, for example, capture an image of the vein, and then referring to FIG. 9, regions corresponding to the characteristic image (for example, the region A to the region H in FIG. 9) are extracted to store a structure characteristic of the characteristic image and related position data to form the characteristic image data. Selection of the characteristic image data is, for example, bifurcations of blood vessels, and referring to FIG. 10A to FIG. 10H for schematic diagrams of bifurcations of blood vessels in the region A to the region H.
Then, referring to FIG. 8 and FIG. 1A, in step S2, the region 12 of the biological body 10 is coupled to the biometric device 100 a, where the biometric device 100 a includes a plurality of photosensing units 122 a and a plurality of IR LEDs 140 a, the photosensing units 122 a are disposed corresponding to the IR LEDs 140 a, and each of the IR LEDs 140 a is adapted to emit a light L to the region 12 of the biological body 10.
Then, referring to FIG. 8 and FIG. 1A, in step S3, a relative position between the region 12 of the biological body 10 and the biometric device 100 a is confirmed, and a method for confirming the relative position is described as follow. First, one or a plurality of IR LEDs 140 a is lighted and the corresponding photosensing unit 122 a are turned on, such that the photosensing units 122 a receive the light LS scattered by the region 12 to generate a positioning sensing image. The corresponding photosensing unit 122 a is turned on at the same time while, before or after one of the IR LEDs 140 a is lighted, which is not limited by the disclosure. Then, the positioning sensing image is compared with the characteristic image data to confirm the relative position between the region 12 of the biological body 10 and the biometric device 100 a. If the positioning sensing image is not complied with the characteristic image data, the flow returns to the step S2 to re-couple the region 12 of the biological body 10 and the biometric device 100 a to adjust the relative position between the region 12 of the biological body 10 and the biometric device 100 a. In other embodiments, other proper methods can be adopted to confirm the relative position, which is not limited by the disclosure.
Then referring to FIG. 8 and FIG. 1A, in step S4, after the relative position is confirmed, at least a part of the IR LEDs 140 a are sequentially lighted and the corresponding photosensing units 122 are sequentially turned on, such that the corresponding photosensing units 122 receive the light LS to respectively generate a recognition sensing image. The corresponding photosensing units 122 a are turned on at the same time while, before or after the unlighted IR LEDs 140 a are sequentially lighted, which is not limited by the disclosure.
In detail, a method for sequentially lighting the IR LEDs 140 a is, for example, to only light a single IR LED 140 a at each time point, i.e. when one of the IR LEDs 140 a is lighted, the other IR LEDs 140 a are all turned off, though the disclosure is not limited thereto.
Finally, referring to FIG. 8, in step S5, the recognition sensing image is compared with the characteristic image data to output a recognition result according to a comparison result. In the present embodiment, since a method of sequentially lighting the IR LEDs 140 a is adopted to decrease an amount of data processed by the image sensor 120 a, an image processing speed is accelerated to quickly obtain a recognition result.
Certainly, the biometric device 100 a adopted in the aforementioned biometric method is only an example, and those skilled in the art may select to use the biometric devices 100 b˜100 h of the aforementioned embodiments according to an actual requirement. If the biometric device 100 c of FIG. 4A is used, since the optical layer 130 c of the biometric device 100 c has the lens portions 132 c, the biometric device 100 c may provide a planar light source to decrease intensity and power consumption of the IR LEDs 140 c required in recognition illumination.
FIG. 11 is a partial top view of a biometric device according to another embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to FIG. 11, the biometric device 100 h of the present embodiment is similar to the biometric device 100 c of FIG. 4B, and a main difference there between is that the substrate 110 of the biometric device 100 h is configured with more number of the IR LEDs 140 h, where each of the photosensing unit 122 h is surrounded by a plurality of the IR LEDs 140 h, and the light emitted by each of the IR LEDs 140 h is scattered by the region of the biological body to form the scattered light, and the scattered light is sensed by one or a plurality of the photosensing units 122 h.
According to actual requirements, technicians of the field may add other types of sensing elements in the biometric devices 100 b˜100 h of the aforementioned embodiments, such that the functions of the biometric devices can be more comprehensive and diversified. The added sensing elements are, for example, used for sensing the biological body, sensing an environment in which the biological body is located or providing other sensing functions, which is not limited by the disclosure.
In summary, since the biometric device of the embodiment of the disclosure adopts the design of the optical layer to replace the conventional optical module with a large volume, and the surface of the optical layer is similar to a planar optical layer, the biometric device of the disclosure has an advantage of thinning tendency. Moreover, in the biometric device of another embodiment of the disclosure, the optical layer thereof has the lens portion, such that the biometric device may provide a planar light source to decrease intensity and power consumption of the IR LEDs required in subsequent recognition illumination. In addition, since the biometric method of the disclosure adopts a method of sequentially lighting the IR LEDs, the amount of data processed by the image sensor is decreased, such that an image processing speed is accelerated to quickly obtain a recognition result.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the disclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A biometric device, comprising:

a substrate;

an image sensor, disposed on the substrate;

an optical layer, disposed on the image sensor, and comprising a diffraction pattern; and

at least one infrared light emitting diode, disposed on the diffraction pattern of the optical layer, wherein the optical layer is located between the infrared light emitting diode and the image sensor.

2. The biometric device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the image sensor comprises a plurality of photosensing units, and the photosensing units are arranged in an array.

3. The biometric device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the optical layer further comprises a transparent substrate, and the diffraction pattern is disposed on the transparent substrate to define a plurality of slits.

4. The biometric device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the biometric device is adapted to recognize a biological characteristic of a region of a biological body, and the infrared light emitting diode is located between the region of the biological body and the image sensor.

5. The biometric device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the optical layer further comprises a first silicon oxide layer, a silicon nitride layer and a second silicon oxide layer, the silicon nitride layer is located between the first silicon oxide layer and the second silicon oxide layer, and the diffraction pattern is located on an upper surface of the first silicon oxide layer, and the second silicon oxide layer is located between the silicon nitride layer and the image sensor.

6. The biometric device as claimed in claim 5, wherein the optical layer further comprises a metal layer and at least one conductive through hole, the metal layer is disposed on the upper surface of the first silicon oxide layer and covers a part of the diffraction pattern, and the conductive through hole is electrically connected between the metal layer and the image sensor, and the infrared light emitting diode is electrically connected to the image sensor through the metal layer and the conductive through hole.

7. A biometric device, comprises:

a substrate;

an image sensor, disposed on the substrate, and comprising a plurality of photosensing units;

a plurality of infrared light emitting diodes, disposed on the substrate, wherein the infrared light emitting diodes and the photosensing units are arranged in interleaving; and

an optical layer, comprising a plurality of lens portions, wherein the lens portions are aligned to a part of the photosensing units, an orthogonal projection of each of the lens portions on the substrate is overlapped with an orthogonal projection of the corresponding photosensing unit on the substrate.

8. The biometric device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the photosensing units and the infrared light emitting diodes are located on a same horizontal plane.

9. The biometric device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the optical layer further comprises a transparent panel portion, the transparent panel portion is disposed on the substrate and covers the infrared light emitting diodes and the photosensing units, and the lens portions are located on a top surface of the transparent panel portion.

10. The biometric device as claimed in claim 7, wherein each of the infrared light emitting diodes has a first upper surface, and each of the photosensing units has a second upper surface, and the first upper surface is lower than the second upper surface.

11. The biometric device as claimed in claim 7, wherein each of the infrared light emitting diodes has a first upper surface, and each of the photosensing units has a second upper surface, and the first upper surface is higher than the second upper surface.

12. The biometric device as claimed in claim 11, further comprising:

a plurality of wall structures, disposed on the substrate and surrounding each of the infrared light emitting diodes, wherein each of the wall structures has a third upper surface, and the third upper surface is higher than the first upper surface.

13. The biometric device as claimed in claim 11, wherein a surrounding surface of each of the infrared light emitting diodes has a reflective material layer, and reflectivity of the reflective material layer is greater than 70%.

14. The biometric device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the optical layer further comprises a transparent panel portion, the transparent panel portion is disposed on the infrared light emitting diodes, and the transparent panel portion, the infrared light emitting diodes and the image sensor define a plurality of air gaps, and the lens portions are located on a top surface of the transparent panel portion.

15. The biometric device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the biometric device is adapted to recognize a biological characteristic of a region of a biological body, and the lens portions are located between the region of the biological body and the corresponding photosensing units.

16. A wearable carrier, adapted to be worn on a user, the wearable carrier comprises:

a display unit;

a strip unit, connected to the display unit at a first edge and a second edge opposite to each other; and

a biometric device as claimed in claim 1, disposed on the display unit or the strip unit for recognizing a biological characteristic of a region of a biological body.

17. The wearable carrier as claimed in claim 16, wherein the biometric device is located on a display surface of the display unit, a back surface of the display unit opposite to the display surface, an outer surface of the strip unit or an inner surface of the strip unit opposite to the outer surface.

18. A wearable carrier, adapted to be worn on a user, the wearable carrier comprising:

a display unit;

the biometric device as claimed in claim 7, disposed on the display unit or the strip unit for recognizing a biological characteristic of a region of a biological body.

19. The wearable carrier as claimed in claim 18, wherein the biometric device is located on a display surface of the display unit, a back surface of the display unit opposite to the display surface, an outer surface of the strip unit or an inner surface of the strip unit opposite to the outer surface.

20. A biometric method, comprising:

receiving a characteristic image data;

coupling a region of a biological body to a biometric device, wherein the biometric device comprises a plurality of photosensing units and a plurality of infrared light emitting diodes, and the photosensing units are disposed corresponding to the infrared light emitting diodes, and each of the infrared light emitting diodes is adapted to emit a light to the region of the biological body;

sequentially lighting at least a part of the infrared light emitting diodes and sequentially turning on the corresponding photosensing units, and making the corresponding photosensing units to receive the lights scattered by the region to respectively generate a recognition sensing image; and

comparing the recognition sensing image with the characteristic image data, and outputting a recognition result according to a comparison result.

21. The biometric method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the corresponding photosensing units are turned on at the same time while, before or after at least a part of the infrared light emitting diodes are sequentially lighted.

22. The biometric method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the characteristic image data is a vein image database.

23. The biometric method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the biometric device further comprises a substrate and an optical layer, the optical layer comprises a diffraction pattern, the infrared light emitting diodes are disposed on the diffraction pattern of the optical layer, and the infrared light emitting diodes are located between the region of the biological body and the photosensing units, and the optical layer is located between the infrared light emitting diodes and the photosensing unit.

24. The biometric method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the biometric device further comprises a substrate and an optical layer, the infrared light emitting diodes are disposed on the substrate, and the infrared light emitting diodes and the photosensing units are arranged in interleaving, the optical layer comprises a plurality of lens portions, the lens portions are aligned to a part of the photosensing units, an orthogonal projection of each of the lens portions on the substrate is overlapped with an orthogonal projection of the corresponding photosensing unit on the substrate, and the lens portions are located between the region of the biological body and the corresponding photosensing units.

25. The biometric method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the region of the biological body comprises a vein.