Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B5/00—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
  • A61B5/117—Identification of persons
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F18/00—Pattern recognition
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06V—IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING
  • G06V10/00—Arrangements for image or video recognition or understanding
  • G06V10/10—Image acquisition
  • G06V10/12—Details of acquisition arrangements; Constructional details thereof
  • G06V10/14—Optical characteristics of the device performing the acquisition or on the illumination arrangements
  • G06V10/143—Sensing or illuminating at different wavelengths
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06V—IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING
  • G06V40/00—Recognition of biometric, human-related or animal-related patterns in image or video data
  • G06V40/10—Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07C—TIME OR ATTENDANCE REGISTERS; REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE WORKING OF MACHINES; GENERATING RANDOM NUMBERS; VOTING OR LOTTERY APPARATUS; ARRANGEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE
  • G07C9/00—Individual registration on entry or exit
  • G07C9/20—Individual registration on entry or exit involving the use of a pass
  • G07C9/22—Individual registration on entry or exit involving the use of a pass in combination with an identity check of the pass holder
  • G07C9/25—Individual registration on entry or exit involving the use of a pass in combination with an identity check of the pass holder using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06V—IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING
  • G06V40/00—Recognition of biometric, human-related or animal-related patterns in image or video data
  • G06V40/10—Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
  • G06V40/14—Vascular patterns

Definitions

• the present invention relates to information concerned with the body of an individual. It relates particularly to the identi ication of individuals and more particularly to obtaining information regarding a portion of the body of an individual and comparing that information with predetermined information regarding that portion.
• GB-A-2156127 describes an arrangement in which the arrangement of subcutaneous blood vessels in an individual is detected by scanning the relevant region of the individual's body and then compared with a predetermined pattern. In GB-A-2156127, a number of methods of locating such blood vessels are disclosed, all of which methods involve physical contact between the sensor and the slcin of the individual in question.
• GB-A-1593001 describes the identification of individuals through their retinal vasculature patterns. However, this requires the individual to place his eyes in an apparatus for scanning. Although it is suggested that each retinal image is unique to an individual, the necessity of placing one's eyes in a scanning apparatus could be socially unacceptable to many individuals.
• US-A-4032889 discloses a palm print identification system, but here also a scanning probe is in contact with the individual's palm.
• apparatus for identifying an individual comprising means for forming an image of a selected portion of the body of the individual, means for extracting information from said image and means for comparing said information with predetermined information.
• the information extracted from said image by said apparatus preferably, but not exclusively, relates to the pattern of subcutaneous blood vessels.
• the selected portion is preferably a hand and the subcutaneous blood vessels are veins in said hand.
• apparatus for measuring a vein pattern of an individual comprising means for forming an image of a selected portion of the body of the individual and means for extracting information from said image.
• the means for forming an image preferably comprises camera means spaced from said selected portion.
• the means for extracting information preferably converts information in said image into electrical form.
• a method of identifying an individual comprising the steps of forming an image of a selected portion of the body of the individual, extracting information from said image and comparing said information with predetermined information.
• the information extracted from said image by said method preferably, but not exclusively, relates to the pattern of subcutaneous blood vessels.
• the selected portion used in said method is preferably a hand and the subcutaneous blood vessels are veins in said hand.
• a method of measuring a vein pattern of an individual comprising the steps of forming an image of a selected portion of the body of the individual and extracting information from said image.
• said image is formed preferably by camera means spaced from said selected portion.
• said information extracted from said image is preferably converted into electrical form.
• the electrical form is preferably digital.
• infra-red radiation is preferably used for illuminating said selected portion.
• said selected portion is preferably located in a predetermined position and orientation whilst the image is being formed.
• a charge—coupled device array is preferably used in forming said image.
• FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of part of apparatus of the present invention showing the back of a hand of an individual in position for an image to be produced;
• FIGURE 2 shows a typical vein pattern recorded and displayed by the apparatus of the present invention
• FIGURE 3 shows the variation between a number of vein scans made of the same hand at different times;
• FIGURE A shows the comparison between scans of hands of different individuals;
• FIGURE 5 shows the distributions for (A) comparisons of the same individual, and (B) comparison of different individuals, all based on samples from 30 individuals each measured on a number of different occasions.
• vein pattern in the back of an individual's hand it is emphasised that the present invention is not limited to such an arrangement.
• the vein pattern in the palm of a hand or any other suitable portion of the body could be utilised.
• the present invention could be applied to body features other than vein patterns. That is, any suitable features of the body could be used, for example the line pattern in the palm of a hand, or external shape.
• the right hand of an individual under test is located by first placing the hand on a template 2 in the shape of a hand. The hand is then pushed forwards, in the general direction of an arrow X, until it is hard against a locator 4, and then rotated until it is also hard against a locator 6. At this point, the hand is in the correct position and orientation for an exposure to be made to produce the required image.
• the position and orientation is important to enable reproducibility of measurement to be obtained.
• One or both of the locators A and B could be movable laterally to allow for the size of a hand.
• locators A and B could be provided with a built—in sensor (not shown) to indicate when the hand is properly in position.
• the exposure is made using a camera 8 spaced above the hand.
• the camera could alternatively be spaced below the hand, for example below a transparent screen upon which the hand is placed. With the hand in the same orientation as shown in Figure 1, obviously the vein pattern in the palm of the hand would be measured. With this particular arrangement, the line pattern in the palm of the hand could in fact be measured.
• the camera could be positioned wherever is considered suitable for a particular application, which would depend, for example, on the part of the individual's body that is being measured.
• the camera 8 is based on an infra-red sensitive array, for instance a charge-coupled device (CCD), linked with a microprocessor or computer controller (not shown).
• CCD charge-coupled device
• the camera 8 may conveniently be a commercial camera based on a 1024 element CCD array. For measurement of a vein pattern, only the central 512 elements are recorded and the image reduced as follows:
• a running average of each succeeding 8 bytes is calculated, i.e. bytes 0 to 7, bytes 1 to 8, bytes 2 to 9, etc.
• the camera could alternatively have only the number of elements required for final storage, so that averaging would be physical rather than mathematical.
• Credit cards, bank cards, and similar cards currently have a 40 byte section of magnetic data storage available for future use. For this reason the vein pattern data has been reduced to no more than this level in total. Thus this biometric system is able to be operated using a very small amount of data for comparison.
• the vein pattern may be measured at more than one, preferably two, positions on the rear of the hand. Each image would have data reduced to 20 bytes.
• Automatic exposure level compensation is calculated by a controlling microprocessor system (not shown) and applied by means of a variable light source (not shown).
• the final amplitude of the collected data is expanded or compressed so that the minimum level is 0 and the maximum 128 on an arbitrary scale.
• a microcomputer handles operation and synchronization of the camera 8, recording and storage of the data, and final manipulation of the data by the application of suitable algorithms.
• the data is recorded in the form of an image of the vein pattern and the algorithms are applied to the information in such image.
• the algorithms compare vein pattern data and derive the statistical chances of two vein patterns being from the same individual, so that the operator of the system may set the levels of acceptance and rejection.
• Vein patterns are compared by calculating the mean of the squares of the differences between images. The resulting quantity normally lies between 0 (for a perfect match) and about 80 (for a very bad match). Verification or rejection of a particular individual is based on an assessment of the chances of whether a comparison of his vein pattern with one already recorded places him in distribution A or B in Figure 5.
• the system could measure the vein pattern of an individual and establish by comparison with previously recorded vein patterns, the identity of that individual. This would of course only be effective if it is certain no individuals outside that group will be in a position such as to have their vein patterns scanned by the system.
• the system of the present invention would allow for the verification of an individual attempting to use a credit card, bank card or similar card without the need for a PIN or signature.
• use of the present invention in combination with, for example, a PIN would provide even greater security.
• the present invention has important advantages over other biometric systems in that it is cheap and simple to operate, gives very rapid verification of the individual, and, by use of a camera spaced from the relevant portion of the individual's body, is absolutely non-intrusive

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=10608263

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (8)

Cited By (19)

Families Citing this family (3)

Citations (4)

Family Cites Families (2)

• 1986
  • 1986-12-02 GB GB868628709A patent/GB8628709D0/en active Pending
• 1987
  • 1987-12-02 KR KR1019880700850A patent/KR890700011A/ko not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1987-12-02 EP EP87907796A patent/EP0333741A1/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 1987-12-02 WO PCT/GB1987/000863 patent/WO1988004153A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1987-12-02 JP JP63500082A patent/JPH01503203A/ja active Pending
  • 1987-12-02 AU AU83296/87A patent/AU8329687A/en not_active Abandoned
• 1988
  • 1988-08-01 DK DK429088A patent/DK429088D0/da not_active Application Discontinuation
• 1989
  • 1989-06-02 FI FI892724A patent/FI892724A/fi not_active IP Right Cessation

Patent Citations (4)

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