Recent Patents in Signal Processing (July 2011) - Biometrics

Beginning with our June 2011 edition, we changed the format of the "Recent Patents" coverage. Thus far, we had listed patents issued in the previous 30 days from various signal processing areas. We think that a much better way to cover recent patents is to highlight an interesting area in contemporary signal processing, and provide a listing of the patents that have recently been issued in that area. The aim of this is to draw readers' attention to a field in which active research and development is taking place, and to highlight the most popular topics within that field.

Accordingly, for our July 2011 edition we focus on patents in the area of Biometrics. The selection below includes patents issued within the past year, and includes fingerprint, face, and iris biometrics and biometric cryptosystems. If you have an interesting patent to share when we feature biometrics-related patents the next time, or if you are especially interested in a signal processing research field that you would want to be highlighted in this section, please send email to Shantanu Rane (rane AT merl DOT com).

US 7,971,063, "Method and device for safeguarding of a document with inserted signature image and biometric data in a computer system" by A. Guenther, filed 26 December 2007, issued 28 June 2011, assigned to Stepover GmbH (Stuttgart, DE).

US 7,961,915, "System and method for authenticated and privacy preserving biometric identification systems" by G. Davida, filed 9 April 2010, issued 14 June 2011, assigned to G. Davida (Milwaukee, WI).

US 7,937,590, "Secure identification with biometric data" by L. Wuidart, issued 12 Deptember 2002, issued 3 May 2011, assigned to STMicroelectronics S.A. (Montrouge, FR).

US 7,822,238, "Method, system, and program product for transforming a biometric image" by R. Bolle, S. Chikkerur, J. Connell and N. Ratha, filed 26 June 2008, issued 26 October 2010, assigned to International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, NY) .

US 7,819,311, "Multispectral biometric sensor" by R. Rowe, D. Sidlauskas and R. Harbour, filed 18 May 2006, issued 26 October 2010, assigned to Lumidigm, Inc. (Albuquerque, NM).

US 7,805,614, "Secure local or remote biometric(s) identity and privilege (BIOTOKEN)" by K. Aull, W. Dravell and J. Rekas, filed 31 March 2005, issued 28 September 2010, assigned to Northrop Grumman Corporation (Los Angeles, CA).

US 7,773,784, "Revocable biometrics with robust distance metrics" by T. Boult, filed 27 April 2006, issued 10 August 2010, assigned to University of Colorado Board of Regents (Boulder, CO).

US 7,948,361, "Obtaining biometric identification using a direct electrical contact" by R. Bennett and R. Murakami, filed 19 November 2002, issued 24 May 2011, assigned to Ensign Holdings (Salt Lake City, UT).

US 7,925,059, "Method and apparatus for iris biometric systems for use in an entryway" by H. Hoyos and T. Zappia, filed 9 October 2009, issued 12 April 2011, assigned to SRI International (Menlo Park, CA).

US 7,936,905, "Method, system and program for authenticating a user by biometric information" by K. Takahashi, S. Hirata, H. Hino and M. Mimura, filed 27 March 2007, issued 3 May 2011, assigned to Hitachi, Ltd. (Tokyo, JP).