Recent Patents in Signal Processing (July 2013) - Liveness Detection in Biometrics

For our July 2013 issue, we review recent patents in the area of liveness detection. With the increasing proliferation of biometric authentication schemes, it is a challenge for devices to determine whether a biometric supplied for authentication is being provided by a real person, rather then being a spoof, such as a picture of a person's face, or a latex patch imprinted with realistic fingerprint ridges. We present below recent IP in this field:

US 8,442,824, "Device, system, and method of liveness detection utilizing voice biometrics", by A. Aley-Raz, N. Krausem M. Salmon, R. Gazit, filed 25 November 2009, issued 14 May 2013, assigned to Nuance Communications, Inc. (Burlington, MA).

US 8,355,530, "Liveness detection method and apparatus of video image", by G. -T. Park, H. Wang and Y. -S. Moon, filed 13 August 2007, issued 15 January 2013, assigned to Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Suwon-Si, Korea).

US 8,098,906, "Regional fingerprint liveness detection systems and methods", by S. Schuckers, L. Hornak, B.Tan, filed 10 October 2007, issued 17 January 2012, assigned to West Virginia University Research Corp., WVU Office of Technology Transfer & WVU Business Incubator (Morgantown, WV).

US 8,090,163, "Multi-resolutional texture analysis fingerprint liveness systems and methods", by S. Schuckers, A. Abhyankar and L. Hornak, filed 10 October 2007, issued 3 January 2012, assigned to West Virginia University Research Corp. (Morgantown, WV) and WVU Office of Technology Transfer & WVU Business Incubator (Morgantown, WV).

US 8,437,513, "Spoof detection for biometric authentication", by R. Derakhshani, C. Hughlett, J. Paben, J. Teply and T. Rush, filed 10 August 2012, issued 7 May 2013, assigned to EyeVerify LLC (Kansas City, KS).

US 8,275,178, "Software based method for finger spoof detection and related devices", by M. Boshra, filed 18 June 2009, issued 25 September 2012, assigned to Authentec, Inc. (Melbourne, FL).

US 8,180,118, "Finger sensing device with spoof reduction features and associated methods", by J. Neil and J. Tykowski, filed 19 June 2007, issued 15 May 2012, assigned to Authentec, Inc. (Melbourne, FL).

US 8,317,325, "Apparatus and method for two eye imaging for iris identification", by D. Raguin and J. Cambier, filed 31 October 2008, issued 27 November 2012, assigned to Cross Match Technologies, Inc. (Palm Beach Gardens, FL).

US 8,280,120, "Fraud resistant biometric financial transaction system and method", by H. Hoyos and K. Hanna, filed 2 October 2007, issued 2 October 2012, assigned to Eyelock Inc. (Caguas, Puerto Rico).

US 8,229,178, "Method and apparatus for personal identification using palmprint and palm vein", by D. Zhang, G. Lu, Z. Guo, and N. Luo, filed 18 August 2009, issued 24 July 2012, assigned to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong).

US 8,285,010, "Biometrics based on locally consistent features", by R. Rowe, filed 19 March 2008, issued 9 October 2012, assigned to Lumidigm, Inc. (Albuquerque, NM).

If you have an interesting patent to share when we next feature patents related to biometrics, 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).