US-12625937-B2 - Method and apparatus to dynamically control facial illumination

Abstract

Systems and methods for authenticating a user in an authentication system using a computing device configured to capture authentication biometric identity information. The authentication biometric identify information captured during an authentication session. The authentication biometric identify information may comprise or be derived from one or more images of the user being authenticated. The authentication biometric identify information is compared to root identify biometric information. The root identify biometric information is captured from a trusted source, such as trusted devices located at trusted locations, such as a government entity, financial institution, or business. Identity verification may occur by comparing the trusted root identify biometric information to the biometric identify information captured during an authentication session. Liveness determination may also occur to verify the user is a live person. Liveness determination may include comparing two images of the user such that the two images are captured at different distances from the user.

Inventors

• Kevin Alan Tussy

Assignees

• FACETEC, INC.

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20241018

Claims (18)

1. 1 . A method for evaluating a user's face with a computing device, the computing device having an associated camera and screen, comprising: capturing one or more images of a user's face with a camera associated with the computing device; processing the one or more images to identify the user's face in the one or more images; processing at least one of the one or more images to evaluate an illumination level of all of the user's face, a first portion of the user's face, and a second portion of the user's face; responsive to an illumination level of all of the user's face, the first portion of the user's face, and the second portion of the user's face being within a threshold illumination level, maintaining screen brightness levels; responsive to an illumination level of all of the user's face being below the threshold illumination level, increasing the brightness of the entire screen to adjust the illumination level of the user's face; responsive to an illumination level of the first portion or second portion of the user's face being below the threshold illumination level, determining a first portion of the a screen which opposes the first portion of the user's face and a second portion of the screen which opposes the second portion of the user's face; responsive to the first portion of the user's face having an illumination level below the threshold illumination level, increasing the brightness of the first portion of the screen; and responsive to the second portion of the user's face having an illumination level below the threshold illumination level, increasing the brightness of the second portion of the screen.
2. 2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the evaluation is liveness and three-dimensionality detection.
3. 3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the evaluation is three-dimensionality detection and identity verification.
4. 4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more images comprises a first image and a second image and the method further comprises; comparing the first image to the second image to evaluate differences between the first image and the second image to verify that the one or more images were captured from a live three-dimensional face; and comparing the first image, the second image, or both to a previously captured and stored image to verify identify of the user.
5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more images comprises a first image and a second image and capturing the second image occurs at a distance between the user's face and the camera that is different than a distance between the user's face and the camera when the first image was captured.
6. 6 . The method of claim 1 further comprising detecting portions of the user's face which are at an illumination level that is greater than a maximum illumination level and decreasing screen brightness of at portions of the screen which oppose the portions of the user's face which are at an illumination level that is greater than the maximum illumination level.
7. 7 . The method of claim 1 further comprising balancing the illumination of the user's face by also reducing brightness of a portion of the screen that does not have its brightness level increased.
8. 8 . A system for dynamically balancing illumination of a user's face during an authentication session: a computing device that includes a screen, a camera, a processor, and a memory, the memory configured with non-transitory processor executable code capable of being executed by the processor, the processor executable code configured to: capture one or more images of the user's face with the camera during an authentication session, such that the user's face is facing the screen; analyze an illumination level of all of the user's face in at least one of the one or more images in relation to a threshold illumination level; responsive to the illumination level of all of the user's face, as shown in the at least one of the one or more images, being below the threshold illumination level, adjust the brightness of the screen to adjust the illumination level of the user's face; analyze one or more brightness differentials between one or more bright areas of the user's face and one or more dark areas of the user's face in at least one of the one or more images of the user's face in relation to one or more brightness differential thresholds; responsive to the one or more brightness differentials of the user's face in the at least one of the one or more images being outside of one or more brightness differential thresholds, control screen brightness in portions of the screen to establish the brightness levels of the user's face to be within a brightness range that is suitable for authentication based on the one or more brightness differential thresholds; and continue to monitor the one or more brightness differentials of the user's face during the authentication session and dynamically adjusting screen brightness to maintain the one or more brightness differentials of the user's face or portions thereof to be within the brightness range that is suitable for authentication based on the one or more brightness differential thresholds.
9. 9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the processor executable code is further configured to decrease brightness of one or more portions of the screen that oppose the one or more bright area of the user's face.
10. 10 . The system of claim 8 wherein the one or more brightness differential thresholds include maximum brightness threshold, minimum brightness threshold, and brightness differential threshold.
11. 11 . The system of claim 8 wherein capturing images of the user's face during an authentication session comprises capturing at least one image at a first distance between the user's face and the camera and capturing at least one image at a second distance between the user's face and the camera, the first distance different than the second distance.
12. 12 . The system of claim 11 wherein authentication includes comparing the at least one image captured at a first distance to the at least one image captured at a second distance to expected differences and only authenticating when the expected differences resulting from the change in distance are present in the comparison.
13. 13 . The system of claim 8 wherein dynamically adjusting screen brightness to maintain the illumination levels of the user's face in the at least one of the one or more images to be within the one or more brightness differential thresholds comprises adjusting a portion of the screen brighter while leaving other portions of the screen unchanged.
14. 14 . A method for balancing illumination of a user's face during a session that evaluates liveness, facial three-dimensionality, or both comprising: capturing images of a user's face with a computing device, the computing device having a camera, a screen, a processor, and memory, the memory configured with non-transitory machine executable code executable by the processor; analyzing the illumination levels of the user's face in at least one of the captured images to determine if the illumination level of the user's face is too low, causing the user's face to be too dark, or if one or more portions of the user's face have illumination levels that are outside of a range of brightness levels suitable for authentication processing based on one or more threshold illumination levels; and responsive to the monitoring determining that all or one or more portions of the user's face have illumination levels that are outside of the range of illumination levels suitable for authentication processing, dynamically increasing or decreasing brightness of all of the screen or one or more portions of the screen to establish the illumination levels of all or one or more portions of the user's face within the range of illumination levels suitable for authentication processing, wherein the illumination levels suitable for evaluation are based on a brightness differential between bright areas of the user's face and dark areas of the user's face, and the evaluation is processing that evaluates liveness, facial three-dimensionality, or both.
15. 15 . The method of claim 14 wherein dynamically increasing or decreasing illumination of one or more portions of the screen comprises increasing illumination of portions of the screen which oppose areas of the user's face which have illumination levels which are below the range of illumination levels suitable for evaluation.
16. 16 . The method of claim 15 wherein dynamically increasing or decreasing illumination of one or more portions of the screen comprises decreasing illumination of portions of the screen which oppose areas of the user's face which have illumination levels which are above the range of illumination levels suitable for evaluation.
17. 17 . The method of claim 14 wherein the monitoring and dynamically increasing or decreasing illumination of one or more portions of the screen occurs in real time during the session to adjust to changes in illumination of the user's face during the evaluation.
18. 18 . The method of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises capturing a first image with the camera separated from the user's face by a first distance and capturing a second image with the camera separated from the user's face by a second distance, the second distance being different than the first distance, and adjusting screen brightness during capture of the first image and the second image to maintain illumination of the user's face to be within a range which causes the user's face in the first image and the second image to be at an illumination levels that are within a predetermined range of brightness levels which is suitable for the evaluation.

Description

BACKGROUND 1. Field of the Invention The disclosed embodiments relate to biometric security. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to facial recognition authentication systems. 2. Related Art With the growth of personal electronic devices that may be used to access many different user accounts, and the increasing threat of identity theft and other security issues, there is a growing need for ways to securely access user accounts via electronic devices. Account holders are thus often required to have longer passwords that meet various criteria such as using a mixture of capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and other symbols. With smaller electronic devices, such as smart phones, smart watches, “Internet of Things” (“IoT”) devices and the like, it may become cumbersome to attempt to type such long passwords into the device each time access to the account is desired and if another individual learns the user's password then the user can be impersonated without actually being present themselves. In some instances, users may even decide to deactivate such cumbersome security measures due to their inconvenience on their devices. Thus, users of such devices may prefer other methods of secure access to their user accounts. One other such method may be with biometrics. For example, an electronic device may have a dedicated sensor that may scan a user's fingerprint to determine that the person requesting access to a device or an account is authorized. However, such fingerprint systems are often prohibitively expensive for use on a small electronic device, or are often considered unreliable and unsecure. In addition, facial recognition is generally known and may be used in a variety of contexts. Two-dimensional facial recognition is commonly used to tag people in images on social networks or in photo editing software. Facial recognition software, however, has not been widely implemented on its own to securely authenticate users attempting to gain access to an account because it is not considered secure enough. For example, two-dimensional facial recognition is considered unsecure because faces may be photographed or recorded, and then the resulting prints or video displays showing images of the user may be used to trick the system. Accordingly, there is a need for reliable, cost-effective, and convenient method to authenticate users attempting to log in to, for example, a user account. SUMMARY The disclosed embodiments have been developed in light of the above and aspects of the invention may include a method for enrolling and authenticating a user in an authentication system via a user's mobile computing device. The user's device includes a camera and at least one movement detecting sensor, such as an accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyroscope. In one embodiment, the user may enroll in the system by providing enrollment images of the user's face. The enrollment images are taken by the camera of the mobile device as the user moves the mobile device to different positions relative to the user's head. The user may thus obtain enrollment images showing the user's face from different angles and distances. The system may also utilize one or more movement sensors of a mobile device to determine an enrollment movement path that the phone takes during the imaging. At least one image is processed to detect the user's face within the image, and to obtain biometric information from the user's face in the image. The image processing may be done on the user's mobile device or at a remote device, such as an authentication server or a user account server. The enrollment information (the enrollment biometrics, movement, and other information) may be stored on the mobile device or remote device or both. The system may then authenticate a user by the user providing at least one authentication image via the camera of the mobile device while the user moves the mobile device to different positions relative to the user's head. The authentication images are processed for face detection and facial biometric information. Path parameters may also be obtained during the imaging of the authentication images (authentication movement). The authentication information (authentication biometric, movement, and other information) is then compared with the enrollment information to determine whether the user should be authenticated or denied. Image processing and comparison may be conducted on the user's mobile device, or may be conducted remotely. In some embodiments, multiple enrollment profiles may be created by a user to provide further security. For example, a user may create an enrollment wearing accessories such as a hat or glasses, or while making a funny face. In further embodiments, the user's enrollment information may be linked to a user's email address, phone number, or other unique identifier. The authentication system may include feedback displayed on the mobile device to aid a user in learning and authentication with the