Patent Application
20120056714
The invention pertains security and particularly to controlled access or presence of individuals relative to an area or facility. More particularly, the invention pertains to use of biometrics to deny access or presence.
The invention is a biometric exclusion and/or enrollment system. The biometric exclusion system uses biometric acquisition and matching and a database to screen a large population of subjects looking for members enrolled in a database. There may be two systems. An enrollment system may be used to enroll subjects into a database and a screening system may be used to match subjects against the database.
There are many applications where a large population needs to be screened to keep out a small subset of individuals. In general, the objective is to prevent certain individuals from entering a facility but do it in a way that does not cause undo delay or hardship for the majority of the population that is permitted to enter. An example of this may be at a casino where a small list of individuals has been registered to be excluded from the facility. A system is needed to monitor all people coming into the facility to make sure that excluded individuals do not successfully enter.
The biometric exclusion system may use biometric feature (biometric) acquisition and matching, and a database to screen a large population of subjects by looking for members enrolled in a database. There may be two systems. An enrollment system may be used to enroll subjects into a database and a screening system may be used to match all subjects against the database.
If there is a database match on the biometric of the subject, then the subject may be denied access to the facility if the database match indicates that the subject is to be excluded, such as being on a list of individuals to be denied entry to a facility. This list may include volunteers requesting to be excluded because of perhaps wishing to break an addition of spending money at a casino. Exclusion of the subject would depend on whether the biographical information stored and associated with the subject's biometric features in the database indicate the subject to be undesirable for reasons of being, for example, one of those on the list to be excluded. If there are no compelling reasons for exclusion, the subject could still be admitted despite being listed in the database. Denying access may be done by activating a physical barrier such as a gate arm, or by alerting an operator at the facility. The system may alert an operator to the match, display the biographical information to the operator, and let the operator evaluate the biographical information in order to make a decision whether to admit the subject. When the system is reset by the operator, the system may loop back to detection and acquisition to check out a new subject.
The flow diagram of system 11 in
If the answer is yes to the question at symbol 16, then the biometric may be looked up at symbol 17 in a biometric database 18. At symbol 19, after a search of database 18, a question as to whether there is a match or not is asked. If the answer is no, then the biometric may be enrolled at symbol 20 in the biometric database 18. If the answer is yes to the question at symbol 19, then a question as to whether to allow duplicate biometric entries may be asked at symbol 21. If the answer is yes to the question, then the biometric may be enrolled symbol 20 as another one in biometric database 18. Some systems may allow duplicate entries to improve performance. If the answer is no at symbol 21, then symbol 22 may indicate that there is no need to enroll in the database 18. Items 17, 18 and 19 may constitute a database check module 27. An enrollment module 28 of system 11 may have items 20, 21 and 22.
The flow diagram of system 12 in
To recap, an approach for checking visitors may incorporate detecting a subject attempting to enter a facility, acquiring a biometric signal from the subject, extracting a biometric of the subject from the biometric signal, and performing a quality measure on the biometric to determine whether the quality of the biometric is sufficient for matching to another like biometric. If the quality measure of the biometric is acceptable, then a biometric, which matches the biometric of the subject, may be looked for in a biometric database to determine whether the subject can be admitted to the facility. Acquisition of a biometric from a subject and matching or comparing it with other biometrics may be performed in various ways. Some ways may be more direct than others.
If a biometric is found in the database, which matches the biometric of the subject, then the subject may be denied entry to the facility. Such facility may be a casino, a secured or restricted access compound, or the like. Access to the facility may be physically controlled by gates, guards, or other ways.
If a biometric, which matches the biometric of the subject, is not found in the database, then the subject may be admitted into the facility. Further, if the biometric, which matches the biometric of the subject, is not found in the database, the biometric of the subject may be enrolled in the database for one or more various purposes.
Since there may be an accommodation for storing in the database information pertinent to a person having a biometric listed in the database, the approach might further incorporate reviewing whether there is biographical information or other information associated with the biometric listed which matches the biometric of the subject, sufficient to support permitting entry by the subject into the facility despite having a biometric matching one listed in the database. The information could support or confirm a denial of entry.
The biometric of the subject may be enrolled in the database if there is a biometric in the database that matches the biometric of the subject and enrolling duplicate biometrics in the database is allowed. A decision whether to enroll the biometric of the subject in the database may be based on biographical information or other information associated with a biometric in the database that matches the biometric of the subject, or by an authorized decision or direction. An authority may be alerted if there is unusual or new information, or if additional action should be taken relative to the subject based on the biographical or other information.
The approach may incorporate detecting a subject attempting to enter a facility and acquiring a biometric from the subject without knowledge of the subject. The approach may instead or also incorporate detecting a subject attempting to enter a facility and acquiring a biometric from the subject without cooperation of the subject. The acquired biometric may be a face or an iris, or a combination of the face and the iris. It could be another kind of biometric. Various aspects of the present approach or system may occur without knowledge or cooperation of the subject.
In the present specification, some of the matter may be of a hypothetical or prophetic nature although stated in another manner or tense.
Although the present system has been described with respect to at least one illustrative example, many variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the specification. It is therefore the intention that the appended claims be interpreted as broadly as possible in view of the prior art to include all such variations and modifications.
