Patent Issued for Detecting fake user recognition authentication requests (USPTO 11611550): United Services Automobile Association

2023 APR 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Chavez, Carlos J P (San Antonio, TX, US), De’Angeli, Sacha Melquiades (San Antonio, TX, US), Guerra, Oscar (San Antonio, TX, US), Jones, Jr., David M. (San Antonio, TX, US), Meyer, Gregory Brian (San Antonio, TX, US), Russell, Christopher (San Antonio, TX, US), Smith, Arthur Quentin (Fredericksburg, TX, US), filed on March 31, 2020, was published online on March 21, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11611550 is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for electronic authentication of users. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to techniques for increasing an accuracy of detecting inauthentic user requests for an access into protected, secretive, sensitive, and/or personal data associated with an authentic user.

“This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

“Modern organizations typically offer access to services and sensitive data via online portals (e.g., the Internet), which may be accessed from numerous locales across the globe. Because the data and/or services provided by these entities may be valuable, nefarious individuals may attempt to impersonate a user from one of the access sites, in an effort to gain unauthorized access to the data and/or to initiate unauthorized service transactions. To curb these efforts, businesses and other organizations (churches, government, clubs, etc.) typically implement authentication processes. Further, individuals that store sensitive and/or personal information on an electronic device may implement authentication processes to access their electronic devices or accounts or applications associated with their electronic devices. Authentication processes may include asking for username/password combinations. Moreover, some authentication methods include identifying facial features and or a voice of an authentic user to increase a level of security. Unfortunately, hackers (e.g., unauthorized users) have eluded authentication methods that include facial recognition and/or audio recognition processes. Accordingly, improved techniques for authentication are desirable.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Certain embodiments commensurate in scope with the originally claimed subject matter are summarized below. These embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure, but rather these embodiments are intended only to provide a brief summary of certain disclosed embodiments. Indeed, the present disclosure may encompass a variety of forms that may be similar to or different from the embodiments set forth below.

“In an embodiment, an authentication system for granting access to an account associated with a user is provided. The authentication system includes an authenticator having a processor and a memory, which includes a non-transitory, tangible, and computer readable medium. The authenticator receives a request for authentication that identifies a user. The authenticator also accesses an authentication account associated with the user. The authentication account may indicate a smart device associated with the user. The authenticator activates a control parameter of the smart device. The control parameter may cause an effect in a media sample from the smart device. The authenticator receives the media sample from the smart device and determines if the effect corresponding to the control parameter is observed in the media sample. In response to a determination that the effect is not observed in the media sample, the authenticator may indicate that the request for authentication is a fraudulent request.

“In an embodiment, an authentication system for granting access to an account associated with the user is provided. The authentication system includes an authenticator having a processor and a memory that includes a non-transitory, tangible, and computer readable medium. The authenticator may receive, from a computing device, a request for authentication that identifies a characteristic of a user. The authenticator accesses an authentication account associated with the user and having an audio pattern associated with the user based on the characteristic. The authenticator also prompts the user to provide an audio sample and initiate an audio emission via the computing device. The authenticator receives the audio sample from the computing device and determines if the audio sample contains the audio pattern and the audio emission.

“In an embodiment, a non-transitory, tangible, and computer readable medium having instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform actions that include receiving a first audio/video (A/V) sample from a first computing device. The first (A/V) sample is indicative of a request for authentication to an account associated with a user. The processor also determines a location of the first computing device based on a global positioning system (GPS) coupled to the first computing device. The processor discovers a second computing device in a threshold proximity to the location and receives a second A/V sample from the second computing device. The processor compares the first A/V sample to the second A/V sample, and may indicate the first A/V sample as a fraudulent A/V sample in response to a result of a comparison between the first A/V sample and the second A/V sample indicating a different context.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An authentication system for granting access to an account associated with a user, the authentication system comprising: an authenticator comprising a processor and a memory comprising a non-transitory, tangible, and computer-readable medium, the authenticator configured to: receive a request for authentication, the request identifying the user; access an authentication account associated with the user, wherein the authentication account indicates a smart device associated with the user; activate a control parameter of the smart device, wherein the control parameter is configured to cause an effect in a media sample from the smart device; receive the media sample from the smart device and determine if the effect corresponding to the control parameter is observed in the media sample, wherein the media sample includes an audio sample and a video sample that correspond to each other; receive the audio sample and the video sample; determine a first context indicated by the audio sample; determine a second context indicated by the video sample; in response to the first context being different than the second context, determine the video sample and the audio sample are stitched; and in response to a determination that the effect is not observed in the media sample, that the video sample and the audio sample are stitched, or both, indicate that the request for authentication is a fraudulent request.

“2. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the smart device is a mobile device, and wherein the control parameter is a light control parameter of a light emitting feature of the mobile device.

“3. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the smart device is a smart light, and wherein the authenticator is configured to activate the control parameter by sending activation and deactivation instructions to the smart light to activate and deactivate in accordance with a pattern.

“4. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the authenticator is configured to observe the control parameter in the video sample by detecting a light reflection on the user that corresponds to an activation of the control parameter.

“5. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the authentication account contains data corresponding to a plurality of individuals associated with the user, wherein the smart device is associated with an individual of the plurality of individuals.

“6. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the control parameter is a vibration control parameter on the smart device.

“7. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the control parameter is a light control parameter of a light emitting feature of the smart device, and the light control parameter causes a frequency of emitted light from the light emitting feature to be modulated.

“8. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein determining the first context comprises: analyzing background noise in the audio sample; and analyzing a tone of voice of the user in the audio sample.

“9. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein determining the second context comprises analyzing background scenes in the video sample.

“10. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the authenticator is configured to receive the request for authentication from the smart device.

“11. An authentication system for granting access to an account associated with a user, the authentication system comprising: an authenticator comprising a processor and a memory comprising a non-transitory tangible and computer-readable medium, the authenticator configured to: receive, from a computing device, a request for authentication, wherein the request identifies a characteristic of a user; access, based on the characteristic, an authentication account associated with the user, wherein the authentication account comprises an audio pattern associated with the user, wherein the audio pattern comprises a previously authenticated audio pattern; prompt the user to provide an audio sample and initiate an audio emission via the computing device; receive the audio sample from the computing device; determine if the audio sample contains the audio pattern by determining a correlative value indicating a level of relatedness between the audio sample and the previously authenticated audio pattern; determine if the audio sample contains the audio emission; and in response to determining that the audio sample does not contain the audio pattern and the audio emission, indicate the request for authentication as a fraudulent request.

“12. The authentication system of claim 11, wherein the audio emission is characterized by a frequency inaudible to a human ear.

“13. The authentication system of claim 11, wherein the authenticator is configured to receive a video sample corresponding to the audio sample, the video sample identifying the user.

“14. A non-transitory, tangible, and computer-readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform actions comprising: receiving a first audio/video (A/V) sample from a first computing device, the first A/V sample indicative of a request for authentication to an account associated with a user; determining a location of the first computing device, wherein the location is determined based on a global positioning system (GPS) coupled to the first computing device; discovering a second computing device in a threshold proximity to the location; receiving a second A/V sample from the second computing device; comparing the first A/V sample to the second A/V sample; and indicating the first A/V sample as a fraudulent A/V sample in response to a result of a comparison between the first A/V sample and the second A/V sample indicating a different context.

“15. An authentication system for granting access to an account associated with a user, the authentication system comprising: an authenticator comprising a processor and a memory comprising a non- transitory, tangible, and computer-readable medium, the authenticator configured to: receive a request for authentication, the request identifying the user; access an authentication account associated with the user, wherein the authentication account indicates a smart device associated with the user; activate a control parameter of the smart device, wherein the control parameter is configured to cause an effect in a media sample from the smart device, wherein the media sample includes a video sample; receive the media sample from the smart device and determine if the effect corresponding to the control parameter is observed in the media sample; receive an indication of a location comprising a longitude and a latitude; determine an expected angle of shadows based on the longitude and the latitude and a timestamp corresponding to the video sample; calculate an angle of shadows in the video sample based on the video sample; compare the expected angle of shadows to the angle of shadows based on the video sample; and in response to a determination that the effect is not observed in the media sample, that the expected angle of shadows does not match the angle of shadows, or both, indicate that the request for authentication is a fraudulent request.

“16. An authentication system for granting access to an account associated with a user, the authentication system comprising: an authenticator comprising a processor and a memory comprising a non-transitory, tangible, and computer-readable medium, the authenticator configured to: receive a request for authentication, the request identifying the user; access an authentication account associated with the user, wherein the authentication account indicates a smart device associated with the user; activate a control parameter of the smart device, wherein the control parameter is configured to cause an effect in a media sample from the smart device, wherein the media sample includes a video sample and an accompanying audio sample; receive the media sample from the smart device and determine if the effect corresponding to the control parameter is observed in the media sample; determine a first activity or emotion of the user based on the video sample; determine a second activity or emotion of the user based on the accompanying audio sample; compare the first activity or emotion to the second activity or emotion; and in response to a determination that the effect is not observed in the media sample, the first activity or emotion does not correspond to the second activity or emotion, or both, indicate that the request for authentication is a fraudulent request.

“17. The authentication system of claim 16, wherein comparing the first activity or emotion to the second activity or emotion comprises: determining a confidence level corresponding to a relatedness of the first activity or emotion to the second activity or emotion; and determining if the confidence level exceeds a threshold confidence level of a stitching indication.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Chavez, Carlos J P. Detecting fake user recognition authentication requests. U.S. Patent Number 11611550, filed March 31, 2020, and published online on March 21, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11611550)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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