Patent Issued for Toggling Biometric Authentication (USPTO 10,432,621)

2019 OCT 16 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Vo, Hoang Trung (San Antonio, TX); Harris, John Raymond (San Antonio, TX); Tijerina, Rochelle Ann (San Antonio, TX), filed on February 24, 2016, was published online on October 14, 2019.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,432,621, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “User authentication is implemented to ensure that a user is who they purport to be. For example, a user of a computing device can attempt to log into a back-end system. User authentication can be implemented to ensure that the user is authorized to log into the back-end system. In some examples, authentication can be achieved based on user credentials (e.g., username password).

“Biometric authentication enables users to be authenticated based on physical features that are unique to the user (e.g., facial features, voice). Biometric authentication is advantageous in that it is not easily spoofed, and that it does not require the user to remember credentials (e.g., username, password). Forms of biometric authentication, however, might not be appropriate for a particular environment that the user is in. For example, facial recognition and/or voice recognition might not be appropriate forms of biometric authentication, while the user is in a movie theater.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “This specification relates to enabling users to select an authentication form from a plurality of authentication forms to enable secure log-in.

“Implementations of the present disclosure are generally directed to enabling users to select an authentication form from a plurality of authentication forms to enable secure log-in. More particularly, implementations of the present disclosure are directed to providing a plurality of authentication forms and enabling selection of an authentication form to authenticate a user.

“In general, innovative aspects of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include actions of receiving user input indicating a first user selection of a first form of biometric authentication from a plurality of forms of biometric authentication, providing a first interface for display on a user device, the first interface corresponding to the first form, receiving first biometric data, the first biometric data being provided using the first interface, and selectively enabling user access to data based on the first biometric data. Other implementations of this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs, configured to perform the actions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices.

“These and other implementations can each optionally include one or more of the following features: selectively enabling user access to data based on the first biometric data includes receiving an indication that a user of the user device has been authenticated based on the first biometric data, and in response, enabling communication between the user device and a back-end system; selectively enabling user access to data based on the first biometric data includes receiving an indication that a user of the user device cannot be authenticated based on the first user input, and in response, providing a menu for display on the user device, the menu displaying at least a second form of biometric authentication for selection by the user; the first form of biometric authentication is absent from the menu; actions further include: receiving user input indicating a second user selection of the second form of biometric authentication, providing a second interface for display on the user device, the second interface corresponding to the second form, receiving second biometric data, the second biometric data being provided using the second interface, and selectively enabling communication between the user device and a back-end system based on the second biometric data; actions further include providing a menu for display on the user device, the menu including graphical representations of each form of biometric authentication from the plurality of forms of biometric authentication, the first user selection being provided based on the menu; actions further include receiving a user selection from a selection screen displayed on the user device, wherein the menu is provided in response to the user selection; each graphical representation corresponds to a form of biometric authentication that the user has established with the back-end system; each graphical representation corresponds to a form of biometric authentication that the user device is capable of providing data for; the plurality of forms of biometric authentication includes two or more of facial recognition, voice recognition, fingerprint recognition, iris recognition, retina recognition, hand geometry recognition, and vein recognition; and enabling user access to data includes enabling communication between the user device and a back-end system.

“The details of one or more implementations of the subject matter described in this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A computer-implemented method comprising: storing a plurality of known locations and a plurality of functions, wherein each function of the plurality of functions is associated with a respective known location of the plurality of known locations; determining a current location of a user device; comparing the current location of the user device to the plurality of known locations and, based on the comparing, determining that the current location of the user device corresponds to a known location of the plurality of known locations; determining a plurality of suggested authentication forms that are appropriate for the known location based on a function of the plurality of functions that is associated with the known location; providing, for presentation on the user device, a first authentication interface that corresponds to a first authentication form, wherein the first authentication form is indicated, in a user profile for a user of the user device, as a default authentication form previously selected by the user; receiving first authentication data provided through the first authentication interface; in response to receiving an indication that the user of the user device cannot be authenticated based on the first authentication data, providing, for presentation on the user device, a menu indicating the plurality of suggested authentication forms, wherein the first authentication form is absent from the menu; receiving, via selection through the menu, an indication of a selected authentication form that is selected from the plurality of suggested authentication forms; providing, for presentation on the user device, an authentication interface that corresponds to the selected authentication form; receiving authentication data provided through the authentication interface; and in response to authenticating a user of the user device based on the authentication data, establishing a communication session between the user device and a back-end system.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a user selection to access a service provided by a back-end system, wherein the user selection is received from a selection screen displayed on the user device, and wherein the menu is provided in response to the user selection to access the service.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of suggested authentication forms include one or more of facial recognition, voice recognition, fingerprint recognition, iris recognition, retina recognition, hand geometry recognition, vein recognition, and personal identification number (PIN) recognition.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the menu presents a graphical representation for each of the plurality of suggested authentication forms.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of suggested authentication forms has been previously established, by a user of the user device, with a back-end system.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device is capable of accepting authentication data for each of the plurality of suggested authentication forms.

“7. A system comprising: a data store for storing a plurality of known locations and a plurality of functions, wherein each function of the plurality of functions is associated with a respective known location of the plurality of known locations; and at least one processor configured to interact with the data store, the at least one processor being further configured to execute computer-readable instructions to perform operations comprising: determining a current location of a user device; comparing the current location of the user device to the plurality of known locations and, based on the comparing, determining that the current location of the user device corresponds to a known location of the plurality of known locations; determining a plurality of suggested authentication forms that are appropriate for the known location based on a function of the plurality of functions that is associated with the known location; providing, for presentation on the user device, a first authentication interface that corresponds to a first authentication form, wherein the first authentication form is indicated, in a user profile for a user of the user device, as a default authentication form previously selected by the user; receiving first authentication data provided through the first authentication interface; in response to receiving an indication that the user of the user device cannot be authenticated based on the first authentication data, providing, for presentation on the user device, a menu indicating the plurality of suggested authentication forms, wherein the first authentication form is absent from the menu; receiving, via selection through the menu, an indication of a selected authentication form; providing, for presentation on the user device, an authentication interface that corresponds to the selected authentication form; receiving authentication data provided through the authentication interface; and in response to authenticating the user of the user device based on the authentication data, establishing a communication session between the user device and a back-end system.

“8. The system of claim 7, the operations further comprising: providing, for presentation on the user device, a first authentication interface that corresponds to a first authentication form; receiving first authentication data provided through the first authentication interface; and in response to receiving an indication that a user of the user device cannot be authenticated based on the first authentication data, providing the menu indicating the plurality of suggested authentication forms.

“9. One or more non-transitory computer storage media storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: storing a plurality of known locations and a plurality of functions, wherein each function of the plurality of functions is associated with a respective known location of the plurality of known locations; determining a current location of a user device; comparing the current location of the user device to the plurality of known locations and, based on the comparing, determining that the current location of the user device corresponds to a known location of the plurality of known locations; determining a plurality of suggested authentication forms that are appropriate for the known location based on a function of the plurality of functions that is associated with the known location; providing, for presentation on the user device, a first authentication interface that corresponds to a first authentication form, wherein the first authentication form is indicated, in a user profile for a user of the user device, as a default authentication form previously selected by the user; receiving first authentication data provided through the first authentication interface; in response to receiving an indication that the user of the user device cannot be authenticated based on the first authentication data, providing, for presentation on the user device, a menu indicating the plurality of suggested authentication forms, wherein the first authentication form is absent from the menu; receiving, via selection through the menu, an indication of a selected authentication form; providing, for presentation on the user device, an authentication interface that corresponds to the selected authentication form; receiving authentication data provided through the authentication interface; and in response to authenticating the user of the user device based on the authentication data, establishing a communication session between the user device and a back-end system.

“10. The one or more non-transitory computer storage media of claim 9, the operations further comprising: providing, for presentation on the user device, a first authentication interface that corresponds to a first authentication form; receiving first authentication data provided through the first authentication interface; and in response to receiving an indication that a user of the user device cannot be authenticated based on the first authentication data, providing the menu indicating the plurality of suggested authentication forms.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the plurality of suggested authentication forms that are appropriate for the known location, and the providing, for presentation on the user device, the menu indicating the plurality of suggested authentication forms are performed in response to detecting at least two failed attempts to authenticate the user of the user device based on unusable authentication data using a first authentication form that is different than the plurality of suggested authentication forms.

“12. The method of claim 1, comprising: receiving an indication that an authentication attempt via the authentication interface failed; and providing, for presentation on the user device, an indication of why the authentication attempt failed.

“13. The method of claim 1, wherein the function that is associated with the known location is movie theater, wherein the plurality of suggested authentication forms comprise personal identification number (PIN) recognition but do not comprise facial recognition or voice recognition.

“14. The method of claim 1, wherein the function that is associated with the known location is library, wherein the plurality of suggested authentication forms comprise facial recognition and personal identification number (PIN) recognition but do not comprise voice recognition.

“15. The system of claim 7, wherein the function that is associated with the known location is movie theater, wherein the plurality of suggested authentication forms comprise personal identification number (PIN) recognition but do not comprise facial recognition or voice recognition.

“16. The system of claim 7, wherein the function that is associated with the known location is movie theater, wherein the plurality of suggested authentication forms comprise personal identification number (PIN) recognition but do not comprise facial recognition or voice recognition.

“17. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute computer-readable instructions to perform operations comprising: receiving first authentication data provided through the first authentication interface; and determining that the first authentication data is unusable, wherein the determining the plurality of suggested authentication forms that are appropriate for the known location, and the providing, for presentation on the user device, the menu indicating the plurality of suggested authentication forms are performed in response to determining that the first authentication data is unusable.”

For more information, see this patent: Vo, Hoang Trung; Harris, John Raymond; Tijerina, Rochelle Ann. Toggling Biometric Authentication. U.S. Patent Number 10,432,621, filed February 24, 2016, and published online on October 14, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,432,621.PN.&OS=PN/10,432,621RS=PN/10,432,621

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