METHOD FOR AUTHENTICATING A USER OF AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This non-provisional application claims priority of U.S. provisional application No. 62/539,579, filed on Aug. 1, 2017, included herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

1. Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure is related to an authentication method, and more particularly, a method for authenticating a user of an electronic device.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Since mobile devices become more and more powerful, mobile devices have become an important part in our daily lives not only in terms of entertainment, but also in terms of daily necessity. For example, the mobile payment is one of the rapid growing applications on the mobile devices. With the mobile payment, users can make purchases with their mobile devices instead of cash.

However, as a mobile device becomes more and more dipped into various aspects of our life, the information security of the mobile device arouses to higher attention. For example, if the mobile device is taken away by a third person, the third person may be able to make purchases through the mobile device without the consent of the owner. In related art, a set of letters, numbers and symbols may be used as an authorization code to authenticate such kind of functions. However, the safety of the authorization code is doubtable since it may be copied or broken by the third person. To increase the safety, the authorization code must be complicate enough. However, it also brings burden to the user since the long and complicate authorization code can be difficult to memorize for most of the people.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

One embodiment of the present disclosure discloses a method for authenticating a user of an electronic device. The electronic device includes a display area, at least one signal source, and at least one biometric sensor. The method includes presenting a data collecting region at the display area, transmitting a first signal to the user by the at least one signal source, receiving a second signal induced by the user according to the first signal via the data collecting region by the at least one biometric sensor, acquiring biometric data of the user according to the second signal, comparing the biometric data with reference data, invoking a function when the biometric data matches with the reference data, and hiding the data collecting region from the display area.

Another embodiment of the present disclosure discloses a method for authenticating a user of an electronic device. The electronic device includes at least one signal source and at least one biometric sensor. The method includes transmitting a first signal to the user by the at least one signal source, receiving a second signal by the at least one biometric sensor wherein the second signal is induced by the user according to the first signal, acquiring biometric data of the user according to the second signal, comparing the biometric data with a reference data, and invoking a function when the biometric data matches with the reference data.

These and other objectives of the present disclosure will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an electronic device according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 shows a scenario of using the electronic device in FIG. 1 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 shows the flow chart of the method for authenticating a user of the electronic device in FIG. 1 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 shows the flow chart of the method for authenticating a user of the electronic device in FIG. 1 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of an electronic device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 shows the flow chart of the method for authenticating a user of the electronic device in FIG. 5 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 shows a scenario of using the electronic device in FIG. 5 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an electronic device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The electronic device 100 includes a display panel 110, a signal source 120, and a biometric sensor 130, a processor 140, and a memory 150. In some embodiments, the electronic device 100 can be a mobile device such as a smart phone, tablet or notebook.

The display panel 110 can be, for example but not limited to, a liquid-crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a quantum dot (QD) display, a mini-LED display, or a micro-LED (light emitting diode) display. FIG. 2 shows a scenario of using the electronic device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. In FIG. 2, the display panel 110 can display the desired content through the display area 112.

The signal source 120 can be disposed under the display area 112 so the signal transmitted by the signal source 120 can reach to the user through the display area 112. Or, the signal source 120 can be disposed in other positions rather than under the display area 112 and transmits a signal to the user. Also, the biometric sensor 130 can be disposed adjacent to the signal source 120 so the biometric sensor 130 can receive the signal induced by the user to acquire the biometric data of the user. It should be noted that “display area 112” indicates an area of the electronic device 100 used to display content and “data collecting region 112A” indicates a region of the electronic device 100 used to collect biometric data in a top view shown in FIG. 2. Because the biometric sensor 130 can be disposed on any layer in the electronic device 100, the present disclosure does not limit the area or region to be located on any specific layer of the electronic device 100. Therefore, “receiving a signal via the data collecting region” refers to the signal passing through the data collecting region 112A, and the data collecting region 112A can be located on any layer in the electronic device 100 according to different embodiments. For example, if the biometric sensor 130 is embedded in the display panel, “the display area 112” and the “data collecting region 112A” can be located at a cover glass between the display panel 100 and the user's finger. It should be noted that “transmit a signal to a user” refers to transmitting a signal to any suitable part of the user which carries retrievable biometric data of the user.

In some embodiments, the signal source 120 and the biometric sensor 130 can be embedded in the display panel 110. That is, the biometric data can be retrieved through the display area 112 so the display area 112 of the electronic device 100 can have a greater size without being limited by the additional space for collecting the biometric data.

In some embodiments, the signal source 120 and the biometric sensor 130 may locate at the full area under the display area 112, so the user may use the full display area 112 as the data collecting region for authentication. However, in some embodiments, the signal source 120 and the biometric sensor 130 may locate at parts of the area under the display area 112. That is, the data collecting region may be limited to the area in which the signal source 120 and the biometric sensor 130 are located.

In some embodiments, the electronic device 100 may transmit a plurality of first signals at a time, and analyze a plurality of second signals simultaneously to acquire the feature of the fingerprint.

In some other embodiments of the present disclosure, the signal source 120 and the biometric sensor 130 can be combined as a capacitance detection system similar to the touch panel. That is, by sensing the variation of the capacitance caused by the touch of the finger, the features of the fingerprint can be detected accordingly. In this case, the first signal SIG_A and the second signal SIG_B can be electronic signals. More specifically, the signal source 120 may include at least one transmitter and the biometric sensor 130 may include at least one receiver in the capacitance detection system. The first signal and the second signal refer to the electric field in a space. And the biometric data can be acquired by the at least one receiver sensing the variation of the capacitance caused by the touch of the finger.

Since the biometric data can be retrieved and be used for authentication, the information safety of the electronic device can be enhanced and the process of the authentication can be simplified.

The present disclosure is not limited to use the fingerprint as the biometric data. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, at least one of the fingerprint, the voiceprint, the facial recognition, the palm print, and the iris can be used as the biometric data for authentication. That is, in some embodiments, the electronic device 100 may use more than one type of biometric data for authentication.

FIG. 3 shows the flow chart of the method 200 for authenticating a user of the electronic device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The method 200 includes steps S210 to S290 but is not limited to the order shown in FIG. 3.

S210: present the data collecting region 112A at the display area 112;

S220: transmit the first signal SIG_A to the user by the signal source 120;

S230: receive the second signal SIG_B induced by the user according to the first signal SIG_A via the data collecting region 112A by the biometric sensor 130;

S240: acquire biometric data of the user according to the second signal SIG_B;

S242: display the notification image at the display area 112 during acquiring the biometric data of the user according to the second signal SIG_B;

S250: compare the biometric data with reference data;

S260: if the biometric data matches with the reference data, go to step S270, else go to step S280;

S270: invoke the function, go to step S290;

S280: display an alternative access indication at the display area 112;

S282: lock the electronic device 100;

S284: invoke the warning function;

S290: hide the data collecting region 112A from the display area 112.

In step S210, the electronic device 100 can present the data collecting region 112A as shown in FIG. 2 by, for example but not limited to, displaying an eye-catching marks in the data collecting region 112A. Therefore, when collecting the fingerprint, the user can place her/his finger above the data collecting region 112A for detection accordingly. In some embodiments, the electronic device 100 may further mark the data collecting region 112A with motion pictures or recognizable symbols such as numbers, words, icons, drawing or pictures for enhancing the presenting effect.

In some embodiments, the data collecting region 112A may be presented at the display area 112 when the electronic device 100 is triggered. For example, the electronic device 100 may be triggered when the user pushes the awakening button or the home button, when the user touches the screen, when the user raises the electronic device 100, or when the user starts a function with private data involved.

Furthermore, in FIG. 2, although the data collecting region 112A is located at the lower part of the display area 112, however, the data collecting region 112A may be placed at different locations according to the system design in other embodiments of the present disclosure.

Also, in some embodiments, step S210 may be skipped according to the system requirement. For example, in some embodiments, since the whole display area 112 may all be used as the data collecting region 112A, it would be unnecessary to present the data collecting region 112A.

In step S220, the signal source 120 can transmit the first signal SIG_A to the user, and the biometric sensor 130 can receive the second signal SIG_B induced by the user according to the first signal SIG_A via the data collecting region 112A in step S230. In another embodiment, the biometric sensor 130 can receive the second signal SIG_B induced by the user according to the first signal SIG_A.

Generally, according to the texture of the fingerprint, the signals received by the biometric sensor 130 would have a corresponding intensity distribution over spaces. Therefore, by analyzing the signals received by the biometric sensor 130, the biometric data of the user can be acquired in step S240. In some embodiments, according to the system requirement, the first signal SIG_A can be an infrared signal, an ultrasound signal or an electronic signal, and the second signal SIG_B can be the infrared signal reflected by the user's finger, the ultrasound signal reflected by the user's finger, or the electronic signal induced by the user's finger.

In step S242, the electronic device 100 may further display the notification image 112B at the display area 112 during acquiring the biometric data of the user. The notification image 112B can inform the user that the detection process has started, and may even show the progress of the detection. In FIG. 2, the notification image 110B is displayed in the display area 112 without overlapping the data collecting region 112A. However, in some embodiments, the notification image 110B may be displayed anywhere in the display area 112 according to the system requirement. Furthermore, the notification image 112B can include recognizable symbol such as numbers, words, icons, drawings or pictures. However, in some embodiments, step S242 may be skipped according to the system requirement.

After acquiring the biometric data, the electronic device 100 can compare the biometric data with reference data in step S250. The reference data is the biometric data of the user stored previously, representing the identification of the user. In some embodiments, the reference data can be stored in the electronic device 100, for example stored in the memory 150. However, in some other embodiments, the reference data can be stored in a cloud server, and the electronic device 100 may retrieve the reference data through internet, reducing the memory requirement of the electronic device 100. It should be noted that “internet” refers to any wireless network which includes WIFI, Bluetooth, NFC, etc.

In step S260, if the biometric data matches with the reference data, meaning the user has the same biometric data as the stored reference data, then the electronic device 100 would perform step S270 to invoke the function. The function may, for example but not limited to, include at least one of authorizing a transaction, activating a personalized application, and unlocking the electronic device 100.

However, if the biometric data mismatches with the reference data, then the electronic device 100 would perform steps S280 to S284. In step S280, the electronic device 100 can display an alternative access indication at the display area 112. The alternative access indication may ask for the user's authentication code or a graphic code as an alternative way to access the electronic device 100, allowing the user to access the electronic device 100 in an alternative way.

In addition, when the biometric data mismatches with the reference data or the alternative access is failed, it usually implies that the person using the electronic device 100 may not be the owner of the electronic device 100. Therefore, the electronic device 100 may be locked, and may invoke the warning function in steps S282 and S284.

The warning function may help to inform the owner or to record the appearance or the voice of the person trying to access the electronic device 100 as an evidence of burglary for future legal purpose. In some embodiments, the warning function may include at least one of sending a warning text message, taking a photo, recording in background, sending a location of the user. In addition, in some embodiments, steps S282 and S284 may not be performed or may be performed after several times of failure of the authentication process, avoiding arousing unnecessary attentions.

In step S290, the electronic device 100 can hide the data collecting region 112A from the display area 112 when the authentication process has completed so the display area 112 can be fully used for presenting the desired content. However, in another embodiment, step S290 may be skipped according to the system requirement.

With method 200, the authentication process of the electronic device 100 can be achieved in an efficient way without bringing burden to the user. Also, by presenting the data collecting region 112A, the user can easily find the correct place to proceed with authentication so the biometric sensor 130 can be disposed under the display area 112, allowing greater size of the display area 112.

In some embodiments, since some of the biometric data can be copied and reproduced, the authentication process may further check the vital sign of the user, ensuring the biometric data is provided by the users themselves. FIG. 4 shows a method 300 for authenticating a user of the electronic device 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The method 300 includes steps S310 to S390 but is not limited to the order shown in FIG. 4.

S310: present the data collecting region 112A at the display area 112;

S320: transmit the first signal SIG_A to the user by the signal source 120;

S330: receive the second signal SIG_B induced by the user according to the first signal SIG_A via the data collecting region 112A by the biometric sensor 130;

S340: acquire biometric data of the user according to the second signal SIG_B;

S342: acquire vital data according to the second signal SIG_B;

S344: display the notification image at the display area 112 during acquiring the biometric data of the user according to the second signal SIG_B;

S350: compare the biometric data with reference data;

S352: evaluate a vital condition of the user according to the vital data;

S360: if the biometric data matches with the reference data and the vital condition shows that the user is alive, go to step S370, else go to step S380;

S370: invoke the function, go to step S390;

S380: display an alternative access indication at the display area 112;

S382: lock the electronic device 100;

S384: invoke the warning function;

S390: hide the data collecting region 112A from the display area 112.

The methods 200 and 300 have similar principles; however, the method 300 further includes steps S342 and S352 for acquiring the vital data and evaluating the vital sign of the user.

The vital sign of the user can be detected to show that the user is alive or not. For example, the pulse of the user can be used as a vital sign to check the vital condition of the user. Since the blood can absorb the infrared signal, by sensing the variation of the intensity of the reflected infrared signal, the variation of the quantity of blood can be detected, and so as the pulse of the user can be detected. In this case, the first signal SIG_A can be an infrared signal, and the second signal SIG_B is a reflected infrared signal of the first signal SIG_A. That is, the infrared signal used to detect the texture of the fingerprint can also be used to detect the pulse of the user. Therefore, in step S342, the electronic device 100 can acquire the vital data according to the second signal SIG_B.

Later, in step S352, the electronic device 100 can evaluate the vital condition of the user according to the vital data acquired in step S342. In some embodiments, step S340 can be performed before or after step S342, or steps S340 and S342 can be performed in parallel. Similarly, step S350 can be performed before or after step S352, or steps S350 and S352 can be performed in parallel.

After the vital condition has been evaluated and the biometric data has been compared with the reference data, the electronic device 100 would authenticate the user if the biometric data matches with the reference data and the vital condition shows that the user is alive in step S360, and the electronic device 100 would invoke the corresponding function in step S370.

Otherwise, if the biometric data mismatches with the reference data or the vital condition shows that the user is not alive in step S360, then the electronic device 100 would perform steps S380 to S384 to show the alternative access procedure, lock the electronic device 100, and invoke the warning function.

In method 300, the electronic device 100 can use the signal source 120 and the biometric sensor 130 to detect the biometric data and the vital data, however, in some other embodiments, the biometric data and the vital data can be acquired with different signal sources and different sensor.

FIG. 5 shows an electronic device 400 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The electronic devices 100 and 400 have similar structures. However, the electronic device 400 further includes a vital sign detecting source 460 and a vital sign detecting sensor 470. FIG. 6 shows a flow chart of a method 500 for authenticating a user of the electronic device 400 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 7 shows a scenario of using the electronic device 400 according to the method 500. The method 500 includes steps S510 to S590 but is not limited to the order shown in FIG. 6.

S510: present the data collecting region 112A at the display area 112;

S520: transmit the first signal SIG_A to the user by the signal source 120;

S522: receive the second signal SIG_B induced by the user according to the first signal SIG_A via the data collecting region 112A by the biometric sensor 130;

S524: acquire the biometric data of the user according to the second signal SIG_B;

S530: display the notification image at the display area 112 during acquiring the biometric data of the user according to the second signal SIG_B;

S540: transmit the third signal SIG_C to the user by the vital sign detecting source 460;

S542: receive the fourth signal SIG_D via the data collecting region 112A by the vital sign detecting sensor 470;

S544: acquire the vital data according to the fourth signal SIG_D;

S550: compare the biometric data with reference data;

S552: evaluate a vital condition of the user according to the vital data;

S560: if the biometric data matches with the reference data and the vital condition shows that the user is alive, go to step S570, else go to step S580;

S570: invoke the function, go to step S590;

S580: display an alternative access indication at the display area 112;

S582: lock the electronic device 400;

S584: invoke the warning function;

S590: hide the data collecting region 112A from the display area 112.

In method 500, the signal source 120 transmits the first signal SIG_A to the user in step S520 and the biometric sensor 130 transmits the second signal SIG_B induced by the user according to the first signal SIG_A via the data collecting region 112A in step S522. By analyzing the second signal SIG_B, the biometric data of the user can be acquired in step S524 according to the second signal SIG_B.

Also, the vital sign detecting source 460 can transmit the third signal SIG_C in step S540, and the vital sign detecting sensor 470 can receive the fourth signal SIG_D via the data collecting region 112A in step S542. By analyzing the fourth signal SIG_D, the vital data can be acquired in step S544.

Namely, in method 500, the biometric data and the vital data can be acquired with different signal sources and different sensors. For example, the first signal SIG_A can be an ultrasonic signal or an electronic signal for detecting the texture of the finger print or the palm print while the third signal SIG_C can be an infrared signal for detecting the pulse of the user. That is, according to the types of the biometric data and the types of the vital data used by the electronic device 400, the electronic device 400 may include the corresponding signal sources and detection sensors to acquire the required data.

In addition, in FIG. 6, steps S520 to S524 can be performed in parallel with steps S530 to S534. However, in some other embodiments, steps S520 to S524 may be performed sequentially before or after steps S530 to S534. Also, steps S550 and steps S552 may be performed sequentially or in parallel according to the system requirement.

With method 500, the authentication process of the electronic device 400 can be achieved in an efficient way without bringing burden to the user. Also, by presenting the data collecting region 112A, the user can easily find the correct place to proceed with the authentication.

The features described in the above embodiments can be mixed, combined, or replaced to accomplish another embodiment.

In summary, the methods for authenticating a user of an electronic device provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure allow the electronic device to authenticate the user in an efficient way without bringing burden to the user. Optionally, by presenting the data collecting area, the user can easily find the correct place to proceed with the authentication while the sensors can be disposed under the display area, increasing the size of the display area.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the disclosure. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.