Systems and methods for multi-modal semantic identity authentication and governance
View Patent ↗A computer-implemented system for semantic identity authentication and governance. The system receives multi-modal user input, including narrative, temporal, role, and location vectors, and fuses them into a composite semantic object (“Wisp”) via a vector fusion module. The Wisp is assigned provenance metadata and stored in a persistent semantic memory graph or evaluated in real time against previously authenticated Wisps. Authentication is determined by calculating semantic coherence, trust, and drift scores, which are compared to governance thresholds. The system includes lifecycle management protocols for Wisp decay, archival, and removal. Embodiments support both stored Wisps and live-generated Wisps, enabling secure, context-aware identity verification resistant to spoofing. The methods, systems, and non-transitory computer-readable media disclosed herein enable dynamic, governance-aligned access control across distributed computing environments, including edge deployments, enterprise platforms, and defense applications.
1 . A computer-implemented method for semantic identity authentication and governance-controlled data transmission, the method comprising:
receiving user input comprising at least a narrative modality and one or more additional modalities selected from temporal, role, location, biometric, device, behavioral, or environmental;
embedding the narrative modality into a narrative vector and embedding each additional modality into a corresponding contextual vector;
during fusion of the vectors, computing a temporal subvector comprising:
(a) an elapsed-time value representing the time interval since a last verified interaction;
(b) a decay coefficient determined as the natural logarithm of two divided by a configurable half-life value, the half-life representing the duration over which the value is reduced by half; and
(c) one or more phase features obtained through a time-encoding process, comprising Fourier-based encoding or cosine-based encoding;
fusing the narrative vector, the temporal subvector, and the one or more contextual vectors into a composite identity object (“Wisp”) including a semantic header comprising at least modality origin, memory lineage, and compression state;
storing the Wisp in a persistent semantic memory graph in which the Wisp is a node connected by typed edges to nodes representing its modality vectors;
computing, for the Wisp, a semantic coherence score, a trust score, and a drift score by comparison to one or more previously authenticated Wisps stored in the semantic memory graph;
evaluating the scores against governance thresholds and optionally one or more governance embeddings representing policy constraints to select a decision state comprising at least one of: permit, delay, escalate, or deny; and
when the decision state is permit, attaching to an outbound payload a governance-bound provenance token comprising a cryptographically verifiable representation of at least the trust score, the drift score, a narrative hash, a timestamp, and a role vector, thereby enabling independent downstream verification of a governance state without a central callback.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the semantic coherence score is computed using cosine similarity between a fused vector representation of the Wisp and previously authenticated Wisps.
3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising computing a role-alignment score using weighted cosine similarity between a role vector of the Wisp and a stored governance role vector, and wherein evaluating the governance thresholds comprises combining the role-alignment score with the trust score and the drift score.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the governance embeddings encode policy constraints as high-dimensional vectors produced by a transformer-based model, and evaluating the governance thresholds comprises comparing the Wisp to the governance embeddings using vector similarity and optional rule-based checks.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the decision state is delay or escalate when the semantic coherence score or a related trust measure falls within a defined uncertainty interval.
6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising detecting identity drift by comparing at least a temporal vector or a location vector of the Wisp to corresponding vectors of previously authenticated Wisps and identifying changes exceeding a predefined threshold.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein when temporal data is unavailable a neutral temporal subvector is used and at least one governance threshold for semantic coherence or role alignment is increased.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the half-life value is configurable within a range of 24 to 720 hours.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the governance-bound provenance token includes cryptographically signed fields for each of the trust score, drift score, narrative hash, timestamp, role vector, modality origin, memory lineage, and compression state.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the persistent semantic memory graph uses typed edges comprising at least has_narrative, has_role, has_temporal, and has location.
11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, prior to storing the Wisp, compressing one or more vectors of the Wisp according to a compression scheme that records a compression header with model identifier, dimensionality, and an achieved cosine-fidelity measure relative to an uncompressed baseline, and rehydrating a compressed vector when a fidelity threshold is not met.
12 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising maintaining an append-only, tamper-evident audit log of decision states and attached governance-bound provenance tokens.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the user input comprises receiving a streaming voice input that is transcribed for narrative embedding while device and location modalities are captured concurrently.
14 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising automatically calibrating at least one governance threshold based on observed authentication success rates, false positive rates, and measured semantic drift patterns.
15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is executed on an edge computing device or gateway.
16 . A system comprising one or more processors and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to execute operations comprising:
receiving user input comprising at least a narrative modality and one or more additional modalities selected from temporal, role, location, biometric, device, behavioral, or environmental;
embedding the narrative modality into a narrative vector and embedding each additional modality into a corresponding contextual vector;
during fusion of the vectors, computing a temporal subvector comprising:
(a) an elapsed-time value representing the time interval since a last verified interaction;
(b) a decay coefficient determined as the natural logarithm of two divided by a configurable half-life value, the half-life representing the duration over which the value is reduced by half; and
(c) one or more phase features obtained through a time-encoding process, comprising Fourier-based encoding or cosine-based encoding;
fusing the narrative vector, the temporal subvector, and the one or more contextual vectors into a composite identity object (“Wisp”) including a semantic header comprising at least modality origin, memory lineage, and compression state;
storing the Wisp in a persistent semantic memory graph in which the Wisp is a node connected by typed edges to nodes representing its modality vectors;
computing, for the Wisp, a semantic coherence score, a trust score, and a drift score by comparison to one or more previously authenticated Wisps stored in the semantic memory graph;
evaluating the scores against governance thresholds and optionally one or more governance embeddings representing policy constraints to select a decision state comprising at least one of: permit, delay, escalate, or deny; and
when the decision state is permit, attaching to an outbound payload a governance-bound provenance token comprising a cryptographically verifiable representation of at least the trust score, the drift score, a narrative hash, a timestamp, and a role vector, thereby enabling independent downstream verification of a governance state without a central callback.
17 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving user input comprising at least a narrative modality and one or more additional modalities selected from temporal, role, location, biometric, device, behavioral, or environmental;
embedding the narrative modality into a narrative vector and embedding each additional modality into a corresponding contextual vector;
during fusion of the vectors, computing a temporal subvector comprising:
(a) an elapsed-time value representing the time interval since a last verified interaction;
(b) a decay coefficient determined as the natural logarithm of two divided by a configurable half-life value, the half-life representing the duration over which the value is reduced by half; and
(c) one or more phase features obtained through a time-encoding process, such as comprising Fourier-based encoding or cosine-based encoding;
fusing the narrative vector, the temporal subvector, and the one or more contextual vectors into a composite identity object (“Wisp”) including a semantic header comprising at least modality origin, memory lineage, and compression state;
storing the Wisp in a persistent semantic memory graph in which the Wisp is a node connected by typed edges to nodes representing its modality vectors;
computing, for the Wisp, a semantic coherence score, a trust score, and a drift score by comparison to one or more previously authenticated Wisps stored in the semantic memory graph;
evaluating the scores against governance thresholds and optionally one or more governance embeddings representing policy constraints to select a decision state comprising at least one of: permit, delay, escalate, or deny; and
when the decision state is permit, attaching to an outbound payload a governance-bound provenance token comprising a cryptographically verifiable representation of at least the trust score, the drift score, a narrative hash, a timestamp, and a role vector, thereby enabling independent downstream verification of a governance state without a central callback.
18 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the memory stores a vector database representing the persistent semantic memory graph and an embedding service configured to generate the narrative and contextual vectors.
19 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to attach the governance-bound provenance token to the outbound payload upon the permit decision state and transmit the outbound payload for downstream verification without callback.
20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the instructions further cause verification of an incoming governance-bound provenance token by cryptographic signature validation and field consistency checks without callback to a source authority.