Electronic equipment and method of authenticating a user

1. An electronic equipment, comprising:

a sensor circuit operative to measure at least one electrical property of a user at a plurality of different frequencies to thereby capture frequency-resolved electrical characteristics of the user, said sensor circuit including

an output for applying a probe signal to the user, and

an input for receiving a response signal from the user in response to the probe signal,

wherein said sensor circuit is configured

generate the probe signal for application to the user, the probe signal comprising

a) a plurality of signals, each of the plurality of signals oscillating at a different one of the plurality of different frequencies, or

b) a signal that varies over the plurality of different frequencies, and determine the at least one electrical property based on the probe signal and the corresponding response signal; and

a processing circuit operative

to perform a comparison between the frequency-resolved electrical characteristics of the user and reference characteristics to authenticate the user, and

to perform an unlocking operation based on a result of the comparison.

2. The electronic equipment of claim 1 ,

wherein a probe signal generation circuit configured to generate the probe signal is mounted in a wearable device.

3. The electronic equipment of claim 2 , further comprising

a user interface which is separate from the wearable device and configured to communicate with the wearable device over a wireless interface,

wherein the processing circuit is configured to selectively unlock the user interface based on the result of the comparison to perform the unlocking operation.

4. The electronic equipment of claim 3 ,

wherein the electronic equipment is configured to trigger the sensor circuit to capture the frequency-resolved electrical characteristics of the user when a housing accommodating the user interface is held in a hand of the user.

5. The electronic equipment of claim 3 ,

wherein the processing circuit is configured to transmit a trigger signal to the wearable device to trigger the probe signal generation circuit to generate the probe signal.

6. The electronic equipment of claim 3 ,

wherein the wearable device comprises a wireless interface,

wherein the processing circuit is mounted in the wearable device and is configured to transmit an unlocking signal over the wireless interface to unlock the user interface.

7. The electronic equipment of claim 1 , further comprising

a user interface, and

a housing in which the user interface, the sensor circuit and the processing circuit are accommodated.

8. The electronic equipment of claim 7 ,

wherein the user interface is arranged on a first side of the housing and the sensor circuit comprises a conductive surface located at a second side of the housing, the second side being different from the first side.

9. The electronic equipment of claim 1 ,

wherein the electronic equipment is configured to capture the reference characteristics in a registration phase in which the sensor circuit measures the at least one electrical property of the user at the plurality of frequencies.

10. The electronic equipment of claim 9 ,

wherein the electronic equipment is configured to capture the reference characteristics in the registration phase for respectively each one of plural different positions of the electronic equipment relative to the user.

11. The electronic equipment of claim 1 ,

wherein the probe signal comprises a plurality of spectral components oscillating at different frequencies.

12. The electronic equipment of claim 1 ,

wherein the sensor circuit is configured to perform a swept frequency capacitive sensing, SFCS, to capture the frequency-resolved electrical characteristics of the user.

13. The electronic equipment of claim 1 ,

wherein the sensor circuit is configured to perform an impedance sensing to capture the frequency-resolved electrical characteristics of the user.

14. A method of authenticating a user of an electronic equipment, the method comprising:

measuring, by a sensor circuit, at least one electrical property of a user at a plurality of different frequencies to thereby capture frequency-resolved electrical characteristics of the user, said measuring including

generating, by a probe signal generation circuit mounted in a wearable device, a probe signal for application to the user, the probe signal comprising

a) a plurality of signals, each of the plurality of signals oscillating at a different one of the plurality of different frequencies, or

b) a signal that varies over the plurality of different frequencies, applying the probe signal to the user,

measuring a response to the probe signal determining the at least one electrical property based on the probe signal and the corresponding response signal;

performing a comparison between the frequency-resolved electrical characteristics of the user and reference characteristics to authenticate the user, and

selectively performing an unlocking operation based on a result of the comparison.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising at least one of:

receiving a trigger signal for generating the probe signal at the wearable device over a wireless interface;

transmitting the result of the comparison from the wearable device to a mobile device over a wireless interface.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

capturing, by the sensor circuit, the reference characteristics in a registration phase for subsequent use in authenticating the user.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein generating the probe signal comprises:

performing, by the sensor circuit, a swept frequency capacitive sensing, SFCS, to capture the frequency-resolved electrical characteristics of the user.

18. The method of claim 14 ,

wherein measuring the at least one electrical property of the user comprises:

performing, by the sensor circuit, an impedance sensing to capture the frequency-resolved electrical characteristics of the user.