Biometric authentication apparatus, biometric authentication method, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing program for biometric authentication

1. A biometric authentication apparatus, comprising:

a biometric sensor configured to capture an image of a hand of a user;

a touch panel configured to output a contact signal indicating contact positions of fingers of the user in response to the reception of an operation by the fingers of the user; and

control circuitry configured to

display, on the touch panel, a plurality of marks each of which indicates a position at which any of the fingers of the user is intended to come into contact with the touch panel,

acquire the contact signal output from the touch panel,

reduce in size one or more marks among the plurality of marks during acquiring biometric information from the image captured by the biometric sensor when the control circuitry detects, in accordance with the contact signal, that the fingers of the user are in contact with the plurality of marks, and

display, on the touch panel, the one or more marks whose size has been reduced together with the remaining ones of the plurality of marks, and a respective guide indicative of either or both of a trajectory and a direction of a user operation of sliding a finger from each of the one or more marks whose size has been reduced and from each of the remaining ones of the plurality of marks.

2. The biometric authentication apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust one or more display positions of the one or more marks to be reduced in size, based on the contact signal.

3. The biometric authentication apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the control signal includes the contact positions on the touch panel and a planar dimension of contact regions contacted by a surface of the fingers of the user at the contact positions, and

wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust one or more display positions of the one or more marks to be reduced, based on the planar dimension indicated by the control signal.

4. The biometric authentication apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the control signal includes the contact positions on the touch panel and a shape with respect to each of contact regions contacted by a surface of the fingers of the user at the contact positions, and

wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust one or more display positions of the one or more marks to be reduced, based on the shape indicated by the contact signal.

5. The biometric authentication apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the control signal includes the contact positions on the touch panel, a planar dimension of contact regions contacted by a surface of the fingers of the user at the contact positions, and a shape with respect to each of the fingers of the user at the contact positions, and

wherein the control circuitry is configured to display, on the touch panel, an instruction related to either or both of trajectories and directions of an operation of sliding the fingers of the user from the plurality of marks, based on one or more types of the contact positions indicated by the contact signal, the planar dimension indicated by the contact signal, and the shape indicated by the contact signal.

6. The biometric authentication apparatus according to claim 5 ,

wherein when the control circuitry detects, based on the control signal, that the user is performing the operation of sliding the fingers from the plurality of marks, the control circuitry is configured to acquire the biometric information from the image captured by the biometric sensor during the slide operation.

7. The biometric authentication apparatus according to claim 6 ,

wherein the control circuitry is configured to continuously or regularly acquire the biometric information from the image captured by the biometric sensor during the slide operation.

8. The biometric authentication apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the biometric sensor is configured to capture an image of any of a palm vein, palm print, and finger vein of the user.

9. A biometric authentication method performed by a computer, comprising:

displaying, on a touch panel, a plurality of marks each of which indicates a position at which any of fingers of a user is intended to come into contact with the touch panel;

acquiring, from the touch panel, a contact signal indicating contact positions of the fingers of the user;

reducing in size one or more marks among the plurality of marks during acquiring biometric information from an image captured by a biometric sensor when the contact of the fingers of the user with the plurality of marks is detected in accordance with the contact signal; and

displaying, on the touch panel, the one or more marks whose size has been reduced together with the remaining ones of the plurality of marks, and a respective guide indicative of either or both of a trajectory and a direction of a user operation of sliding a finger from each of the one or more marks whose size has been reduced and from each of the remaining ones of the plurality of marks.

10. The biometric authentication method according to claim 9 , further comprising:

adjusting one or more display positions of the one or more marks to be reduced, based on the contact signal.

11. The biometric authentication method according to claim 10 ,

wherein the control signal includes the contact positions on the touch panel and a planar dimension of contact regions contacted by a surface of the fingers of the user at the contact positions, and

wherein the adjusting adjusts one or more display positions of the one or more marks to be reduced, based on the planar dimension indicated by the control signal.

12. The biometric authentication method according to claim 10 ,

wherein the control signal includes the contact positions on the touch panel and a shape with respect to each of contact regions contacted by a surface of the fingers of the user at the contact positions, and

wherein the adjusting adjusts one or more display positions of the one or more marks to be reduced, based on the shape indicated by the contact signal.

13. The biometric authentication method according to claim 10 ,

wherein the control signal includes the contact positions on the touch panel, a planar dimension of contact regions contacted by a surface of the fingers of the user at the contact positions, and a shape with respect to each of the fingers of the user at the contact positions, and

wherein the displaying displays, on the touch panel, an instruction related to either or both of trajectories and directions of an operation of sliding the fingers of the user from the plurality of marks, based on one or more types of the contact positions indicated by the contact signal, the planar dimension indicated by the contact signal, and the shape indicated by the contact signal.

14. The biometric authentication method according to claim 9 ,

wherein the biometric sensor is configured to capture an image of any of a palm vein, palm print, and finger vein of the user.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for biometric authentication, the program causing a computer to execute a process, the process comprising:

displaying, on a touch panel, a plurality of marks each of which indicates a position at which any of fingers of a user is intended to come into contact with the touch panel;

acquiring, from the touch panel, a contact signal indicating contact positions of the fingers of the user;

reducing in size one or more marks among the plurality of marks during acquiring biometric information from an image captured by a biometric sensor when the contact of the fingers of the user with the plurality of marks is detected in accordance with the contact signal; and

displaying, on the touch panel, the one or more marks whose size has been reduced together with the remaining ones of the plurality of marks, and a respective guide indicative of either or both of a trajectory and a direction of a user operation of sliding a finger from each of the one or more marks whose size has been reduced and from each of the remaining ones of the plurality of marks.