Method and system for biometric authentication

1. A method of biometric authentication comprising:

capturing biometric data for at least one desired biometric type from an individual at a client system and communicating the captured biometric data to a server system;

determining a first algorithm and a second algorithm different than the first algorithm with the server system, each algorithm for converting biometric data into authentication words, the first algorithm being operable to generate a first vocabulary of authentication words for one of the desired biometric types and the second algorithm being operable to generate a second vocabulary of authentication words for a different one of the desired biometric types, the first and second vocabularies being combinable into a fused vocabulary;

converting the captured biometric data into authentication words in accordance with the determined algorithms;

including the authentication words in a probe;

comparing the probe against a gallery of identity records stored in the server system, wherein each of the identity records includes enrollment biometric words of an individual obtained during enrollment;

identifying at least one of the identity records as a potential matching identity record when at least one authentication word included in the probe matches at least one of the enrollment biometric words included in the at least one identity record;

generating a list of potential matching identity records; and

ranking the potential matching identity records included in the list.

2. A method of biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1 further comprising:

verifying the identity of the individual by conducting a 1:1 verification matching transaction between a captured biometric feature template generated from the captured biometric data and a corresponding biometric feature template included in each of the potential matching identity records; and

communicating a positive result from the server system to the client system when the captured biometric feature template matches the corresponding biometric feature template of at least one of the potential matching identity records.

3. A method of biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1 , said ranking operation comprising ranking the potential matching identity records based on similarity with the probe.

4. A method of biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1 , said converting operation comprising:

processing the captured biometric data into at least one biometric feature template such that the at least one biometric feature template includes a plurality of features; and

converting each of the features into an authentication word.

5. A method of biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising enrolling a plurality of individuals in the server system, said enrolling operation comprising:

collecting biographic data and capturing biometric data from a plurality of individuals;

converting the biometric data of each of the individuals into enrollment biometric words; and

storing the collected biographic data and the enrollment biometric words of each individual in a corresponding one of the identity records in the server system.

6. A method of biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1 , said capturing operation comprising capturing biometric data for a plurality of different biometric types, wherein the plurality of different biometric types comprises face, iris, finger, and voice.

7. A method of biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising generating the enrollment biometric words from a plurality of different biometric types.

8. A method of biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising communicating the list and the matching identity records from the server system to the client system for use by an entity associated with the client system.

9. A method of biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising including a combination of biographic words and authentication words in the probe to provide unified identity searching.

10. A method of biometric authentication in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising weighting biometric data of one biometric type differently than biometric data of another biometric type by emphasizing the biometric data of the one biometric type more than the biometric data of the other biometric type.

11. A system for biometric authentication comprising:

a computer configured as a server, said server including at least a data base, said server being configured to store within said database at least one conversion algorithm and at least a gallery of data comprising identity records, wherein each identity record includes at least biographic data of an individual and enrollment biometric words of the individual; and

at least one client system comprising at least a computer configured to communicate with said server, said client system being configured to at least capture biometric data for at least one desired biometric type from an individual, wherein

said server is further configured to

determine a first conversion algorithm and a second conversion algorithm different than the first conversion algorithm, the first conversion algorithm being operable to generate a first vocabulary of authentication words for a first biometric type and the second conversion algorithm being operable to generate a second vocabulary of authentication words for a second biometric type different than the first biometric type, the first and second vocabularies being combinable into a fused vocabulary,

convert the captured biometric data into authentication words by executing the conversion algorithms, wherein the conversion algorithms are operable to generate the enrollment biometric words,

generate a probe including at least the authentication words,

compare the probe against the gallery,

identify at least one of the identity records as a matching identity record when at least one of the authentication words matches at least one of the enrollment biometric words included in the at least one identity record,

generate a list of potential matching identity records, and

rank the potential matching identity records included in the list.

12. A system for biometric authentication in accordance with claim 11 , wherein:

said server is further configured to verify the identity of the individual by conducting a 1:1 verification matching transaction between a captured biometric feature template generated from the captured biometric data and a corresponding biometric feature template included in each of the potential matching identity records; and

said at least one client system is further configured to display an output communicating a positive result when the captured biometric feature template matches the corresponding biometric feature template of at least one of the potential matching identity records.

13. A system for biometric authentication in accordance with claim 11 , wherein said server is further configured to:

process the captured biometric data into a biometric feature template; and

convert data included in the biometric feature template into at least an authentication word.

14. A system for biometric authentication in accordance with claim 11 , wherein each authentication word comprises an alphanumeric text string that textually describes a biometric feature of the captured biometric data.

15. A system for biometric authentication in accordance with claim 11 , wherein said server is further configured to:

convert biometric data of each of the individuals obtained during enrollment, into enrollment biometric words with the conversion algorithms; and

store the collected biographic data and the enrollment biometric words of each individual in a corresponding identity record in said data base.

16. A system for biometric authentication in accordance with claim 11 , said server being configured to determine the algorithms from at least the following:

an algorithm that analyzes captured biometric data and classifies the captured biometric data into one or more groups;

an algorithm executed with a positional relationship medium; and

an algorithm that relies on distances between groups of classified captured biometric data and that uses a lexicographic text-encoding scheme for numeric data.

17. A system for biometric authentication in accordance with claim 11 , said server being further configured to include at least the authentication words and biographic words in the probe such that the probe comprises a unified identity.

18. A method of biometric authentication comprising:

capturing biometric data for a plurality of different biometric types from an individual at a client system and communicating the captured biometric data to a server system;

determining a plurality of algorithms with the server system, wherein each of the algorithms is operable to convert captured biometric data of a corresponding biometric type into a vocabulary of words;

converting the captured biometric data for each biometric type into authentication words in accordance with the corresponding one of the algorithms, wherein the authentication words are combinable into a fused vocabulary representing at least the plurality of different biometric types;

comparing a probe against a gallery of identity records stored in the server system, wherein the probe includes authentication words and biographic words, and each of the identity records includes at least one of enrollment biometric words and biographic words of a corresponding individual obtained during enrollment;

identifying at least one of the identity records as a potential matching identity record when at least one of the biographic words included in the probe or at least one of the authentication words included in the probe matches at least one of the biographic words or one of the enrollment biometric words, respectively, included in the at least one identity record;

generating a list of potential matching identity records; and

ranking the potential matching identity records included in the list.