Methods and systems for authenticating users with captured palm biometric data

1. A method of authenticating users comprising:

capturing biometric authentication data of a user and processing the captured biometric data into an image with a communications device, and communicating the captured biometric data image to an authentication system;

determining an authentication region of interest of the captured biometric data image and a gray scale image from the captured biometric data image;

applying a transformation against the gray scale image to align the gray scale image with an enrollment gray scale image generated during enrollment of the user;

generating an authentication mask;

applying the transformation against the authentication mask to align the authentication mask with an enrollment mask generated during enrollment of the user in the authentication system;

generating a biometric template from the aligned gray scale image;

comparing the authentication mask against the enrollment mask to determine a region common to both; and

conducting a biometric authentication matching transaction with biometric data, included in the biometric template, that is within the common region.

2. A method of authenticating users in accordance with claim 1 , said capturing operation comprising capturing at least palm biometric authentication data of the user.

3. A method of authenticating users in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising generating the enrollment mask from an enrollment region of interest during enrollment of the user in the authentication system, the enrollment mask including a first area representative of areas within the enrollment region of interest without valid biometric data and a second area representative of areas within the enrollment region of interest containing valid biometric data.

4. A method of authenticating users in accordance with claim 3 , said generating an authentication mask operation comprising generating the authentication mask from the authentication region of interest, the authentication mask including a first authentication area representative of areas within the authentication region of interest without valid biometric data and a second authentication area representative of areas within the authentication region of interest containing valid biometric data.

5. A method of authenticating users in accordance with claim 4 , the common region comprising at least part of the second area and at least part of the second authentication area.

6. A method of authenticating users in accordance with claim 1 further comprising activating a security application in the device when the user desires to be authenticated in order to remotely conduct a transaction.

7. A method of authenticating users in accordance with claim 1 , said conducting operation comprising:

comparing the biometric data included in the biometric template that is within the common region against biometric data included in an enrollment template data record that is within the common region;

generating a matching score for said comparing the biometric data operation; and

verifying the identity of the user by comparing the generated matching score against a predetermined matching score.

8. A system for authenticating a user comprising:

an authentication system including an authentication database, said authentication system being configured to communicate with devices, to generate and store an enrollment mask for each user enrolled therein, to generate and store an enrollment template data record for each user enrolled therein, to generate authentication masks, and to store within said authentication database at least authentication data for a plurality of users; and

a device configured to communicate with at least said authentication system and to capture authentication data, said authentication system being further configured to

determine an authentication region of interest and a gray scale image of authentication data captured by said device,

apply a transformation against the gray scale image to align the gray scale image with an enrollment gray scale image generated during enrollment of the user;

apply the transformation against the authentication mask to align the authentication mask with an enrollment mask generated during enrollment of the user in said authentication system;

generate a biometric template from biometric data extracted from the aligned gray scale image;

compare the authentication mask against the enrollment mask to determine a region common to both; and

conduct a biometric authentication matching transaction with the biometric data included in the biometric template that is within the common region.

9. A system for authenticating a user in accordance with claim 8 , wherein the captured authentication data is palm biometric authentication data.

10. A system for authenticating a user in accordance with claim 8 , said device being one of the following:

a smart phone;

a television;

a tablet computer;

a desktop computer;

a laptop; and

a personal digital assistant.

11. A system for authenticating users in accordance with claim 8 , said authentication system being further configured to generate the enrollment mask from an enrollment region of interest during enrollment of the user in the authentication system, the enrollment mask including a first area representative of areas within the enrollment region of interest without valid biometric data and a second area representative of areas within the enrollment region of interest containing valid biometric data.

12. A system for authenticating users in accordance with claim 11 , said authentication system being further configured to generate the authentication mask from the authentication region of interest, the authentication mask including a first authentication area representative of areas within the authentication region of interest without valid biometric data and a second authentication area representative of areas within the authentication region of interest containing valid biometric data.

13. A system for authenticating users in accordance with claim 12 , the common region comprising at least part of the second area and at least part of the second authentication area.

14. A system for authenticating users in accordance with claim 8 , said device being further configured to execute a security application stored therein in the device when the user activates the security application in order to remotely conduct a transaction.

15. A system for authenticating users in accordance with claim 8 , said authentication system being further configured to:

compare the biometric data included in the biometric template that is within the common region against biometric data included in an enrollment template data record that is within the common region;

generate a matching score for the comparison; and

verify the identity of the user by comparing the generated matching score against a predetermined matching score.

16. A computer program recorded on a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium included in an authentication computer system for authenticating a user, the computer program for causing the authentication computer system to execute at least the following:

communicating a captured biometric authentication data image from a device to an authentication system;

determining an authentication region of interest of the image and a gray scale image from the image;

applying a transformation against the gray scale image to align the gray scale image with an enrollment gray scale image generated during enrollment of the user;

generating an authentication mask;

applying the transformation against the authentication mask to align the authentication mask with an enrollment mask generated during enrollment of the user in the authentication system;

extracting biometric data from the aligned gray scale image and generating a biometric template from the extracted biometric data;

comparing the authentication mask against the enrollment mask to determine a region common to both; and

comparing biometric data included in the biometric template that is within the common region against biometric data included in an enrollment template data record that is within the common region.

17. A computer program recorded on a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium in accordance with claim 16 , the computer program for causing the authentication computer system to further execute at least the following:

generating a matching score for said comparing biometric data operation; and

verifying the identity of the user by comparing the generated matching score against a predetermined matching score.