Third party biometric homomorphic encryption matching for privacy protection

1. A method comprising:

storing homomorphic encrypted (HE) biometric information in a reference gallery;

providing HE biometric matching logic, and an access control device;

generating biometric information to store in the reference gallery with a kiosk comprising a scanner;

scanning a user and generating biometric information for identifying the user; the biometric information comprising an image;

generating the generated HE encrypted information containing biometric data using an HE encryption algorithm;

storing HE encrypted biometric information in a library;

distributing the HE encrypted biometric information to a third-party computer;

based on the reference gallery, constructing HE encrypted reference information using HE encryption logic;

the HE Encryption logic storing HE encrypted information in the reference gallery;

the third-party computer performing a HE biometric matching process using the HE biometric matching logic;

the HE biometric matching logic performing a matching comparison of the HE encrypted information from the library against HE encrypted biometric information in the reference gallery to identify matching HE encrypted reference information;

the HE biometric matching logic performing the HE biometric matching process without decrypting or having a capacity to decrypt the HE encrypted information;

the third-party computer processing biometric information used for biometric matching, without access to underlying biometric information of the user;

the third-party computer transmitting a message to the access control device;

the access control device executing an access granted process when the message indicates a positive match based on the matching comparison; and

the access control device executing an access denied process when the message does not indicate a positive match based on the matching comparison.

2. The method of claim 1 comprising:

storing a gallery of biometric reference images captured from N different individuals;

wherein the biometric information is biometric images; wherein N is selected from the group of natural numbers and

storing a gallery of biometric reference images captured from N different individuals in the reference gallery.

3. The method of claim 1 comprising:

performing the matching comparison using a HE domain arithmetic operator in the HE biometric matching logic; and

the HE domain arithmetic operator finding a closest match that meets a similarity threshold by using an HE domain vector similarity analysis.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising:

receiving new HE encrypted facial images; said facial images serving as reference biometric images for each of N verified identity individuals; wherein N is selected from the group of natural numbers;

encrypting the library with homomorphic encryption (HE) to form a corresponding HE reference library; and

performing, via exploitations of certain HE encryption features, 1:N classification of the new HE encrypted facial images against the N verified identity individuals.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein each of N verified individuals comprises a homomorphic encrypted reference biometric image.

6. The method of claim 4 comprising:

the biometric reference gallery storing one or more biometric reference images of one or more biometric types for each of N identities;

the kiosk receiving N individual library images of N individuals; the N individuals having an identity associated biographic information; and

a database storing N identities of N users; the kiosk comprising the database; and

providing secure 1:N classification without decrypting underlying facial images, decrypting the HE encrypted facial images; accessing the N individuals' library images; or accessing the N individuals' identities.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the matched HE encrypted reference information is a matching HE encrypted reference image.

8. The method of claim 6 comprising the biometric reference gallery storing for each of one or more of the N identities, a plurality of reference images including different capture angles, different lightings, and different facial expressions.

9. The method of claim 6 comprising the biometric reference gallery storing for each of one or more of the N identities, a plurality of reference images including gait or other movement biometrics.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the reference biometric image includes a visible image pixel array.

11. The method of claim 10 comprising:

obtaining information characterizing features of the reference biometric image by extracting information from a captured image; and

the reference gallery storing the characterizing features as an image feature vector.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the image feature vector includes a principal component analysis (PCA) having an orthogonal linear transformation to transform data into a new coordinate system such that a first greatest variance by scalar projections of related data will lie on a first principal component, and a second greatest variance on a second principal component.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the image feature vector comprises a reduced dimensionality to conserve memory space.

14. The method of claim 11 comprising:

a biometric capture device capturing user biometric information; the biometric capture device connected to an uploading station;

performing HE domain classification on received biometric information from the uploading station;

a classifier selecting a type of HE encryption to program the third-party computer; and

an HE encryption logic applying a homomorphic encryption to information captured from the biometric capture device.

15. The method of claim 14 comprising:

an uploading station uploading encrypted biometric information to the third-party computer; and

the third-party computer receiving a HE encrypted biometric descriptor from the uploading station.