Granted Patent B2

US 12,482,298 · App. 18/129,599 · Granted Nov 25, 2025

Inventors: Maxwell Sills (San Francisco, CA); Aaron Smith (San Francisco, CA); David S. Holz (San Francisco, CA); Hongyuan (Jimmy) He (San Francisco, CA)

Assignee: ULTRAHAPTICS IP TWO LIMITED

G06V40/28G06F3/017G06V40/11G06V40/117

Abstract

Claims (63)

1 . A method of authorizing a user to issue a command indicated by a gesture of a hand moving freely in 3D sensory space, the method including:

receiving a plurality of images of a hand captured in a three-dimensional (3D) sensory space;

obtaining at least one of: one or more scars of the hand; a vein pattern of the hand; and a palm print of the hand extracted from the images of the hand;

authenticating a user based on the at least one of: one or more scars of the hand; a vein pattern of the hand; and a palm print of the hand extracted from the images of the hand;

obtaining for the hand, a command determined from at least a subset of the plurality of images;

determining whether the user as authenticated based on the at least one of: one or more scars of the hand; a vein pattern of the hand; and a palm print of the hand extracted from the images is authorized to issue the command as determined from the at least a subset of the plurality of images; and

issuing the command when authorized to a security aware device, wherein the command indicates a financial transaction involving an account associated with the user as authenticated.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further including rejecting the command whenever the user as authenticated is determined unauthorized to issue the command.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further including triggering a response to gestures performed by an authenticated hand authorized to issue a command without triggering a response to gestures performed by non-authenticated hands.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further including authenticating a second hand captured in the plurality of images when the second hand belongs to a user authorized to issue commands.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further including extracting at least one of:

shape of the hand;

size of the hand;

measurements across a palm of the hand;

finger width at a first knuckle of the hand; and

complexion of the hand.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further including:

registering multiple images of different poses of the hand during a hand gesture.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the multiple images of different poses of the hand include at least one of:

palm view of the hand;

backhand view of the hand; and

closed fist view of the hand.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further including:

responsive to the authenticating of the hand based on the at least one of: one or more scars of the hand; a vein pattern of the hand; and a palm print of the hand extracted from the images of the hand, interpreting one or more hand gestures based on specific interpretation criteria.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of: one or more scars of the hand; a vein pattern of the hand; and a palm print of the hand are extracted from the images of the hand by processing that includes:

using at least one image characteristic of the images, determining an image property that specifies changes to the image characteristic across various image points;

determining variations to the image property across the various image points; and

based on the variations determined, identifying points of interest in the images that represent biometric features.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further including:

using a Hessian Matrix for determining changes to the image property across the various image points.

11 . The method of claim 9 , further including:

using eigenvalues and eigenvectors for identifying the points of interest.

12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the image characteristic is pixel intensity.

13 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the image property is gradient of pixel intensity.

14 . The method of claim 9 , further including:

determining normalized biometric features by at least one of rotating, translating, and scaling biometric features.

15 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the determining of whether the hand is authorized to issue the command further includes:

comparing the biometric features to a stored biometric profile.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further including:

constructing a biometric profile based on the biometric features, including:

prompting a user to perform hand gestures in the 3D sensory space and capturing a plurality of images of the hand during the hand gestures;

processing one or more of the images to extract biometric features of the hand;

determining normalized biometric features by at least one of rotating, translating, and scaling biometric features;

registering multiple images of different poses of the hand during the hand gestures; and

storing the normalized biometric features and corresponding poses for recognizing gestures.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining of whether the hand is authorized to issue the command further includes:

determining whether a user who performs a hand gesture has a role authorized to issue the command.

18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a biometric profile is constructed at a first device and an authorized command is issued to a second device.

19 . A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for authorizing a user to issue a command indicated by a gesture of a hand moving freely in 3D sensory space, which instructions, when executed by one or more hardware processors, perform actions comprising:

receiving a plurality of images of a hand captured in a three-dimensional (3D) sensory space;

obtaining at least one of: one or more scars of the hand; a vein pattern of the hand; and a palm print of the hand extracted from the images of the hand;

authenticating a user based on the at least one of: one or more scars of the hand; a vein pattern of the hand; and a palm print of the hand extracted from the images of the hand;

obtaining for the hand, a command determined from at least a subset of the plurality of images;

determining whether the user as authenticated based on the at least one of: one or more scars of the hand; a vein pattern of the hand; and a palm print of the hand extracted from the images is authorized to issue the command as determined from the at least a subset of the plurality of images; and

issuing the command when authorized to a security aware device, wherein the command indicates a financial transaction involving an account associated with the user as authenticated.

20 . A computer system with one or more processors adapted to perform a method comprising:

receiving a plurality of images of a hand captured in a three-dimensional (3D) sensory space;

processing images of the hand to extract one or more biometric features of the hand including at least one of: one or more scars of the hand; a vein pattern of the hand; and a palm print of the hand;

authenticating a user based on the one or more biometric features of the hand as extracted;

processing a sequence of images of the plurality of images to interpret a hand gesture;

determining for the hand, a command indicated by the hand gesture;

determining whether the user as authenticated based on the one or more biometric features of the hand is authorized to issue the command; and

issuing the command when authorized to a security aware device, wherein the command indicates a financial transaction involving an account associated with the user as authenticated.

Assignments (6)

Continuity (5)

References Cited (400)