# US 12,182,244 B2 · Method and apparatus for user verification

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 12,182,244 B2
- Document ID: US12182244B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 18/233,241
- Filed: 2023-08-11
- Published: 2024-02-22
- Granted: 2024-12-31
- Earliest claimed: 2014-08-28
- Assignees: FaceTec, Inc.
- Applicants: FaceTec, Inc.
- Inventors: Kevin Alan Tussy
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12182244B2

## CPC

- G06F 21/32: using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
- G06F 21/31: User authentication
- G06F 21/34: involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
- G06Q 20/02: involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
- G06Q 20/3276: {using a pictured code, e.g. barcode or QR-code, being read by the M-device}
- G06Q 20/40145: {Biometric identity checks}
- G06V 40/166: {using acquisition arrangements}
- G06V 40/172: {Classification, e.g. identification}
- G06V 40/50: Maintenance of biometric data or enrolment thereof
- G06V 40/67: {by interactive indications to the user}
- G06V 40/70: Multimodal biometrics, e.g. combining information from different biometric modalities
- H04W 12/06: Authentication
- G06F 21/6245: {Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes}
- G06V 40/20: Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition (recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16)
- H04L 63/0861: {using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231)}
- H04L 63/0876: {based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint}
- H04L 63/102: {Entity profiles}
- H04W 12/65: Environment-dependent, e.g. using captured environmental data
- H04W 12/68: Gesture-dependent or behaviour-dependent
- H04W 88/02: Terminal devices
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)

## Abstract

Systems and methods for enrolling and authenticating a user in an authentication system via a camera of a computing device include capturing and storing biometric information from at least one first image and at least one second image of the user taken via the camera. Prior to use, the user answers personal questions and the answers are stored as stored answer data. Later, such as at a business, the questions are presented to the user and the user provides their personal answers via a computing device. The answers are processed and uploaded to an authentication server where a comparison occurs against the stored answer data. If a match does not occur, then the authentication/identity verification processes ends. If a match does occur, then the authentication process continues. The questions match may serve as a gate function for accessing authentication data stored in a blockchain.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for evaluating liveness of a customer as part of a business transaction comprising:
presenting a customer, with customer questions, the customer questions having corresponding customer answers;
receiving customer answers from the customer in response to the presenting of customer questions;
processing the customer answers to create processed customer answers wherein the processing comprises encryption of the customer answers;
transmitting the processed customer answers to a remote computing device;
comparing processed customer answers to stored data at the remote computing device for a match;
responsive to the comparing determining that a match has not occurred, then denying further authentication;
responsive to the comparing determining that a match has occurred, then allowing further liveness evaluation by capturing and processing one or more facial images of the customer to evaluate the liveness of the customer prior to completion of the business transaction, wherein evaluating liveness of the customer comprises analyzing a first image of the customer or data derived from the first image and a second image of the customer or data derived from the second image such that the first image is captured at a different distance from the customer than the second image.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the processed customer answers are encrypted, subject to a hash operation.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 further comprising:
converting the first image, the second image, or both to captured biometric data; and
comparing the captured biometric data to stored biometric data to determining if a match occurs.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3 wherein the stored biometric data is stored in a blockchain and when comparing, for a match, the reverse processed customer answers to stored customer answers data controls access to the blockchain storing the stored biometric data.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein a result of the liveness evaluation of the customer is communicated to a business.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5 wherein the business is a credit reporting agency or a lender.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein evaluating liveness further comprises:
verifying the liveness of the customer by processing a first image of the customer's face captured at a first distance from the customer, and capturing a second image of the customer's face at a second distance from the customer.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7 wherein the evaluating liveness further comprises comparing at least one image of the customer's face to a previously captured image of the customer's face.

### Claim 9

An authentication system to evaluate a user's identity comprising:
a data collection device having a processor and memory storing non-transitory machine executable code which is executable by the processor, the machine executable code of the data collection device configured to:
present user related questions to the user;
receive answers to the user related questions, the answers entered by the user into the data collection device;
process the answers to create secured answer data, wherein the secured answer data is encrypted;
transmit the secured answer data to a remote server;
responsive to instructions from the remote server, collect and transmit collected biometric data from the user, wherein the collected biometric data is derived from one or more facial images of the user;
the remote server having a processor and memory storing non-transitory machine executable code which is executable by the processor, the machine executable code configured to:
receive the secured answer data from the data collection device;
process the secured answer to determine if the received secured answer data matches stored secured answer data wherein the stored secured answer data is encrypted when stored;
responsive to the received secured answer data not matching the stored secured answer data, denying access to stored biometric data for the user;
responsive to the received secured answer data matching the stored secured answer data:
initiate an authentication session by communicating with the data collection device to collect and transmit collected authentication data;
receive collected authentication data from the data collection device; and
compare the collected authentication data received from the data collection device to stored user authentication data stored on the remote server to determine if a match occurs, such that the comparing provides an indicator of the identity of the user, wherein the stored authentication data is derived from one or more previously captured facial images of the user.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The system of claim 9 wherein the secured answer data is hashed.

### Claim 11 (depends on 9)

The system of claim 9 wherein the collected authentication data comprises one or more images of the user captured by a camera of the data collection device.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11 wherein the user authentication data comprises a first image of the user's face captured, by the camera, at a first distance separating the user and the camera and second image of the user's face captured, by the camera, at a second distance separating the user and the camera, such that the first distance is different from the second distance.

### Claim 13 (depends on 9)

The system of claim 9 further comprising transmitting an indicator of the identity of the user to a third party server and responsive thereto, receiving data from the third party server as part of a business transaction.

### Claim 14 (depends on 9)

The system of claim 9 wherein the stored user authentication data is stored in a blockchain and the blockchain storing the stored user authentication data is only accessed when the received secured answer data matches the stored secured answer data.

### Claim 15

An authentication system for use by a business to evaluate identity of a user, the authentication system comprising:
a data collection device having a screen and a user interface, the data collection device configured to:
receive answers from the user to questions presented to the user;
process the answers to create secure answer data;
transmit the secure answer data to a verification server, wherein the secure answer data is encrypted prior to transmission,
responsive to instructions from a verification server either:
capture one or more images of a face of the user and transmit the one or more images of the face of the user or biometric data derived from the one or more images of the face of the user to the authentication server for liveness analysis at the authentication server; or
capture one or more images of a face of the user, processing the one or more images to evaluate liveness of the user in the one or more images,
transmitting a liveness evaluation outcome to the verification server;
a verification server configured to:
receive the secure answer data from the data collection device;
compare the secure answer data or processed secure answer data to stored answer data;
responsive to the comparing determining that the secure answer data or processed secure answer data does not match the stored answer data, terminating the identity evaluation;
responsive to the comparing determining the secure answer data or processed secure answer data matches the stored answer data, initiating an authentication session by providing instructions to the data collection device to capture the one or more image for liveness evaluation by the verification server or to provide the liveness evaluation generated by the data collection device to the verification server;
based on an outcome of the liveness evaluation, continuing a business transaction at the business or terminating the business transaction at the business.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The system of claim 15 wherein the data collection device is an electronic device owned by the user.

### Claim 17 (depends on 15)

The system of claim 15 wherein the data collection device is an electronic device owned by the business.

### Claim 18 (depends on 15)

The system of claim 15 wherein the stored answer data is created by performing the same processing on the answers as occurred by the data collection device to form the secure answer data.

### Claim 19 (depends on 15)

The system of claim 15 wherein the questions presented to the user are based on information personal to the user.

### Claim 20 (depends on 15)

The system of claim 15 wherein initiating an authentication session comprises:
providing notice, from the verification server, to initiate the authentication session by sending a message from the verification server to the data collection device or the another device;
capturing at least one image of the user with a camera associated with the data collection device or the another device;
processing the at least one image to generate captured image data;
transmitting the captured image data to the verification server;
at the verification server, processing the captured image data to verify three dimensionality of the user;
comparing the captured image data to stored image data derived from at least one previously captured image of the user to determine if match occurs within a threshold range; and
responsive to verifying three dimensionality of the user and obtaining the match within the threshold range, then verifying the identity of the user to the business.

### Claim 21 (depends on 15)

The system of claim 15 wherein stored answer data is stored in a blockchain.

### Claim 22 (depends on 15)

The system of claim 15 wherein the one or more images of the face of the user comprises a first image captured with the camera at a first distance from the face of the user and a second image captured with the camera at a second distance from the face of the user, wherein the first distance is different than the second distance.

### Claim 23

A method for evaluating identity of a customer by a business comprising:
initiating an identity verification session for the customer;
at the business, presenting questions to the customer, the questions having stored answers which are stored at a remote location;
at the business, receiving customer answers to the questions;
transmitting the customer answers in encrypted form or a processed version of the customer answers in encrypted form to an authentication system;
receiving the customer answers or the processed version of the customer answers at the authentication system;
comparing the customer answers or the processed version of the customer answers to stored customer answers, stored in encrypted form, or a stored processed version of the customer answers, stored in encrypted form, to determine if a match occurs;
if a match does not occur, providing notice to the business of a failure to match and ending the identity evaluation processes;
if a match does occur, initiating verification process by obtaining one or more images of the customer's face with a camera;
processing one or more of the images of the customer's face to generate captured facial image data;
transmitting the captured facial image data to the verification system;
processing the captured facial image data to determine three-dimensionality and liveness of the customer generating the captured facial image data;
comparing the captured facial image data to stored facial image data to confirm the stored facial image data matches the captured facial image data, the stored facial image data based on previously captured images of the customer's face; and
performing liveness evaluation on the one or more images of the customer's face to evaluate whether the images captured a live person.

### Claim 24 (depends on 23)

The method of claim 23 further comprising, responsive to the stored facial image data matching the captured facial image data, sending message to the business.

### Claim 25 (depends on 23)

The method of claim 23 further comprising, responsive to the stored facial image data matching the captured facial image data, sending an identity verification success message to a credit reporting agency so the credit reporting agency can sent a credit report to the business.

### Claim 26 (depends on 23)

The method of claim 23 further comprising, responsive to the stored facial image data matching the captured facial image data, sending an identity verification success message to a lender so the lender will provide a loan or financing to the customer.

### Claim 27 (depends on 23)

The method of claim 23 wherein the one or more images of the user comprise a first image capture with the camera a first distance from the customer's face and a second image captured with the camera a second distance from the user's face, the first distance different than the second distance.

### Claim 28 (depends on 23)

The method of claim 23 wherein comparing the customer answers or the processed version of the customer answers to stored customer answers or a stored processed version of the customer answers controls access to the stored facial image data.