Public/private key biometric authentication system

A computer-implemented method of generating a biometric public key for an individual based on biometric data of the individual, without the need for non-transient storage of the biometric data, the method comprising:

• receiving by a computing facility, from a transducer, a digital electronic signal that characterizes a biometric of the individual;
• extracting by the computing facility, from the digital electronic signal, (a) a set of biometric values of the individual and (b), for each member of the set of biometric values of the individual, a confidence value indicating a degree of confidence that the corresponding biometric value is stable between characterizations;
• using the confidence values to select, by the computing facility, only some, but not all, of the biometric values in the set extracted from the digital electronic signal, the selected biometric values being a confident subset of the set of biometric values of the individual, the confident subset excluding biometric values deemed to be unreliable as a discriminant of an identity of the individual based on the biometric;
• generating, by the computing facility, a secret number;
• computing, by the computing facility, the biometric public key based on the secret number and the confident subset, wherein the biometric public key verifiably characterizes both the biometric data of the individual and the secret number without the need for non-transient storage of either the confident subset or the secret number;
• and
• storing the biometric public key in a storage facility.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computing facility, establish computer processes for using biometric data to authenticate a subject as an individual whose biometric data has been previously obtained using a first transducer, without the need for non-transient storage of the biometric data, the computer processes comprising:

• receiving by a computing facility, from a second transducer coupled to the computing facility, a digital electronic signal that characterizes a biometric of the subject;
• extracting by the computing facility, from the digital electronic signal, (a) a set of biometric values of the subject and (b), for each member of the set of biometric values of the subject, a confidence value indicating a degree of confidence that the corresponding biometric value is stable between characterizations;
• using the confidence values to select, by the computing facility, only some, but not all, of the biometric values in the set extracted from the digital electronic signal, the selected biometric values being a confident subset of the set of biometric values of the subject, the confident subset excluding biometric values deemed to be unreliable as a discriminant of an identity of the subject based on the biometric;
• receiving by the computing facility, from a storage facility, a biometric public key that was computed based on a secret number and the biometric data of the individual that has been previously obtained using the first transducer, wherein the biometric public key verifiably characterizes both the biometric data of the individual and the secret number without the need for non-transient storage of either the biometric data of the individual or the secret number;
• computing, by the computing facility, a candidate value for the secret number using the biometric public key and the confident subset;
• performing an authentication process by determining whether the candidate value for the secret number is deemed equivalent to the secret number characterized by the biometric public key;
• and
• authenticating the subject as the individual when the candidate value for the secret number is deemed equivalent to the secret number.