Personal identification apparatus and method using living body

A personal authentication apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of light sources each of which emits infrared light;
• an input interface which includes an imaging unit for imaging an image of a blood vessel of a finger of a living body by the infrared light emitted from the plurality of light sources;
• an image calculating unit which performs a feature extracting operation and a feature authenticating operation with respect to the photographed image of the blood vessel;
• a positioning unit for presenting the finger;
• and
• a control unit which controls at least the plurality of light sources, wherein
• a presentation position of the finger is set to a position higher than the imaging unit;
• the plurality light sources are installed at positions which are deeper than the presentation position of the finger and also are higher than the presentation position of the finger;
• and
• the control unit controls amounts of infrared light emitted from the plurality light sources in a manner that an amount of the emitted infrared light is smaller as an illumination position of the emitted infrared light on the finger is closer to a fingertip of the finger.