Authentication Device and Authentication Method for Portable Information Terminal

Abstract

A portable information terminal such as a cellular phone terminal, a tablet type terminal, or an electronic book reader is set to be used only by an identical user. A touch panel type operation panel capable of using a touch panel mode and a fingerprint sensor mode as a common mode is disposed at a portable information terminal. A fingerprint sensing function is incorporated for performing authentication of a user's fingerprint and the fingerprint sensor mode and the touch panel mode can be used as a common mode. The operation panel is configured to display a fingerprint sensor portion 12 at a predetermined position as being in the fingerprint sensor mode when the portable information terminal is turned on, and then fingerprint authentication is performed by obtaining fingerprint information when pressing operation is performed on the fingerprint sensor portion for a predetermined time.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.