Method and apparatus for real-time verification of live person presence on a network

A system for real-time verification of live person presence at a network location, the system comprising:

• a networked device operatively connected to a network and having a display screen;
• a back-facing camera operatively connected to the networked device, the camera having a field of view (“FOV”);
• a security indicia displayed on the screen of the network device for a discrete period of time;
• a photo image of the FOV taken by the back-facing camera during the discrete time period when the security indicia was displayed on the screen;
• computer circuitry on the networked device executing software to evaluate the photo image of the FOV to detect if a reflected image of the security indicia is present in the photo image of the FOV, and
• if a human face is present in the photo image of the FOV;
• wherein, if the computer circuitry detects both the reflected image of the security indicia and the human face in the photo image, a positive result of live person presence at the network location is stored in a memory;
• and
• wherein, if the computer circuitry fails to detect either the reflected image of the security indicia or the human face in the photo image, a negative result of live person presence at the network location is stored in the memory.

A method for execution on a mobile device for real-time verification of live person presence at a network location, the mobile device having a processor, a display screen operatively coupled to the processor, a memory operatively coupled to the processor, a communication device operatively coupled to the processor and a back-facing digital camera operatively coupled to the processor and having a field of view (“FOV”) such that the camera can photograph a face of a human user when the human user is viewing the display screen, the method comprising the following steps:

• producing, using the processor of a mobile device at a network location, a real-time security indicia on the mobile device;
• displaying, on a display screen of the mobile device that is operatively connected to the processor, the real-time security indicia at a known time at the network location;
• capturing, using a back-facing digital camera that is operatively connected to the processor and has a FOV such that the camera can photograph a face of a human user when the human user is viewing the display screen, an FOV image of the objects within the FOV in front of the display screen at the known time;
• storing the FOV image in a memory of the mobile device that is operatively connected to the processor;
• detecting, using the processor, any human face present in the FOV image stored in the memory;
• detecting, using the processor, an eye region of the human face present in the FOV image stored in the memory;
• detecting, using the processor, whether a reflected image of the security indicia is present in the eye region of the human face in the FOV image stored in the memory;
• determining the result of the live person verification to be “successful” if a reflected image of the real-time security indicia is detected in the eye region of the human face in the FOV image stored in the memory;
• determining the result of the live person verification to be “unsuccessful” if a reflected image of the security indicia is not detected in the eye region of the human face in the FOV image stored in the memory;
• and
• storing the result of the live person verification in the memory of the mobile device.