Biometric information obtaining apparatus and biometric information verification apparatus

A biometric information obtaining apparatus, comprising:

• image obtaining means which captures a plurality of successive partial images of successive portions of biometric information from an object moving relative to said image obtaining means;
• characteristic extracting means which obtains, from an individual partial image obtained by said image obtaining means, a characteristic contained in said individual partial image and a position of the characteristic;
• relative position information detecting means which detects relative position information of two or more of the partial images, obtained by said image obtaining means, based on the characteristic contained in a region in which said two or more partial images overlap;
• and
• correcting means which corrects the position of the characteristic in the individual partial image, based on a time interval at which said image obtaining means obtains the individual partial image, on a delay in capturing the individual partial image by said image obtaining means, and on the relative position information detected by said relative position information detecting means, thereby correcting distortion of the individual partial image caused by the delay in capturing the individual partial image, the delay occurring during a time from the start of capturing a single partial image to the end thereof, and relative movement of the object and the image obtaining means.

A biometric information verification apparatus, comprising:

• image obtaining means which captures a plurality of successive partial images of successive portions of biometric information of a user to be verified from an object moving relative to said image obtaining means while keeping contact with an image capturing device;
• characteristic extracting means which obtains, from an individual partial image obtained by said image obtaining means, a characteristic contained in said individual partial image and a position of the characteristic;
• relative position information detecting means which detects relative position information of two or more of the partial images, obtained by said image obtaining means, based on the characteristic contained in a region in which said two or more partial images overlap;
• correcting means which obtains a distance between same characteristics existing in a region in which the two or more partial images overlap based on the relative position information detected by said relative position information detecting means and on the position of the characteristic in the individual partial image and then calculates an amount of distortion of the characteristic caused by deformation of the object resulting from a frictional force accompanying the contact movement of the object based on the distance, and which corrects the position of the characteristic in the individual partial image based on the calculated distortion amount so as to eliminate the distortion caused by deformation of the object resulting from the frictional force when said image obtaining means is capturing the plurality of successive partial images;
• generating means which generates either or both of registration data and verification data for user verification, by using the characteristic extracted by said characteristic extracting means and the corrected position of the characteristic obtained by said correcting means;
• and
• verifying means which performs verification process, using either or both of the registration data and the verification data generated by said generating means, to verify the user.

A biometric information obtaining apparatus, comprising:

• image obtaining means which captures a plurality of successive partial images of successive portions of biometric information from an object moving relative to said image obtaining means while keeping contact with an image capturing surface;
• characteristic extracting means which obtains, from an individual partial image obtained by said image obtaining means, a characteristic contained in said individual partial image and a position of the characteristic;
• relative position information detecting means which detects relative position information of two or more of the partial images, obtained by said image obtaining means, based on the characteristic contained in a region in which said two or more partial images overlap;
• and
• correcting means which obtains a distance between same characteristics existing in a region in which the two or more partial images overlap based on the relative position information detected by said relative position information detecting means and on the position of the characteristic in the individual partial image and then calculates an amount of distortion of the characteristic caused by deformation of the object resulting from a frictional force accompanying the contact movement of the object based on the distance, and which corrects the position of the characteristic in the individual partial image based on the calculated distortion amount, and
• which corrects the position of the characteristic in the individual partial image, based on a time interval at which said image obtaining means obtains the individual partial image, on a delay in capturing the individual partial image by said image obtaining means, and on the relative position information detected by said relative position information detecting means, so that distortion of the individual partial image due to the delay in capturing the individual partial image by said image obtaining means is corrected so as to eliminate the distortion caused by deformation of the object resulting from the frictional force when said image obtaining means is capturing the plurality of successive partial images.

A biometric information obtaining apparatus, comprising:

• image obtaining means which captures a plurality of successive partial images of successive portions of biometric information from an object moving relative to said image obtaining means while keeping contact with an image capturing surface;
• correcting means which obtains a distance between same characteristics existing in a region in which two or more partial images overlap based on detected relative position information and on a position of a characteristic in an individual partial image and then calculates an amount of distortion of a characteristic of a partial image caused by deformation of the object resulting from a frictional force accompanying the contact movement of the object based on a distance, and which corrects the position of the characteristic in an individual partial image based on a calculated distortion amount so as to eliminate the distortion caused by deformation of the object resulting from the frictional force when said image obtaining means is capturing the plurality of successive partial images;
• and
• friction reducing means which is operable to reduce friction caused by the movement of the object.

A biometric information verification apparatus, comprising:

• image obtaining means which captures a plurality of successive partial images of successive portions of biometric information of a user to be verified from an object moving relative to said image obtaining means;
• characteristic extracting means which obtains, from an individual partial image obtained by said image obtaining means, a characteristic contained in said individual partial image and a position of the characteristic;
• relative position information detecting means which detects relative position information of two or more of the partial images, obtained by said image obtaining means, based on the characteristic contained in a region in which said two or more partial images overlap;
• correcting means which corrects the position of the characteristic in the individual partial image, based on a time interval at which said image obtaining means obtains the individual partial image, on a delay in capturing the individual partial image by said image obtaining means, and on the relative position information detected by said relative position information detecting means, thereby detecting distortion of the individual partial image caused by the delay in capturing the individual partial image, the delay occurring during a time from the start of capturing a single partial image to the end thereof, and relative movement of the object and the image obtaining means;
• generating means which generates either or both of registration data and verification data for user verification, by using the characteristic extracted by said characteristic extracting means and the corrected position of the characteristic obtained by said correcting means;
• and
• verifying means which performs verification process, using either or both of the registration data and the verification data generated by said generating means, to verify the user.

A biometric information verification apparatus, comprising:

• image obtaining means which captures a plurality of successive partial images of successive portions of biometric information of a user to be verified from an object moving relative to said image obtaining means while keeping contact with an image capturing surface;
• characteristic extracting means which obtains, from an individual partial image obtained by said image obtaining means, a characteristic contained in said individual partial image and a position of the characteristic;
• relative position information detecting means which detects relative position information of two or more of the partial images, obtained by said image obtaining means, based on the characteristic contained in a region in which said two or more partial images overlap;
• correcting means which obtains a distance between same characteristics existing in a region in which the two or more partial images overlap based on the relative position information detected by said relative position information detecting means and on the position of the characteristic in the individual partial image and then calculates an amount of distortion of the characteristic caused by deformation of the object resulting from a frictional force accompanying the contact movement of the object based on the distance, and which corrects the position of the characteristic in the individual partial image, based on the calculated distortion amount and
• which corrects the position of the characteristic in the individual partial image, based on a time interval at which said image obtaining means obtains the individual partial image, on a delay in capturing the individual partial image by said image obtaining means, and on the relative position information detected by said relative position information detecting means, so that distortion of the individual partial image due to the delay in capturing the individual partial image by said image obtaining means is corrected so as to eliminate the distortion caused by deformation of the object resulting from the frictional force when said image obtaining means is capturing the plurality of successive partial images;
• generating means which generates either or both of registration data and verification data for user verification, by using the characteristic extracted by said characteristic extracting means and the corrected position of the characteristic obtained by said correcting means;
• and
• verifying means which performs verification process, using either or both of the registration data and the verification data generated by said generating means, to verify the user.

A method for correcting distortion in an image, comprising:

• capturing a plurality of successive partial images, using an image obtaining apparatus, of successive portions of biometric information from an object moving relative to the image obtaining apparatus while keeping contact with an image capturing surface;
• detecting relative position information of two or more of the partial images based on an extracted characteristic contained in a region in which said two or more partial images overlap;
• obtaining a distance between same characteristics existing in the region in which the two or more partial images overlap based on the relative position information and on a position of the characteristic in an individual partial image;
• calculating an amount of distortion of the extracted characteristic caused by deformation resulting from a frictional force accompanying the contact movement of the object based on the distance;
• and
• correcting a position of the characteristic caused by deformation of the object in the partial image based on the distortion amount so as to eliminate distortion caused by deformation of the object resulting from the frictional force when the plurality of successive partial images are captured using the image obtaining apparatus.