Personal verification systems utilize a variety of systems and methods to protect information and property and to authenticate authorized users. Some protection systems rely on information acquired by biometric sensors relating to the biometric features of a user's body. The use of biometric information for authentication is advantageous, because each biometric feature is unique to the user. Any biometric feature can be used, including facial features, a retinal image, palm print, fingerprint, or signature. Where the biometric feature is a fingerprint, the biometric sensor obtains information representative of the user's fingerprint.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,599,530 issued Oct. 6, 2009 for “Method for Matching Ridge Orientation;” describes methods for processing finger biometric data; U.S. Pat. No. 7,616,787 issued Nov. 10, 2009, for “Methods for Finger Biometric Processing and Associated Finger Biometric Sensors;” describes methods for fingerprint biometric processing that include scoring information for spot properties. Additionally, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,289,114 and 6,459,804 to Mainguet describe a method for image reconstruction from slices obtained using a thermal slide sensor. In this work, image slices are stitched together to form a fingerprint image. Stitching is based on alignment of consecutive slices using correlation. U.S. Pat. No. 7,197,168 to Russo describes methods and systems for biometric image assembly from multiple partial biometric frame scans. Published U.S. Patent Application US2003/0123714 A1 to O'Gorman et al. discloses another approach for image reconstruction. In O'Gorman, the sequence of images provided by the slide sensor is processed to generate an image of the fingerprint. However, only a subset of the image, which they define as a slice, is used in the reconstruction. This sub-image has the same number of columns as the original image but fewer rows. Correlation is based on a sub-image of the slice, which is referred to as a frame. This sub-image has the same number of columns as the sensor but fewer rows than the slice. A frame in a slice is correlated with similar frames in an adjacent slice to determine the extent of overlap between them.
A common feature of user enrollment processes employed with biometric sensing is that the end user is aware of the enrollment process and must cooperate with it. The enrollment process itself can be a significant impediment to acceptance of biometric technology, because users must first locate and execute the enrollment application, then successfully enroll their fingers before the technology can be used for future authentication. For many users this is too cumbersome.
There is a need, therefore, for methods and systems for enrolling biometric data that are easier to use and provide a more positive user experience.