Patent ID: 9633188
Date: 2017-04-25
CPC Classifications: G06F,H04L

Claim:
1. A device comprising: a discriminating unit, implemented by circuitry, configured to determine whether an authentication device requires user authentication, in response to detection of the authentication device; a first obtaining unit, implemented by the circuitry, configured to obtain first identification information for use in user authentication from the authentication device that is determined to require the user authentication by the discriminating unit; a second obtaining unit, implemented by the circuitry, configured to obtain second identification information entered by a user; an authenticating unit, implemented by the circuitry, configured to perform authentication to determine whether the user is an authorized user by comparing the first identification information with the second identification information; a sharing unit, implemented by the circuitry, configured to permit both an authentication-type application program that performs user authentication and a non-authentication-type application program that does not perform user authentication to access the authentication device when an authentication result obtained by the authenticating unit indicates that the user is an authorized user; and a discrete unit, implemented by the circuitry, configured to permit each application program to access the authentication device when an authentication result obtained by the authenticating unit indicates that the user is an authorized user for the each application program, wherein the authenticating unit is configured to determine which of the sharing unit or the discrete unit is selected, the authenticating unit is configured to, prior to performing the user authentication, notify both the authentication-type application program, which performs user authentication, and the non-authentication-type application program, which does not perform user authentication, that permission to access the authentication device has been granted, when the discriminating unit determines that the authentication device does not require the user authentication, the authenticating unit is configured to notify the corresponding application program of the authentication result to access the authentication device when the discrete unit is selected, the authenticating unit is configured to, when the discrete unit is selected, flag each of one or more authentication-type application programs designated to start up, unflag all other authentication-type application programs that have not been designated to start up, allow the flagged each of one or more authentication-type application programs designated to start up to access the authentication device, and disallow the unflagged other authentication-type application programs that have not been designated to start up from accessing the authentication device even if the authentication result obtained by the authenticating unit indicates that the user is an authorized user, and the authenticating unit is configured to, after performing the user authentication, notify both the authentication-type application program, which performs user authentication, and the non-authentication-type application program, which does not perform user authentication, that permission to access the authentication device has been granted, when the sharing unit is selected.