Patent ID: 7613929
Filing Date: 2009-11-03
Classification: G06F,G06K,G07C,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of authenticating the identity of an enrolled user of a biometric authentication and/or identification system having a set of user modes including an exception mode, the method comprising: receiving a request from the enrolled user for switching a user mode of the enrolled user to the exception mode; requesting identifying information from the enrolled user; receiving the identifying information from the enrolled user; verifying the enrolled user's identity by determining if the identifying information received from the enrolled user matches identifying information of the enrolled user as stored in a user information database; submitting to a template matching server a biometric template extracted from a biometric sample image of a biometric identifier of a person authorizing a switch in the enrolled user's user mode to the exception mode; if the template matching server finds a match between the biometric template of the person authorizing the switch in the enrolled user's user mode to the exception mode and a pre-stored reference biometric template of the person authorizing the switch in the enrolled user's user mode to the exception mode, switching the enrolled user's user mode to the exception mode; assigning to the user a temporary password having an expiration date; storing the temporary password and said expiration date in the user information database; setting a user exception mode authentication counter value stored in the user information database to a value corresponding to a number of allowed authentications with the temporary password; transmitting the temporary password to the enrolled user by an out-of-band communication; receiving a request from the enrolled user for access to a network application that requires biometric authentication; sending a request for a user identification string previously assigned uniquely to the enrolled user and stored in the user information database and the temporary password; receiving a user identification string from the enrolled user and a password from the enrolled user; if the received user identification string matches the user identification string previously assigned uniquely to the enrolled user, the received password matches the temporary password, the temporary password has not expired, and the user exception mode authentication counter is greater than zero, authenticating the identity of the enrolled user; decrementing the user exception mode authentication counter; and if the template matching server finds a match between a biometric template extracted from a biometric image of a biometric identifier of the enrolled user in exception mode and a reference biometric template of the enrolled user, switching the enrolled user's user mode.