Patent ID: 8385613

Claim:
A biometric authentication system, comprising: a database of digital images of biometrics of known people; a camera configured to capture a digital image of a biometric of an unknown person; a two-dimensional gradient filter coupled to the database and the camera and configured to derive a first spatial gradient of the captured digital image; and a match processor coupled to the two-dimensional gradient filter and configured to: identify a plurality of pairs of blocks of pixels, wherein each pair of blocks includes a first block from the first spatial gradient of the captured digital image and a second block from a second spatial gradient of a digital image from the database, wherein the second block is identified from within a specific area of the digital image from the database, and wherein the specific area is based on a position of the first block within the captured digital image; and process the plurality of pairs of blocks of pixels to determine an extent to which the biometric in the captured digital image corresponds to a biometric in the digital image from the database.