Patent ID: 8380995

Claim:
A method for identifying a user on a computing device using biometric hand data, the method comprising: receiving an indication that a hand of the user has been placed on a touchscreen of the computing device; determining locations of a plurality of user contact points made between the hand of the user and the touchscreen, wherein the plurality of user contact points define a user hand framework; matching the user hand framework with a corresponding stored hand framework, defined by a plurality of stored contact points, from a data repository, wherein the matching comprises: comparing the user hand framework to one or more stored hand frameworks in the data repository by calculating distances between the plurality of user contact points in the user hand framework and respective stored contact points in the stored hand frameworks from the data repository; determining which of the stored contact points of the stored hand frameworks are within a predetermined tolerance radius of the user contact points in the user hand framework; identifying one or more stored hand frameworks with at least a preset minimum number of stored contact points that are within the tolerance radii of the user contact points in the user hand framework; selecting a stored hand framework from the identified stored hand frameworks, wherein the selecting comprises: determining, for each identified stored hand framework, one or more stored contact points that are within the tolerance radii of the user contact points; measuring a distance between each of the determined stored contact points and the center of a corresponding tolerance radius; calculating an average of the measured distances for each hand framework; and selecting a stored hand framework with a lowest average calculated distance; determining that the selected stored hand framework is the corresponding hand framework when the average of the distances between user contact points and respective stored contact points is less than a preset maximum; and identifying the user based on the corresponding hand framework.