Patent ID: 8566955

Claim:
A method of authorizing a user to use an electronic device comprising a capacitive touchscreen system, the method comprising: placing at least one of a user's first hand, first hand portion, or plurality of fingers in contact with or in proximity to a capacitive touchscreen forming a portion of the capacitive touchscreen system; generating, with capacitive electrodes in the capacitive touchscreen and a touchscreen controller operably connected to the electrodes, at least one acquired image of the user's first hand, first hand portion, or plurality of fingers; extracting from the one acquired image, with the touchscreen controller, a first set of characteristics corresponding to at least one of contact areas, centers of contact areas, signal strengths corresponding to contact areas, contact shapes, finger spacing, and finger orientations of the user's first hand, hand portion, or plurality of fingers; comparing, with the touchscreen controller, the first set of characteristics to a second set of characteristics, the second set of characteristics being stored in a memory, firmware, hardware circuitry, or in a storage device operably connectable to or forming a portion of the touchscreen controller, the second set of characteristics corresponding to at least one of contact areas, centers of contact areas, signal strengths corresponding to contact areas, contact shapes, finger spacing, and finger orientations of at least one authorized user's first hand, first hand portion, or plurality of fingers; determining, with the touchscreen controller, whether the first set of characteristics meets or exceeds a predetermined degree of similarity with respect to the second set of characteristics, and if the first set of characteristics meets or exceeds the predetermined degree of similarity, verifying the user as at least one of the authorized users of the device and permitting the user to use the device.