Patent ID: 7876928

Claim:
A personal authentication system comprising: a first device including: a first storing unit that stores therein biometric information of a plurality of persons belonging to a first group; a first acquiring unit that acquires biometric information of a subject; a first collating unit that collates the biometric information of the subject with at least some of the biometric information present in the first storing unit, and determines whether the subject is authentic based on whether there is a match for the biometric information of the subject in the biometric information present in the first storing unit; a requesting unit that, when the first collating unit determines that the subject is not authentic, sends the biometric information of the subject to a second device, and requests the second device to collate the biometric information of the subject; a receiving unit that receives a registered biometric information of the subject from the second device with a result of collation indicating that the subject is authentic; and an updating unit that causes the first storing unit to store the registered biometric information of the subject, and the second device including: a second storing unit that stores therein only registered biometric information of a plurality of transferring persons identical to the biometric information stored in an other device corresponding to affiliated groups of the transferring persons, the transferring persons belonging to any one of a plurality of groups including the first group and having changed the affiliated groups within a predetermined period; a second acquiring unit that acquires the biometric information of the subject sent from the first device; a second collating unit that collates the biometric information acquired by the second acquiring unit and the registered biometric information stored in the second storing unit, and determines whether the subject is authentic based on whether there is a match for the biometric information of the subject in the registered biometric information; and a transmitting unit that, when the second collating unit determines that the subject is authentic, transmits the registered biometric information of the subject with the result of collation.