Patent ID: 7818583

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a biometric information capturing section which captures personal biometric information, a biometric information storage section which stores registered personal biometric information, an authenticating section which compares the personal biometric information captured by the biometric information capturing section with the registered biometric information stored in the biometric information storage section, and authenticates a previously registered administrator user or a previously registered non-administrator user if the personal biometric information of the previously registered administrator user or the previously registered non-administrator user captured by the biometric information capturing section matches the registered biometric information stored in the biometric information storage section, a key setting section in which a predetermined key is to be set, wherein the key setting section has a keyhole into which a physical key is inserted, and wherein the key is set in the key setting section if predetermined operations are performed, the predetermined operations including the operation of inserting a predetermined physical key in the keyhole, and a biometric information registering section which registers biometric information of a new administrator user or a new non-administrator user by storing the biometric information captured by the biometric information capturing section in the biometric information storage section only when the predetermined key is set in the key setting section and at the same time the previously registered administrator is authenticated by the authenticating section.