Patent ID: 7130454

Claim:
In a portable consumer apparatus having a processor capable of generating a representation corresponding to a facial image in a face space defined as a set of features that together characterize a variation between face images within a reference set of facial images, a method for authenticating a user of the portable consumer apparatus so that an authenticated user can access the portable consumer apparatus, the method comprising the steps of: capturing an image of the user attempting to use the portable consumer apparatus with an imaging means associated with the portable consumer apparatus; generating a representation of the captured image in the face space, wherein generating a representation of the captured image in the face space comprises the steps of: defining an unrefined region of interest corresponding to at least part of the user in the image, the unrefined region including flesh tone colors, and combining the unrefined regions of interest with one or more flesh tone colors stored in a storage element to refine the region of interest to ensure that at least a portion of the image corresponding to the unrefined region of interest having flesh tone color is incorporated into the refined region of interest; comparing the representation of the captured image with representations of facial images stored in a portable memory device accessible to the portable consumer device; determining if the user whose facial image was captured is an authorized user of the portable consumer device by determining if the comparison of the captured image and a selected stored image is within one or more selected values; and granting or denying access to the portable consumer apparatus based on the determination of whether the user is an authorized user.