Patent ID: 6907135

Claim:
An authentication apparatus comprising: a user partial biometric data set input means; an authentication signal output means; one or more storage media having recorded therein one or more authorised person entire biometric data sets, and processor readable code executable to verify that a remote user is an authorised person, said code comprising: user partial biometric data set input code executable to read a user partial biometric data set via said input means; authorised person partial biometric data set acquisition code executable to obtain one or more authorised person partial biometric data sets on the basis of one or more of said authorised person entire biometric data sets, said obtaining of said one or more authorised person partial biometric data sets involving a predetermined selection of elements from the user entire biometric data set, said selection of elements being performed so as to select different elements, between obtainings, of authorised person partial biometric data sets from an authorised person entire biometric data set; data set comparison code executable to establish whether the user partial biometric data set and the authorised person partial biometric data set are sufficiently similar to verify that the remote user is an authorised person; and authentication signal generation code operable to cause an authentication signal to be output via said output means on said data sets being sufficiently similar.