Patent ID: 7792333

Claim:
A method for identifying an individual, comprising: one or more processors implementing steps comprising: obtaining at least one image of said individual, said at least one image depicting at least a portion of hair on a head of said individual; locating a head area in said at least one image; delineating a hair boundary in said head area, said hair boundary distinguishing said hair from skin of said individual; extracting at least one visual characteristic of said hair from within said hair boundary, wherein said extracting comprises: defining, within said hair boundary, at least one of: one or more pixel-based features of hair depicted within said hair boundary or one or more line-based features of hair depicted within said hair boundary, wherein said one or more line-based features comprise at least one of: one or more macrotexture attributes, one or more shape attributes, or one or more color attributes, and wherein said one or more shape attributes define at least one of: a total length of said hair within said hair boundary or a width-to-length ratio for said hair within said hair boundary; comparing said at least one visual characteristic in said at least one image to at least one visual characteristic of imaged hair in one or more stored images; and identifying said individual based on said comparing.