Patent ID: 7646893

Claim:
A biometric information verifying apparatus for authorizing a user, utilizing biometric information, comprising: a data storage unit storing registered feature information obtained from biometric information for registry that is acquired from registered users at enrollment, and a plurality of items of registered sub-feature information obtained from the biometric information for registry, in association with each other; a biometric information input unit for inputting to-be-verified biometric information of a user to-be-verified; a to-be-verified feature information obtaining unit which obtains to-be-verified feature information from the to-be-verified biometric information input by said biometric information input unit; a to-be-verified sub-feature information obtaining unit which obtains a plurality of items of to-be-verified sub-feature information from the to-be-verified biometric information input by said biometric information input unit; a to-be-verified sub-feature information assessing unit which assesses acquirement stability of an individual item of to-be-verified sub-feature information, based on the plurality of items of to-be-verified sub-feature information obtained by said to-be-verified sub-feature information obtaining unit; a registered feature information narrowing unit which selects one or more pieces of registered feature information, of the previously registered feature information of the registered users, to be subjected to comparison with the to-be-verified feature information obtained by said to-be-verified feature information obtaining unit, based on the plurality of items of to-be-verified sub-feature information and the plurality of items of registered sub-feature information, and on the acquirement stability assessment result obtained by said to-be-verified sub-feature information assessing unit; and a comparing unit which compares said one or more pieces of registered feature information selected by said registered feature information narrowing unit and the to-be-verified feature information obtained by said to-be-verified feature information obtaining unit in order to determine whether the user to-be-verified is among the registered users.