Patent ID: 7454624

Claim:
A method for performing user authentication in the context of a biometric security system, the method comprising: obtaining a first collection of biometric data based on a first biometric source; applying a transform function to the first collection of biometric data to generate a match template; receiving from a biometric data collector a second collection of biometric data based on the first biometric source; generating an authentication model based on the second collection of biometric data, the authentication model being different than the match template, wherein the process utilized to generate the authentication model is distinct from the processing associated with applying the transform function such that the representation of biometric data associated with the authentication model will be different than the representation of biometric data associated with the match template even if the first and second collections of biometric data were identical; comparing the authentication model to the match template, wherein comparing comprises evaluating the relationship between the authentication model and the match template without directly comparing one to the other, and wherein comparing comprises comparing the authentication model to a set of database keys that describe a plurality of match template characteristics; and granting or denying an access right based on the result of the comparison of the authentication model to the match template.