As the global workforce becomes more decentralized, cell phone technology enables companies to develop new communication systems to serve their customers' needs.
1 -- "Can The Cellphone Help End World Poverty?" New York Times; April 13, 2008.
TECHNOLOGY SUMMARY
A fingerprint sensor is mounted in either a conventional cellphone headset, or a head covering or an eye-covering that is compatible with the user’s headset or cellphone. The authentication requires the user to touch or sweep a finger along the sensor in response to a system prompt. Once identification is confirmed the rest is hands free. Authentication can be bimodal or multimodal.
Applications include:
Commercial transactions – point-of-sale, phone purchase and on-line purchases
Law enforcement – only authorized persons can receive or transmit audio
Health care – only authorized persons can access/update patient records
Wire transfers, currency conversions and stock and commodity trading
Physical access to a vehicle, garage, home, office, or parking structure
Time and attendance – provides a date time stamp for all communications
CELLPHONES & PDAS WITH A BUILT-IN FINGERPRINT SENSOR
According to our market research, many cellphone manufacturers and PDAs have already incorporated a fingerprint sensor. The list of such manufacturers includes Samsung, Lenovo, LG TeleCom, Siemens, Sagem, Casio, Fujitsu, HP, Sony, YRP/T-Engine, Hitachi, Toshiba, HTC, CECT, and Pantech & Curitel (see Market Research).
These devices are currently being marketed in Asia and Europe and will soon be introduced in the U.S.
WHY “HANDS-FREE”?
No longer is the telephone solely associated within the home or the office. The automobile was one of the next environments to become widely populated by cellphones, allowing people to keep in touch while on the move, or while stuck in traffic. Due to the obvious dangers of holding a cellphone in one hand and driving with the other, many of the developed countries either strongly recommend or legally enforce “hands-free” phone operation in all moving vehicles.
Laws in many developed countries (e.g. - Germany, Japan, Britain, Italy, Singapore, Switzerland, Brazil, Australia, Israel, and Turkey) and several states (California, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, and the District of Columbia) now ban the driver from using a handheld cellphone. While many new cars are equipped with “hands-free” units, most cars already on the road are not.
“Hands-free” technology also allows people to multi-task in comfort, resulting in increased productivity. You can talk on the phone at the same time while you accomplish another important task, such as, working at your computer, doing the dishes, taking out the trash, or doing anything else that is better done with both hands.
OUR TECHNOLOGY HAS MANY ADVANTAGES
The technology is moving in our direction. As the power supplies become smaller and longer lasting, the headsets will become even more commonplace. Also, as new forms of video displays become available, the handset becomes unnecessary.
- Hands-free and Eyes-free.
- Is worn on the ear, face or head – can be easily found when needed.
- Fingerprint certainty with the touch or sweep of a finger.
- Can be used for (a) physical access; (b) data retrieval; and (c) financial transactions.
- Sensors currently cost less than $10/unit (in bulk supplies).
- Provides a date-time stamp for all communications.
WHY FINGERPRINTS, AND NOT VOICEPRINTS?
An article entitled “Beyond Fingerprinting” appears in the September 2008 issue (beginning on page 78) of Scientific American. The article includes a comparison of voiceprint-based systems to fingerprint-based systems (at page 80).
The authors (by Anil K. Jain and Sharath Pankanti) conclude that the distinctiveness of the voiceprint is “low” and the fingerprint is “high;” the permanence of the voiceprint is “low” and the fingerprint is “high;” and the difficulty in spoofing the trait for voice-based systems is “low” and for fingerprint-based systems is “high.”
And, more importantly, the false-reject rate is from 5 to 10 % and the false-accept rate is from 2 to 5 % for voice-based systems. This compares to a false-reject rate of 0.4 % and a false-accept rate of 0.1 % for fingerprint-based systems.
GLOBAL PATENT RIGHTS
Global patent rights to this technology are being secured in over 130 countries via PCT Application No. PCT/US2007/007288 which was filed on March 20th, 2007, claiming priority to U.S. Provisional Applications that were filed beginning in March 20, 2006. While the PCT Application was pending, three different secrecy orders were placed on the Application by the U.S. Department of Defense. Finally, the U.S. Government removed all secrecy orders and a foreign filing license was granted in October 2007.
In the PCT Search Report recently received, U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 10/269162 (Lavin et al.) was cited as the primary reference. The PCT Application includes a broad contingent of claims. In lieu of this search report and the extensive prior art searching that we have done, it appears that broad patent coverage may be available for this technology.
NOVELTY A dual-purpose headset provides essentially “hands-free” fingerprint authentication with a conventional cellphone. The user touches a fingerprint sensor in a head covering or eyeglasses when prompted to enable fingerprint authentication. The head covering or eyeglasses deploy a short-distance wireless communication technology – such as Bluetooth via the headset.
NOVELTY Incorporate “fingerprint certainty” into conventional devices (such as an ATM, a desktop computer, or even keyless car access) from a head covering or a pair of eyeglasses. The user touches a fingerprint sensor in the head covering or the eyeglasses that has a wireless connection to the headset. Once user identity is authenticated, access is allowed to the ATM, the desktop, or the car. The sensor can also be located in the headset.
