This could be interesting.
As Apple’s Face ID continues to be developed, it’s been revealed that the company has explored the possibility of scanning the pattern of veins in a user’s face as another form of biometric authentication, one that could potentially tell identical twins apart.
On Tuesday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published a patent called “Vein imaging using detection of pulsed radiation,” granted to Apple. First applied for on November 12, 2015, the patent describes the use of an infrared emitter and a receiver that can detect blood vessel patterns below the surface of the skin.
The patent application describes an optical transmitter that emits multiple pulses of infrared light towards an area of the user’s body, such as a hand or a face. The infrared light can pass through the skin and reflect off the user’s veins, with returning light received by an image capturing device capable of accepting IR light.
The data generated by the reflected infrared light is then processed to produce an image of the blood vessels in the scanned area. Based on the time-of-flight of the pulses, this technique could also be used to generate a three-dimensional map of the body surface.
The patent notes that existing vein-based authentication systems for hands are said to be very accurate “due to the complexity of the vein patterns in the hand.” As said vein patterns are internal to the body, it would be extremely difficult for someone to produce a usable counterfeit, especially when used alongside other biometric systems.
Such a technique also “alleviates hygienic concerns,” as it doesn’t involve fingerprints or handprints.
Vein-based authentication could also help Face ID solve the “twin problem” and allow for the system to differentiate between identical twins or family members that are visually similar to each other.
As the structure of veins in the face differ from person to person, even between twins, such a system would help minimize these false positive instances further.
This technique would also make attempts to fool Face ID with a mask close to impossible, due to the need to replicate the target user’s blood vessels.
The patent is currently credited to Andrew T. Herrington, Jawad Nawasra, and Scott T. Smith.
Apple routinely files for patents, as often as tens or hundreds of times a week and may not bring this idea to fruition, but it’s an interesting concept that can feed into other ideas or products down the line.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and the United States Patent and Trademark Office