USER AUTHENTICATION VIA EVOKED POTENTIAL IN ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC SIGNALS

摘要

Techniques are disclosed for authentication and identification of a user by use of an electroencephalographic (EEG) signal. For example, a method for authenticating a user includes the following steps. At least one electroencephalographic response is obtained from a user in accordance with perceptory stimuli presented to the user. The user is authenticated based on the obtained electroencephalographic response. The authenticating step may be based on detection of an event-related potential in the obtained electroencephalographic response. The event-related potential may be a P300 event-related potential. The method may also include the step of enrolling the user prior to authenticating the user. The enrolling step may include a supervised enrollment procedure or an unsupervised enrollment procedure.

主权项

1. A method for authenticating a user, comprising the steps of:
receiving a claim from an individual claiming to be an enrolled user; retrieving a stored electroencephalographic response profile associated with the enrolled user, the electroencephalographic response profile being generated as a result of supervised enrollment process based a shared secret, wherein the shared secret comprises a sequence of visual elements which follows an explicit rule known by the enrolled user during the supervised enrollment process, wherein the explicit rule specifies at least one of a relationship between the visual elements and an allowed sequence of the visual elements; presenting perceptory stimuli to the individual, the perceptory stimuli comprising the shared secret; obtaining at least one electroencephalographic response from the individual in response to the perceptory stimuli comprising said shared secret presented to the individual; and authenticating the individual's claim as being the enrolled user based on the obtained electroencephalographic response, wherein authenticating comprises:
detecting a pattern of P300 event-related potentials in the obtained electroencephalographic response;comparing the detected pattern of P300 event-related potentials with an expected pattern of P300 event-related potentials as provided by the stored electroencephalographic response profile associated with the enrolled user, wherein an unexpectedly produced P300 event-related potential in the detected pattern is indicative of an imposter;determining an authentication score based on results of said comparing; andcomparing the determined authentication score to a predetermined authentication threshold value to positively authenticate the individual as being the claimed enrolled user when the authentication score exceeds the predetermined authentication threshold or to reject the individual as an imposter when the authentication score does not exceed the predetermined authentication threshold.