[DESCRIPTION]
[TITLE]
A MOBILE PHONE COMPRISING RECOGNITION SENSOR OF
FINGERPRINT
[TECHNICAL FIELD]
The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal
provided with a fingerprint recognition sensor, and more particularly to a mobile
communication terminal provided with a fingerprint recognition sensor which
makes it possible to perform user authentication using a fingerprint.
[BACKGROUND ART]
As general payment methods used in electronic commerce, there are
credit card payment, money transfer, etc., which are conventional methods, and
new payment methods such as ones using cybercash (electronic money), a
mobile phone or a general telephone (ARS), etc. recently appear and are used.
Particularly, as the payment methods for a small amount, the mobile phone or
the cybercash are often used rather than the credit card payment method.
Among those methods, the payment method using the mobile phone
tends to be mainly used, because the procedure is troublesome due to dialing
during the payment in case of the general telephone. In the payment method
using the mobile phone, after the cybercash (e.g., Wow Coin) is purchased from
a mobile phone payment service provider, it is charged together with a
communication charge of a mobile communication service provider. In other
words, a user connects to the mobile phone payment service provider over the
Internet for the payment of the user's mobile phone and requests the cybercash.
At this time, the user inputs the information such as the user's phone number.
The mobile phone payment service provider connects to the corresponding
communication service provider, requests the user authentication, and approves
the cybercash purchase when receiving the authentication.
Then, the user connects to a cyber shopping mall or a content provider
over the Internet and requests the purchase of goods/services using the user's
cybercash. The cyber shopping mall or the content provider asks the mobile
phone payment service provider issuing the cybercash in response to the
request for the purchase of the user to make the payment, approves the
purchase of the user when the mobile phone payment service provider approves
the payment, and provides goods/services.
Then, the communication service provider charges the money for the
cybercash purchased from the mobile phone payment service provider at the
time when charging the communication charge of the user, and the user pays
the charge to the communication service provider.
Particularly, the mobile phone is recently increasingly used to pay a
small amount in place of the credit card, e.g. in downloading ringtones or
purchasing background pictures, and in financial transaction like the shopping
mall or Internet banking.
In the above payment method using the mobile phone, however, the
user authentication should be conducted during the purchase of the cybercash
or goods/services in order to prevent the illegal use of a third party. Nevertheless,
there is a problem in preventing the illegal use of a third party in the above
method, because the third party might appropriate the mobile phone due to the
loss of the mobile phone or the leakage of the information.
Various methods are recently suggested accompanying the progress of
the user authentication technology, and two methods are mainly used: firstly,
allowing a user to input the personal information and conducting the user
authentication according to it, and secondly, allowing a user to prepare an
additional security card and conducting the user authentication by reading the
security card when necessary.
In the above conventional method using a password system, however,
there are several problems that a user cannot use his or her mobile phone if the
user forgets his or her password, and the illegal use of a third party cannot be
prohibited if the user's password is leaked. In case of the security card system,
there are also problems that it is inconvenient for the user to carry the security
card, and the illegal use of a third party cannot be prohibited if the security card
is lost.
To solve the above problems, personal identification technology
preventing the loss and prohibiting the illegal copy has been suggested.
[DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION]
In order to solve the problems above, it is an object of the present
invention to provide a mobile communication terminal provided with a fingerprint
recognition sensor capable of fundamentally blocking the access of a third party
to the internal information and preventing the leakage of the personal
information by accurately performing the user authentication in e-commerce
using the mobile communication terminal to which the fingerprint recognition in
the personal identification technology is applied.
In addition, it is another object of the present invention to provide a
mobile communication terminal provided with a fingerprint recognition sensor
capable of preventing the payment of a third party appropriating others' mobile
communication terminal even if the mobile communication terminal is lost or
stolen by accurately performing the user authentication in e-commerce.
In addition, it is another object of the present invention to provide a
mobile communication terminal provided with a fingerprint recognition sensor
capable of improving convenience in the use of the mobile communication
terminal, as the cover for the key buttons of the mobile communication terminal
is replaced with the fingerprint recognition sensor so that it operates as the key
buttons in the normal state and as the fingerprint recognition sensor when the
user authentication is necessary.
In addition, it is another object of the present invention to provide a
mobile communication terminal provided with a fingerprint recognition sensor not
requiring an additional space by using a non-optical type sensor for inputting a
fingerprint as the fingerprint recognition sensor.
According to an aspect of the present invention in order to achieve the
above objects, a mobile communication terminal provided with a
number/character button unit provided with a plurality of key buttons for inputting
a phone number and/or a name, a function setting button unit provided with a
plurality of key buttons for setting various functions such as menu selection and
Internet connection, and a display unit for displaying configuration setting and/or
present operation status of a system includes a fingerprint recognition sensor
disposed as a cover for one or more of the plurality of key buttons of the
number/character button unit and the function setting button unit.
According to an additional aspect of this invention, the fingerprint
recognition sensor preferably obtains a fingerprint image of a finger by detecting
light reflected from the finger using a light source (backlight).
According to another additional aspect of this invention, the fingerprint
recognition sensor preferably obtains a fingerprint image of a finger by detecting
a change in an amount of an electrical charge of a sensor array due to pressure
and heat of the finger on a contact surface.
[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS]
Fig. 1 shows an example of a mobile communication terminal to which
this invention is applied.
Fig. 2 shows a sectional view of the mobile communication terminal
schematically depicting key buttons and the arrangement of a fingerprint
recognition sensor.
Fig. 3 shows the principle of a fingerprint recognition sensor using a
sensor array in this invention.
Fig. 4 shows the principle of the fingerprint recognition sensor using an
electric field in this invention.
Fig. 5 shows the principle of the fingerprint recognition sensor using an
ultrasonic wave in this invention.
Fig. 6 shows the principle of the fingerprint recognition sensor using a
thin film transistor in this invention.
Fig. 7 shows a schematic block diagram of the configuration of the
fingerprint recognition sensor applied to the mobile communication terminal in
user authentication.
[BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION]
Hereinafter, the exemplary embodiments of the present invention will
now be described in detail, referring to attached drawings.
In short, it is an object of the present invention to apply the. fingerprint
recognition to a mobile communication terminal among the personal
identification technology known as fingerprint recognition, iris recognition,
speech recognition, face recognition, palmprint recognition, vein recognition,
signature recognition, etc.
Particularly, it is an object of this invention to allow the mobile
communication terminal to operate as key buttons in a normally state and as a
fingerprint recognition sensor when the user authentication is needed, as its
cover is replaced with the fingerprint recognition sensor without an additional
fingerprint recognition window.
The mobile terminal herein includes a cell phone, a PCS phone, a PDA
phone, an IMT-2000, etc.
Fig. 1 shows an example of the mobile communication terminal to which
this invention is applied, Fig. 2 shows a sectional view of the mobile
communication terminal schematically depicting key buttons and the
arrangement of a fingerprint recognition sensor, Fig. 3 shows the principle of the
fingerprint recognition sensor using a sensor array in this invention, Fig. 4 shows
the principle of the fingerprint recognition sensor using an electric field in this
invention, Fig. 5 shows the principle of the fingerprint recognition sensor using
an ultrasonic wave in this invention, Fig. 6 shows the principle of the fingerprint
recognition sensor using a thin film transistor in this invention, and Fig. 7 shows
a schematic block diagram of the configuration of the fingerprint recognition
sensor applied to the mobile communication terminal in user authentication.
Referring to Fig. 1 , the mobile communication terminal which is a
general folder type applicable for this invention includes a number/character
button unit (1) which includes a plurality of key buttons for inputting phone
numbers, names, etc., a function setting button unit (2) which includes a plurality
of key buttons for setting various functions such as menu selection, Internet
connection, etc., and a display unit (3) for displaying the configuration setting,
the present operation status, etc. of the system.
A fingerprint recognition sensor is disposed as a cover of one or more of
the plurality of key buttons of the number/character button unit (1) and the
function setting button unit (2). That is, although the cover of usual key buttons
is made of flexible synthetic resin, the fingerprint recognition sensor is used as
the cover of these key buttons as shown in Fig. 2.
Referring to Fig. 2, the symbol 10 represents a printed circuit board as
an internal circuit of the mobile communication terminal, the symbol 15
represents a button block provided above the printed circuit board (10) for
coupling two contacts on the printed circuit board (10) as a user presses the
buttons, and the symbol 20 represents the fingerprint recognition sensor
provided above the button block (15) for recognizing the fingerprint of the user
on the sensor as well as functioning as a cover.
Since the fingerprint recognition sensor (20) is not in operation as a
sensor in a normal state of the mobile communication terminal, it operates as
key buttons, coupling the two contacts on the printed circuit board (10) as the
corresponding button block (15) moves down when one side of it is pressed, and
meanwhile, it operates as a fingerprint recognition sensor when the user
authentication is needed in the use of the mobile communication terminal, as the
function of the fingerprint recognition sensor (20) is activated, the function as the
key buttons is temporarily stopped, so that it does not perform recognition even
though the two contacts are coupled when the button block (15) moves down.
In the meantime, the above fingerprint recognition sensor (20), which is
a device for the user authentication based on the statistical fact that no one has
the identical fingerprint with others in the world, is classified in a principle
manner into an optical type and a non-optical type, and the present technology
research is actively in progress on the methods using a CMOS or a thin film
transistor, that is, the fingerprint sensing method according to the change in the
amount of the electrical charge of a capacitor provided on a semiconductor
substrate or the sensing method using a light source (backlight) rather than an
optical sensing device in consideration of the installation space.
The above optical type is classified into two sensing methods using a
prism and a hologram. The sensing method using a prism is to obtain the
fingerprint using the total reflection of the light entering the prism from a light
source, and the sensing method using a hologram is to obtain an image by
projecting an image reflected from the fingerprint of a finger on a plate onto a
hologram film.
And the non-optical type can be classified into several methods using a
sensor array, an electric field, an ultrasonic wave, a thin film transistor, etc.
The fingerprint recognition sensor using a sensor array is to sense a
fingerprint by detecting the change in the amount of the electrical charge of the
sensor array due to the pressure and heat of the finger on a contact surface as
shown in Fig. 3, the fingerprint recognition sensor using an electric field is to
obtain a fingerprint image by means of an electric field sensor as the sensor of
the sensor array as shown in Fig. 4, and the fingerprint recognition sensor using
an ultrasonic wave is to obtain a fingerprint by simultaneously converting a
fingerprint image into an electrical signal, where the fingerprint image is reflected
when an ultrasonic wave is projected onto the finger on a contact surface as
shown in Fig. 5.
Meanwhile the fingerprint recognition sensor using a thin film transistor
is to obtain a fingerprint image by detecting in a pixel the light reflected from the
finger using a light source (backlight) as shown in Fig. 6. The pixel includes two
thin film transistors (TFTs) and a capacitor, where the light emitted from the light
source is reflected and entering one of the TFTs, a current depending upon the
light is generated, and the electrical charge of the current is stored in the
capacitor and outputted in the form of a signal. The fingerprint is obtained using
the signal outputted.
The fingerprint recognition sensor (20) of this invention may be
optionally the optical or non-optical type according to the structure and shape of
the mobile communication terminal, and it is preferably the type using a thin film
transistor so as to reduce the installation space and increase the productivity as
well as to reduce power consumption. The type using a thin film transistor
makes it possible to be lighter, thinner, shorter and smaller, is excellent in
productivity, and has a low power consumption characteristic. Particularly, it can
be expected to reduce the manufacturing cost by easily controlling the size of
the detection area.
The configuration of the above recognition sensor (20) applied to the
mobile communication terminal in the user authentication is shown in Fig. 7.
Referring to Fig. 7, the symbol 41 represents an image pickup unit for picking up
an image as a finger touches it, the symbol 42 represents a fingerprint image
collating unit for collating images by checking a ridge, a valley, an ending point,
a bifurcation, an upper core, a lower core, a left/right delta, etc. which constitute
the fingerprint in the image inputted from the image pickup unit (41), and the
symbol 43 represents a fingerprint feature extracting unit for extracting the
features of the fingerprint from the fingerprint image outputted from the
fingerprint image collating unit (42).
And the symbol 44 represents a reference fingerprint storing unit for
registering the fingerprint of a user and storing the feature data for the user
authentication in this invention, and the symbol 45 represents a fingerprint
identifying unit for comparing the features of the fingerprint extracted by the
fingerprint feature extracting unit (43) with the features of the user's fingerprint
stored in the reference fingerprint storing unit (44).
In the above configuration, the fingerprint image is obtained by the
image pickup unit (41) and the fingerprint image collating unit (42), the features
of the fingerprint image are extracted in the fingerprint feature extracting unit
(43) for the fingerprint image processing, the features are compared with the
features of the user's fingerprint stored in the reference fingerprint storing unit
(44) to perform the fingerprint matching, and the personal identification is
conducted.
Although the present invention has been described by way of exemplary
embodiments, it should be understood that those skilled in the art might make
many changes and substitutions without departing from the spirit and the scope
of the present invention which is defined only by the appended claims.
[INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY]
As above, according to the present invention, it is possible to
fundamentally prevent the illegal use of a third party by accurately performing
the user authentication in e-commerce using the mobile communication terminal
provided with the fingerprint recognition sensor of this invention to which the
fingerprint recognition in the personal identification technology is applied.
Particularly, it is possible to activate e-commerce because the illegal use of the
third party is prohibited so that users can securely transact e-business.
In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to improve
convenience in the use of the mobile communication terminal, as the cover for
the key buttons of the mobile communication terminal is replaced with the
fingerprint recognition sensor so that it does not need an additional space and
operates as the key buttons in the normal state and as the fingerprint recognition
sensor when necessary.