US credit card issuer applies for patent on ID service booster

Sep 29, 2023, 1:33 pm EDT | Jim Nash

US credit card issuer applies for patent on ID service booster

Mastercard has applied for a U.S. patent on ways to improve biometric identity resolution needed for mobile transactions. The transactions could be purchased or service enrollment.

An ID services vendor is quoted doubting the uniqueness of Mastercard‘s idea, however. And the card issuer has already been expanding into digital ID services.

Application 20230289419 describes math that would take video images captured by multiple reference and subject cameras, find the best image match from each of the two categories of cameras and normalize the images prior to verification.

A transformation algorithm would be used to subtract signal noise and otherwise make a subject image more alike with reference images. That would improve ID verification. The process would also enable financial services companies to score the technical performance of the subject camera.

Mastercard says in its application that, often, the subject camera is in an Apple iPhone and does not always produce a selfie of enough fidelity for ratcheting anti-fraud standards and needs.

Of course, reference cameras are proliferating far beyond phones, and they could participate in transactions secured by Mastercard’s proposed method. Face-scanning kiosks and fingerprint scanners, for instance.

A so-called biometric hub is part of the method in the application. It would coordinate functions between reference and subject cameras, and it could house data that is associated with previously normalized face scans for, indeed, reference.

The hub also would perform the transformation/normalization and could use biometric templates in its work rather than images themselves.

In an article by financial news publisher The Motley Fool and distributed by the Nasdaq, an executive with ID security firm Ping Identity said while useful, the method that Mastercard is seeking protection for is not new.

Branden Williams, VP of ID access management, pointed out that his firm has a similar verification service as does identification security and transportability firm ID.me.