Apple Inc.

Deepti S Prakash

Jerrold Von Hauck

Ivan Krstic

Lucia Elena Ballard

Steven Porter Hotelling

Moshe Laifenfeld

Lynn Richard Youngs

Jonathan Pokrass

Anup K Sharma

Thorsten Gernoth

Feng Tang

Thomas P Mensch

Michael Ross Malone

Matthew C Waldon

Tal Kaitz

Petr Kostka

Andrei Kolin

Christopher G Zeleznik

Ziv Hendel

Gideon Littwin

Eitan Hirsh

Etai Littwin

Jan Cibulka

Lucie Kucerova

Pavan Kumar Anasosalu Vasu

Kelsey Yukio Ho

Pavan Kumar Ansosalu Vasu

Techniques are disclosed relating to biometric authentication, e.g., facial recognition. In some embodiments, a device is configured to verify that image data from a camera unit exhibits a pseudo-random sequence of image capture modes and/or a probing pattern of illumination points (e.g., from lasers in a depth capture mode) before authenticating a user based on recognizing a face in the image data. In some embodiments, a secure circuit may control verification of the sequence and/or the probing pattern. In some embodiments, the secure circuit may verify frame numbers, signatures, and/or nonce values for captured image information. In some embodiments, a device may implement one or more lockout procedures in response to biometric authentication failures. The disclosed techniques may reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of spoofing and/or replay attacks, in some embodiments.

Biometric authentication techniques

The present disclosure describes techniques for changing a required authentication type based on a request for a particular type of information. For example, consider a situation where a user has asked a virtual assistant 'who owns this device?' By default, the device may allow biometric authentication to unlock. In response to identification of the owner by the virtual assistant, however, the device may require one or more other types of authentication (e.g., manual entry of a passcode) to unlock the device. In various embodiments, the disclosed techniques may increase the security of the device by making it more difficult for malicious entities to obtain the sensitive information or to access device functionality once the sensitive information has been disclosed. In various embodiments, this may prevent or reduce unauthorized access to the device.

Authentication techniques in response to attempts to access sensitive information

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Deepti S Prakash