Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Motoshi Kurihara

Takafumi Ito

Satoshi Uchida

Tsukasa Matoba

Kenichi Ide

This invention relates to an individual-identifying apparatus in which a plurality of output electrodes are arranged at regular intervals in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of a finger, a single input electrode is arranged at an end along the direction in which the output electrodes are arranged, the output of an oscillator which outputs a signal of a predetermined frequency is sequentially supplied to the output electrodes via an analog switch group, an electric signal output from the input electrode is detected by a phase detecting circuit, and the output of the circuit is converted to a digital signal by an A/D converter, thereby detecting the irregularity pattern of the finger to identify an individual. This individual-identifying apparatus can perform stable individual identification which is not easily influenced by the surface state of the finger, for example, whether or not it is damp, or by outside noise.

Apparatus for inputting information on the irregularity of a finger,

A position and image inputting unit in accordance with the present invention is a unit in which both the position inputting function and the image inputting function are incorporated in a packing case. The unit may be used for inputting the position data, as in a mouse in the prior art, when the user presses the packing case lightly. For inputting an image, the packing case is to be pressed harder, and the packing case is moved in the direction perpendicular to the scanning direction of the image scanner. To facilitate the motion, there is provided a guiding roller so that when the packing case is pressed hard, the case moves in a fixed direction only. Furthermore, in this state, through the operation of the image scanner, the image data is scanned and input in succession in the direction perpendicular to the direction of motion of the packing case.

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Tokyo, Japan

Motoshi Kurihara