Patent attributes
A document originator establishes rules for authenticating an electronic signature. Such rules may require that any user who wishes to assent to the document terms provide biometric data in the form of an ocular image. In one implementation, such rules, as well as the document itself, are provided to a document recipient. If the document recipient assents to the document, an electronic signature is acquired from the document recipient, along with the required ocular image. The image is acquired using an infrared-enabled camera in the case of an iris image, or a retinal scanner in the case of a retina image. The acquired image can be authenticated by comparison to a trusted reference image, for example which may have been obtained from the document recipient during an initial registration process. If the comparison matches with a sufficiently high degree of confidence, then the electronic signature is considered authentic.