ONE-TO-MANY MATCHING WITH APPLICATION TO EFFICIENT PRIVACY-PRESERVING RE-IDENTIFICATION

Authentication methods are disclosed for determining whether a person or object to be authenticated is a member of a set of authorized persons or objects. A query signature is acquired comprising a vector whose elements store values of an ordered set of features for the person or object to be authenticated. The query signature is compared with an aggregate signature comprising a vector whose elements store values of the ordered set of features for the set of authorized persons or objects. The individual signatures for the authorized persons or objects are not stored; only the aggregate signature. It is determined whether the person or object to be authenticated is a member of the set of authorized persons or objects based on the comparison. The comparing may comprise computing an inner product of the query signature and the aggregate signature, with the determining being based on the inner product.