Biometrics - Quick Guide

Biometrics Overview
The term Biometrics is composed of two words − Bio (Greek word
for Life) and Metrics (Measurements). Biometrics is a branch of
information technology that aims towards establishing one’s
identity based on personal traits.

Biometrics is presently a buzzword in the domain of information

security as it provides high degree of accuracy in identifying an
individual.

What is Biometrics?
Biometrics is a technology used to identify, analyze, and measure
an individual’s physical and behavioral characteristics.

Each human being is unique in terms of characteristics, which

make him or her different from all others. The physical attributes
such as finger prints, color of iris, color of hair, hand geometry,
and behavioral characteristics such as tone and accent of speech,
signature, or the way of typing keys of computer keyboard etc.,
make a person stand separate from the rest.

This uniqueness of a person is then used by the biometric

systems to −

 Identify and verify a person.

 Authenticate a person to give appropriate rights of system
operations.
 Keep the system safe from unethical handling.

What is a Biometric System?

A biometric system is a technology which takes an individual’s
physiological, behavioral, or both traits as input, analyzes it, and
identifies the individual as a genuine or malicious user.

Evolution of Biometrics
The idea of biometrics was present since few years from now. In
14th century, China practiced taking finger prints of merchants
and their children to separate them from all others. Fingerprinting
is still used today.

 In the 19th century, an Anthropologist named Alphonse

Bertillion developed a method (named Bertillionage) of
taking body measurements of persons to identify them. He
had realized that even if some features of human body are
changed, such as length of hair, weight, etc., some physical
traits of body remain unchanged, such as length of fingers.
This method diminished quickly as it was found that the
persons with same body measurements alone can be falsely
taken as one. Subsequently, Richard Edward Henry from
Scotland Yard developed a method for fingerprinting.
 The idea of retinal identification was conceived by Dr.
Carleton Simon and Dr. Isadore Goldstein in 1935. In 1976, a
research and development effort was put in at EyeDentify
Inc. The first commercial retina scanning system was made
available in 1981.
 Iris recognition was invented by John Daugman in 1993 at
Cambridge University.
 In 2001, Biometrics Automated Toolset (BAT) was introduced
in Kosovo, which provided a concrete identification means.

Today, biometric has come up as an independent field of study

with precise technologies of establishing personal identities.

Why Biometrics is Required?

With increasing use of Information Technology in the field of
banking, science, medication, etc., there is an immense need to
protect the systems and data from unauthorized users.

Biometrics is used for authenticating and authorizing a

person. Though these terms are often coupled; they mean
different.

Authentication (Identification)
This process tries to find out answer of question, “Are you the
same who you are claiming to be?”, or, “Do I know you?” This is
one-to-many matching and comparison of a person’s biometrics
with the whole database.

Verification
This is the one-to-one process of matching where live sample
entered by the candidate is compared with a previously stored
template in the database. If both are matching with more than
70% agreeable similarity, then the verification is successful.

Authorization
It is the process of assigning access rights to the authenticated or
verified users. It tries to find out the answer for the question, “Are
you eligible to have certain rights to access this resource?”

Shortcomings of
Conventional Security Aids
The conventional methods of information system security used ID
cards, passwords, Personal Identification Numbers (PINs), etc.
They come with the following disadvantages −

 They all mean recognizing some code associated with the

person rather than recognizing the person who actually
produced it.
 They can be forgotten, lost, or stolen.
 They can be bypassed or easily compromised.
 They are not precise.

In such cases, the security of the system is threatened. When the

systems need high level of reliable protection, biometrics comes
to help by binding the identity more oriented to individual.

Basic Components of a Biometric System

In general, a biometric system can be divided into four basic
components. Let us see them briefly −
Input Interface (Sensors)
It is the sensing component of a biometrics system that converts
human biological data into digital form.

For example,

 A Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) imager or a Charge

Coupled Device (CCD) in the case of face recognition,
handprint recognition, or iris/retinal recognition systems.
 An optical sensor in case of fingerprint systems.
 A microphone in case of voice recognition systems.

Processing Unit
The processing component is a microprocessor, Digital Signal
Processor (DSP), or computer that processes the data captured
from the sensors.

The processing of the biometric sample involves −

 Sample image enhancement

 Sample image normalization
 Feature extraction
 Comparison of the biometric sample with all stored samples
in database.

Database Store
The database stores the enrolled sample, which is recalled to
perform a match at the time of authentication. For identification,
there can be any memory from Random Access Memory (RAM),
flash EPROM, or a data server. For verification, a removable
storage element like a contact or contactless smart card is used.

Output Interface
The output interface communicates the decision of the biometric
system to enable the access to the user. This can be a simple
serial communication protocol RS232, or the higher bandwidth
USB protocol. It could also be TCP/IP protocol, Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID), Bluetooth, or one of the many cellular
protocols.

General Working of a Biometric System

There are four general steps a biometric system takes to perform
identification and verification −

 Acquire live sample from candidate. (using sensors)

 Extract prominent features from sample. (using processing
unit)
 Compare live sample with samples stored in database.
(using algorithms)
 Present the decision. (Accept or reject the candidate.)

The biometric sample is acquired from candidate user. The

prominent features are extracted from the sample and it is then
compared with all the samples stored in the database. When the
input sample matches with one of the samples in the database,
the biometric system allows the person to access the resources;
otherwise prohibits.
Biometrics Terminology
Biometric Template − It is a digital reference of the distinct
characteristics that are extracted from a biometric sample.

Candidate/Subject − A person who enters his biometric sample.

Closed-Set Identification − The person is known to be existing

in the database.

Enrollment − It is when a candidate uses a biometric system for

the first time, it records the basic information such as name,
address, etc. and then records the candidate’s biometric trait.

False Acceptance Rate (FAR) − It is the measure of possibility

that a biometric system will incorrectly identify an unauthorized
user as a valid user.

FAR =
Number of False Acceptances / Number of Identification Attempts

A biometric system providing low FAR ensures high security.

False Reject Rate (FRR) − It is the measure of possibility that
the biometric system will incorrectly reject an authorized user as
an invalid user.

FRR =
Number of False Rejections / Number of Identification Attempts

Open-Set Identification − The person is not guaranteed to be

existing in the database.

Task − It is when the biometric system searches the database for

matching sample.

Application Areas of Biometrics

There are a number of applications where biometric systems are
useful. Few of them are given below −

 Controlling workplace access.

 Identity establishment of people for authentic citizenship
and immigration systems.
 Applying access control to sensitive information and
systems.
 Identifying criminals by forensics.
 Executing online e-commerce transactions.
 Fraud and theft reduction.
 Law enforcement.

Biometrics Modalities
A biometric modality is nothing but a category of a biometric
system depending upon the type of human trait it takes as input.

The biometrics is largely statistical. The more the data available

from sample, the more the system is likely to be unique and
reliable. It can work on various modalities pertaining to
measurements of individual’s body and features, and behavioral
patterns. The modalities are classified based on the person’s
biological traits.

Types of Biometric Modalities

There are various traits present in humans, which can be used as
biometrics modalities. The biometric modalities fall under three
types −

 Physiological
 Behavioral
 Combination of physiological and behavioral modality

The following table collects the points that differentiate these three modalities −

Physiological Modality Behavioral Modality Combi

This modality pertains to the shape and size This modality is related to change in human This mod
of the body. behavior over time. behavior

For example −
 Fingerprint Recognition
 Hand Geometry Recognition system For example − For exam
 Facial Recognition System  Gait (the way one walks) Voice Re
 Iris Recognition System  Rhythm of typing keys It depend
 Hand Geometry Recognition System  Signature etc., and
 Retinal Scanning System
 DNA Recognition System

In the subsequent chapters, we will discuss each of these

modalities in greater detail.

Physiological Modalities
As depicted earlier, the physiological modalities are based on the
direct measurement of parts of human body such as iris,
fingerprint, shape, and position of fingers, etc.

There are some physical traits which remain unaltered throughout

a person’s life. They can be an excellent resource for
identification of an individual.

Fingerprint Recognition System

It is the most known and used biometrics solution to authenticate
people on biometric systems. The reasons for it being so popular
are there are ten available sources of biometric and ease of
acquisition.
Every person has a unique fingerprint which is composed of
ridges, grooves, and direction of the lines. There are three basic
patterns of ridges namely, arch, loop, and whorl. The
uniqueness of fingerprint is determined by these features as well
as minutiae features such as bifurcation and spots (ridge
endings).

Fingerprint is one of oldest and most popular recognition

technique. Fingerprint matching techniques are of three types −

 Minutiae Based Techniques − In these minutiae points

are found and then mapped to their relative position on
finger. There are some difficulties such as if image is of low
quality, then it is difficult to find minutiae points correctly.
Another difficulty is, it considers local position of ridges and
furrows; not global.
 Correlation Based Method − It uses richer gray scale
information. It overcomes problems of minutiae-based
method, by being able to work with bad quality data. But it
has some of its own problems like localization of points.
 Pattern Based (Image Based) Matching − Pattern based
algorithms compare the basic fingerprint patterns (arch,
whorl, and loop) between a stored template and a candidate
fingerprint.

Merits of Finger Recognition

System
 It is the most contemporary method.
 It is most economical method.
 It is highly reliable and secure.
 It works on a small template size, which speeds up the
verifying process.
 It consumes less memory space.
Demerits of Finger
Recognition System
 Scars, cuts or absence of finger can hinder the recognition
process.
 The systems can be fooled by using artificial finger made of
wax.
 It involves physical contact with the system.
 They leave the pattern of finger behind at the time of
entering sample.

Applications of Finger
Recognition System
 Verification of driver-license authenticity.
 Checking validity of driving license.
 Border Control/Visa Issuance.
 Access control in organizations.

Facial Recognition System

Facial recognition is based on determining shape and size of jaw,
chin, shape and location of the eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips, and
cheekbones. 2D facial scanners start reading face geometry and
recording it on the grid. The facial geometry is transferred to the
database in terms of points. The comparison algorithms perform
face matching and come up with the results. Facial recognition is
performed in the following ways −

 Facial Metrics − In this type, the distances between pupils

or from nose to lip or chin are measured.
 Eigen faces − It is the process of analyzing the overall face
image as a weighted combination of a number of faces.
 Skin Texture Analysis − The unique lines, patterns, and
spots apparent in a person’s skin are located.
Merits of Facial Recognition
System
 It offers easy storage of templates in database.
 It reduces the statistic complexities to recognize face image.
 It involves no physical contact with the system.

Demerits of Facial
Recognition System
 Facial traits change over time.
 Uniqueness is not guaranteed, for example, in case of
identical twins.
 If a candidate face shows different expressions such as light
smile, then it can affect the result.
 It requires adequate lighting to get correct input.

Applications of Facial
Recognition System
 General Identity Verification.
 Verification for access control.
 Human-Computer Interaction.
  Criminal Identification.
 Surveillance.

Iris Recognition System

Iris recognition works on the basis of iris pattern in human eye.
The iris is the pigmented elastic tissue that has adjustable circular
opening in center. It controls the diameter of pupil. In adult
humans, the texture of iris is stable throughout their lives. The iris
patterns of left and right eyes are different. The iris patterns and
colors change from person to person.

It involves taking the picture of iris with a capable camera, storing

it, and comparing the same with the candidate eyes using
mathematical algorithms.

Merits of Iris Recognition

System
 It is highly accurate as the chance of matching two irises is 1
in 10 billion people.
  It is highly scalable as the iris pattern remains same
throughout a person’s lifetime.
 The candidate need not remove glasses or contact lenses;
they do not hamper the accuracy of the system.
 It involves no physical contact with the system.
 It provides instant verification (2 to 5 seconds) because of its
small template size.

Demerits of Iris Recognition

System
 Iris scanners are expensive.
 High quality images can fool the scanner.
 A person is required to keep his/her head very still for
accurate scanning.

Applications of Iris
Recognition System
 National security and Identity cards such as Adhaar card in
India.
 Google uses iris recognition for accessing their datacenters.

Hand Geometry Recognition System

It includes measuring length and width of palm, surface area,
length and position of fingers, and overall bone structure of the
hand. A person’s hand is unique and can be used to identify a
person from others. There are two Hand Geometry systems −

 Contact Based − a hand is placed on a scanner’s surface.

This placement is positioned by five pins, which guide the
candidate hand to position correctly for the camera.
 Contact Less − In this approach neither pins nor platform
are required for hand image acquisition.
Merits of Hand Geometry
Recognition System
 It is sturdy and user friendly.
 The changes in skin moisture or texture do not affect the
result.

Demerits of Hand Geometry

Recognition System
 Since the hand geometry is not unique, it is not very reliable.
 It is effective in case of adults and not for the growing
children.
 If candidate’s hand is with jewelry, plaster, or arthritis, it is
likely to introduce a problem.

Applications of Hand
Geometry Recognition
System
  Nuclear power plants and military use Hand Geometry
Recognition for access control.

Retinal Scanning System

Retina is the lining layer at the back of the eyeball that covers
65% of the eyeball’s inner surface. It
contains photosensitive cells. Each person’s retina is unique
due to the complex network of blood vessels that supply blood.

It is a reliable biometric as the retina pattern remains unchanged

throughout the person’s life, barring the patterns of persons
having diabetes, glaucoma, or some degenerative disorders.

In retinal scanning process, a person is asked to remove lenses or

eyeglasses. A low-intensity infrared light beam is casted into a
person’s eye for 10 to 15 seconds. This infrared light is absorbed
by the blood vessels forming a pattern of blood vessels during the
scan. This pattern is then digitized and stored in the database.

Merits of Retinal Scanning

System
 It cannot be forged.
 It is highly reliable as the error rate is 1 out of a crore
samples (which is almost 0%).
Demerits of Retinal Scanning
System
 It is not very user friendly as the user needs to maintain
steadiness that can cause discomfort.
 It tends to reveal some poor health conditions such as
hypertension or diabetes, which causes privacy issues.
 Accuracy of the results is prone to diseases such as
cataracts, glaucoma, diabetes, etc.

Applications of Retinal
Scanning System
 It is practiced by some government bodies such as CID, FBI,
etc.
 Apart from security applications, it is also used for
ophthalmological diagnostics.

DNA Recognition System

Deoxyribo Neuclic Acid (DNA) is the genetic material found in
humans. Every human barring identical twins, is uniquely
identifiable by the traits found in their DNA, which is located in
the nucleus of the cell. There are number of sources from which
DNA patterns can be collected such as blood, saliva, nails, hair,
etc.

Within cells, DNA is organized in long double helix structure

called chromosomes. There are 23 pairs of chromosomes in
humans. Out of the 46 total chromosomes, the offspring inherits
23 chromosomes from each biological parent. 99.7% of an
offspring’s DNA is shared with their parents. The remaining 0.3%
DNA contains repetitive coding unique to an individual.

The fundamental steps of DNA profiling are −

 Separating the DNA from sample acquired from either of

blood, saliva, hair, semen, or tissue.
 Separating the DNA sample into shorter segments.
 Organizing the DNA segments according to size.
  Comparing the DNA segments from various samples.

The more detailed the sample is, the more precise the
comparison and in turn the identification of the individual is.

DNA Biometrics differs from all others in the following ways −

 It needs a tangible physical sample instead of image.

 DNA matching is done on physical samples. There is no
feature extraction or template saving.

Merit of DNA Recognition

System
It provides the highest accuracy.

Demerits of DNA Recognition

System
 Length of procedure from sample acquisition to result is
large.
 Being more informative, it brings privacy issues.
 It needs more storage space.
 Sampling contamination or degradation of sample may
affect the result.
Applications of DNA
Recognition System
 It is mainly used to prove guilt or innocence.
 It is used in physical and network security.

Behavioral Modalities
Behavioral biometrics pertains to the behavior exhibited by
people or the manner in which people perform tasks such as
walking, signing, and typing on the keyboard.

Behavioral biometrics modalities have higher variations as they

primarily depend on the external factors such as fatigue, mood,
etc. This causes higher FAR and FRR as compared to solutions
based on a physiological biometrics.

Gait Recognition
Gait is the manner of a person’s walking. People show different
traits while walking such as body posture, distance between two
feet while walking, swaying, etc., which help to recognize them
uniquely.

A gait recognition based on the analyzing the video images of

candidate’s walk. The sample of candidate’s walk cycle is
recorded by Video. The sample is then analyzed for position of
joints such as knees and ankles, and the angles made between
them while walking.

A respective mathematical model is created for every candidate

person and stored in the database. At the time of verification, this
model is compared with the live sample of the candidate walk to
determine its identity.
Merits of Gait Recognition
System
 It is non-invasive.
 It does not need the candidate’s cooperation as it can be
used from a distance.
 It can be used for determining medical disorders by spotting
changes in walking pattern of a person in case of Parkinson’s
disease.

Demerits of Gait Recognition

System
 For this biometric technique, no model is developed with
complete accuracy till now.
 It may not be as reliable as other established biometric
techniques.

Application of Gait
Recognition System
It is well-suited for identifying criminals in the crime scenario.

Signature Recognition System

In this case, more emphasis is given on the behavioral patterns in
which the signature is signed than the way a signature looks in
terms of graphics.

The behavioral patterns include the changes in the timing of

writing, pauses, pressure, direction of strokes, and speed during
the course of signing. It could be easy to duplicate the graphical
appearance of the signature but it is not easy to imitate the
signature with the same behavior the person shows while signing.

This technology consists of a pen and a specialized writing tablet,

both connected to a computer for template comparison and
verification. A high quality tablet can capture the behavioral traits
such as speed, pressure, and timing while signing.

During enrollment phase, the candidate must sign on the writing

tablet multiple times for data acquisition. The signature
recognition algorithms then extracts the unique features such as
timing, pressure, speed, direction of strokes, important points on
the path of signature, and the size of signature. The algorithm
assigns different values of weights to those points.

At the time of identification, the candidate enters the live sample

of the signature, which is compared with the signatures in the
database.

Constraints of Signature
Recognition System
  To acquire adequate amount of data, the signature should
be small enough to fit on tablet and big enough to be able to
deal with.
 The quality of the writing tablet decides the robustness of
signature recognition enrollment template.
 The candidate must perform the verification processes in the
same type of environment and conditions as they were at
the time of enrollment. If there is a change, then the
enrollment template and live sample template may differ
from each other.

Merits of Signature
Recognition System
 Signature recognition process has a high resistance to
imposters as it is very difficult to imitate the behavior
patterns associated with the signature.
 It works very well in high amount business transactions. For
example, Signature recognition could be used to positively
verify the business representatives involved in the
transaction before any classified documents are opened and
signed.
 It is a non-invasive tool.
 We all use our signature in some sort of commerce, and thus
there are virtually no privacy rights issues involved.
 Even if the system is hacked and the template is stolen, it is
easy to restore the template.

Demerits of Signature
Recognition System
 The live sample template is prone to change with respect to
the changes in behavior while signing. For example, signing
with a hand held in plaster.
 User need to get accustomed of using signing tablet. Error
rate is high till it happens.
Applications of Signature
Recognition System
 It is used in document verification and authorization.
 The Chase Manhattan Bank, Chicago is known as the first
bank to adopt Signature Recognition technology.

Keystroke Recognition System

During the World War II, a technique known as Fist of the
Sender was used by military intelligence to determine if the Morse
code was sent by enemy or ally based on the rhythm of typing.
These days, keystroke dynamics the easiest biometric solution to
implement in terms of hardware.

This biometric analyzes candidate’s typing pattern, the rhythm,

and the speed of typing on a keyboard. The dwell
time and flight time measurements are used in keystroke
recognition.

Dwell time − It is the duration of time for which a key is pressed.

Flight time − It is the time elapsed between releasing a key and

pressing the following key.

The candidates differ in the way they type on the keyboard as the
time they take to find the right key, the flight time, and the
dwelling time. Their speed and rhythm of typing also varies
according to their level of comfort with the keyboard. Keystroke
recognition system monitors the keyboard inputs thousands of
times per second in a single attempt to identify users based on
their habits of typing.

There are two types of keystroke recognition −

 Static − It is one time recognition at the start of interaction.

 Continuous − It is throughout the course of interaction.

Application of Keystroke
Dynamics
 Keystroke Recognition is used for identification/verification.
It is used with user ID/password as a form of multifactor
authentication.
 It is used for surveillance. Some software solutions track
keystroke behavior for each user account without end-user’s
knowledge. This tracking is used to analyze if the account
was being shared or used by anyone else than the genuine
account owner. It is used to verify if some software license is
being shared.

Merits of Keystroke
Recognition System
 It needs no special hardware to track this biometric.
 It is a quick and secure way of identification.
 A person typing does not have to worry about being
watched.
 Users need no training for enrollment or entering their live
samples.

Demerits of Keystroke
Recognition System
 The candidate’s typing rhythm can change between a
number of days or within a day itself because of tiredness,
 sickness, influence of medicines or alcohol, change of
keyboard, etc.
 There are no known features dedicated solely to carry out
discriminating information.

Voice Recognition
Voice recognition biometric modality is a combination of both
physiological and behavioral modalities. Voice recognition is
nothing but sound recognition. It relies on features influenced by
−

 Physiological Component − Physical shape, size, and

health of a person’s vocal cord, and lips, teeth, tongue, and
mouth cavity.
 Behavioral Component − Emotional status of the person
while speaking, accents, tone, pitch, pace of talking,
mumbling, etc.

Voice Recognition System

Voice Recognition is also called Speaker Recognition. At the time
of enrollment, the user needs to speak a word or phrase into a
microphone. This is necessary to acquire speech sample of a
candidate.

The electrical signal from the microphone is converted into digital

signal by an Analog to Digital (ADC) converter. It is recorded into
the computer memory as a digitized sample. The computer then
compares and attempts to match the input voice of candidate
with the stored digitized voice sample and identifies the
candidate.
Voice Recognition Modalities
There are two variants of voice recognition − speaker
dependent and speaker independent.

Speaker dependent voice recognition relies on the knowledge of

candidate's particular voice characteristics. This system learns
those characteristics through voice training (or enrollment).

 The system needs to be trained on the users to accustom it

to a particular accent and tone before employing to
recognize what was said.
 It is a good option if there is only one user going to use the
system.

Speaker independent systems are able to recognize the speech

from different users by restricting the contexts of the speech such
as words and phrases. These systems are used for automated
telephone interfaces.

 They do not require training the system on each individual

user.
 They are a good choice to be used by different individuals
where it is not required to recognize each candidate’s
speech characteristics.
Difference between Voice and Speech
Recognition
Speaker recognition and Speech recognition are mistakenly taken as same; but they are different
technologies. Let us see, how −

Speaker Recognition (Voice Recognition) Speech Rec

The objective of voice recognition is to recognize WHO is speaking. The speech rec

It is used to identify a person by analyzing its tone, voice pitch, and accent. It is used in han

Merits of Voice Recognition

 It is easy to implement.

Demerits of Voice
Recognition
 It is susceptible to quality of microphone and noise.
 The inability to control the factors affecting the input system
can significantly decrease performance.
 Some speaker verification systems are also susceptible to
spoofing attacks through recorded voice.

Applications of Voice
Recognition
 Performing telephone and internet transactions.
 Working with Interactive Voice Response (IRV)-based
banking and health systems.
 Applying audio signatures for digital documents.
 In entertainment and emergency services.
 In online education systems.
 Multimodal Biometric Systems
All the biometric systems we discussed till now were unimodal,
which take single source of information for authentication. As the
name depicts, multimodal biometric systems work on accepting
information from two or more biometric inputs.

A multimodal biometric system increases the scope and variety of

input information the system takes from the users for
authentication.

Why Multimodal Biometrics is Required?

The unimodal systems have to deal with various challenges such
as lack of secrecy, non-universality of samples, extent of user’s
comfort and freedom while dealing with the system, spoofing
attacks on stored data, etc.

Some of these challenges can be addressed by employing a

multimodal biometric system.

There are several more reasons for its requirement, such as −

 Availability of multiple traits makes the multimodal system

more reliable.
 A multimodal biometric system increases security and
secrecy of user data.
 A multimodal biometric system conducts fusion strategies to
combine decisions from each subsystem and then comes up
with a conclusion. This makes a multimodal system more
accurate.
 If any of the identifiers fail to work for known or unknown
reasons, the system still can provide security by employing
the other identifier.
 Multimodal systems can provide knowledge about
“liveliness” of the sample being entered by applying
liveliness detection techniques. This makes them capable to
detect and handle spoofing.

Working of Multimodal Biometric System

Multimodal biometric system has all the conventional modules a
unimodal system has −
  Capturing module
 Feature extraction module
 Comparison module
 Decision making module

In addition, it has a fusion technique to integrate the information

from two different authentication systems. The fusion can be
done at any of the following levels −

 During feature extraction.

 During comparison of live samples with stored biometric
templates.
 During decision making.

The multimodal biometric systems that integrate or fuse the

information at initial stage are considered to be more effective
than the systems those integrate the information at the later
stages. The obvious reason to this is, the early stage contains
more accurate information than the matching scores of the
comparison modules.

Fusion Scenarios in
Multimodal Biometric System
Within a multimodal biometric system, there can be variety in
number of traits and components. They can be as follows −
  Single biometric trait, multiple sensors.
 Single biometric trait, multiple classifiers (say, minutiae-
based matcher and texture-based matcher).
 Single biometric trait, multiple units (say, multiple fingers).
 Multiple biometric traits of an individual (say, iris, fingerprint,
etc.)

These traits are then operated upon to confirm user’s identity.

Design Issues with Multimodal Biometric Systems

You need to consider a number of factors while designing a
multimodal biometric system −

 Level of security you need to bring in.

 The number of users who will use the system.
 Types of biometric traits you need to acquire.
 The number of biometric traits from the users.
 The level at which multiple biometric traits need integration.
 The technique to be adopted to integrate the information.
 The trade-off between development cost versus system
performance.

Biometric Modality Selection

To be able to select a proper biometric system, you need to
compare them on various aspects. You need to assess the
suitability of the systems to your requirements in terms of
convenience, system specifications and performance, and your
budget.

You can select best suitable biometric system by studying various

criteria for their effectiveness.

Criteria for Effective Biometric System

There are seven basic criteria for measuring effectiveness of a
biometric system −

 Uniqueness − It determines how uniquely a biometric

system can recognize a user from a group of users. It is a
primary criterion.
  Universality − It indicates requirement for unique
characteristics of each person in the world, which cannot be
reproduced. It is a secondary criterion.
 Permanence − It indicates that a personal trait recorded
needs to be constant in the database for a certain time
period.
 Collectability − It is the ease at which a person’s trait can
be acquired, measured, or processed further.
 Performance − It is the efficiency of system in terms of
accuracy, speed, fault handling, and robustness.
 Acceptability − It is the user-friendliness, or how good the
users accept the technology such that they are cooperative
to let their biometric trait captured and assessed.
 Circumvention − It is the ease with which a trait is possibly
imitated using an artifact or substitute.

Comparison of Various Biometric Modalities

Let us compare all the biometric system in the following terms −

Biometric Universal Uniquen Permane Coll

Characteristic ity ess nce Abi

Finger Print Medium High High Med

Face Recognition High Low Medium High

Hand Geometry Medium Medium Medium High

Iris Recognition High High High Med

Retinal Scan High High Medium Low

DNA High High Medium High

Keystroke High Low Low High

Signature Low Low Low High

Voice Medium Low Low Med

You can select an appropriate biometric system depending upon

the criteria you need to deal with as shown in the table.

Biometric System Performance

Biometric system manufacturers claim high system performance
which is practically difficult to achieve in actual operating
environments. The possible reasons are, tests conducted in
controlled environment setups, limitations on hardware, etc.

For example, a voice recognition system can work efficiently only

in quiet environment, a facial recognition system can work fine if
lighting conditions are controlled, and candidates can be trained
to clean and place their fingers properly on the fingerprint
scanners.

However, in practice, such ideal conditions may not be available

in the target operating environment.

Performance Measurements
The performance measurements of a biometric system are closely
tied to False Reject Rate (FRR) and False Accept Rate (FAR).

FRR is also known as Type-I error or False Non Match Rate

(FNMR) which states the likelihood of a legitimate user being
rejected by the system.

FAR is referred to as Type-II error or False Match Rate (FMR)

which states the likelihood of a false identity claim being
accepted by the system.

An ideal biometric system is expected to produce zero value for

both FAR and FRR. Means it should accept all genuine users and
reject all fake identity claims, which is practically not achievable.

FAR and FRR are inversely proportional to each other. If FAR is

improved, then the FRR declines. A biometric system
providing high FRR ensures high security. If the FRR is too
high, then the system requires to enter the live sample a number
of times, which makes it less efficient.

The performance of current biometrics technologies is far from

the ideal. Hence the system developers need to keep a good
balance between these two factors depending on the security
requirements.

Pattern Recognition &

Biometrics
Pattern recognition deals with identifying a pattern and
confirming it again. In general, a pattern can be a fingerprint
image, a handwritten cursive word, a human face, a speech
signal, a bar code, or a web page on the Internet.

The individual patterns are often grouped into various categories

based on their properties. When the patterns of same properties
are grouped together, the resultant group is also a pattern, which
is often called a pattern class.

Pattern recognition is the science for observing, distinguishing the

patterns of interest, and making correct decisions about the
patterns or pattern classes. Thus, a biometric system applies
pattern recognition to identify and classify the individuals, by
comparing it with the stored templates.

Pattern Recognition in Biometrics

The pattern recognition technique conducts the following tasks −

 Classification − Identifying handwritten characters,

CAPTCHAs, distinguishing humans from computers.
 Segmentation − Detecting text regions or face regions in
images.
 Syntactic Pattern Recognition − Determining how a
group of math symbols or operators are related, and how
they form a meaningful expression.

The following table highlights the role of pattern recognition in biometrics −

Pattern Recognition Task Input

Character Recognition (Signature Recognition) Optical signals or Strokes

Speaker Recognition Voice

Fingerprint, Facial image, hand geometry image Image

Components of Pattern Recognition

Pattern recognition technique extracts a random pattern of
human trait into a compact digital signature, which can serve as a
biological identifier. The biometric systems use pattern
recognition techniques to classify the users and identify them
separately.

The components of pattern recognition are as follows −

Popular Algorithms in Pattern Recognition

The most popular pattern generation algorithms are −
Nearest Neighbor Algorithm
You need to take the unknown individual’s vector and compute its
distance from all the patterns in the database. The smallest
distance gives the best match.

Back-Propagation (Backprop)
Algorithm
It is a bit complex but very useful algorithm that involves a lot of
mathematical computations.

Signal Processing & Biometrics

There are various signals we can get in the real world such as
sound, light, radio signals, biomedical signals from human body,
etc. All these signals are in the form of a continuous stream of
information, called analog signals. Human voice is a kind of signal
we get from the real world and use as biometric input.

What is a Signal?
A signal is a measurable physical quantity containing some
information, which can be conveyed, displayed, recorded, or
modified.
Signal Processing in Biometrics
There are various reasons for processing signals. The biometric
systems, require voice processing for various reasons −

 To extract meaningful information from the candidate’s

sample.
 To remove noise from the sample.
 To make the sample transmittable.
 To remove distortion of sample.

The analog signal processing module converts real world

information such as sound wave in the form of 0s and 1s to make
it understandable and usable by the contemporary digital systems
such as biometric systems. The keystrokes, hand geometry,
signature, and speech fall into the domains of signal processing
and pattern recognition.

Digital Signal Processing Systems (DSPs)

There are two types of signals − analog and digital. The analog
signals are uninterrupted, continuous stream of information
whereas digital signal is a stream of 0s and 1s.

DSP systems are one of the important components of biometric

systems, which convert analog signals into a stream of discrete
digital values by sampling and digitizing using an Analog-to-
Digital Converter (ADC).

DSPs are single-chip digital microcomputers, which process

electrical signals generated by electronic sensors from cameras,
fingerprint sensors, microphones, etc.

DSP in Biometrics
A DSP allows the biometric system to be small and easily
portable, to perform efficiently and to be overall less costly.

The DSP architecture is built to support complex mathematical

algorithms that involve a significant amount of multiplication and
addition. The DSP can execute multiply/add in a single cycle with
the help of the multiply/accumulate (MAC) hardware inside its
Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU).

It can also enhance the resolution of the captured image with the
use of two-dimensional Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) and finite IR
filters.

Biometrics & Image Processing

Images have a huge share in this era of information. In
biometrics, image processing is required for identifying an
individual whose biometric image is stored in the database
previously. Faces, fingerprints, irises, etc., are image-based
biometrics, which require image processing and pattern
recognition techniques.

For an image based biometric system to work accurately, it needs

to have the sample image of user’s biometric in a very clear and
non-adulterated form.

Requirement of Image Processing in Biometrics

The image of user’s biometric is fed into the biometric system.
The system is programmed to manipulate the image using
equations, and then store the results of the computation for each
pixel.
To selectively enhance certain fine features in the data and to
remove certain noise, the digital data is subjected to various
image processing operations.

Image processing methods can be grouped into three functional

categories −

Image Restoration
Image restoration mainly includes −

 Reducing noise introduced in the image at the time of

acquiring sample.
 Removing distortions appeared during enrollment of
biometric.

Image smoothing reduces noise in the image. Smoothing is

carried out by replacing each pixel by the average value with the
neighboring pixel. The biometric system uses various filtering
algorithms and noise reduction techniques such as Median
Filtering, Adaptive Filtering, Statistical Histogram, Wavelet
Transforms, etc.

Image Enhancement
Image enhancement techniques improve the visibility of any
portion or feature of the image and suppress the information in
other parts. It is done only after restoration is completed. It
includes brightening, sharpening, adjusting contrast, etc., so that
the image is usable for further processing.

Feature Extraction
Two types of features are extracted from image, namely −

 General features − The features such as shape, texture,

color, etc., which are used to describe content of the image.
 Domain-specific features − They are application
dependent features such as face, iris, fingerprint, etc. Gabor
filters are used to extract features.
When the features are extracted from the image, you need to
choose a suitable classifier. The widely used classifier Nearest
Neighbor classifier, which compares the feature vector of the
candidate image with the vector of the image stored in the
database.

B-Splines are approximations applied to describe curve patterns

in fingerprint biometric systems. The coefficients of B-Splines are
used as features. In case of iris recognition system, the images of
iris are decomposed using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and
the DWT coefficients are then used as features.

Biometric System Security

The operations of a biometric system depend heavily on the input
devices that are subjected to operational limitations. At times, the
devices themselves may fail to capture the necessary input
samples. They may not capture the sample sufficiently. This
makes the system unreliable and vulnerable.

The more vulnerable a biometric system is, the more insecure it

is.

Biometric System Vulnerability

There are the two major causes of biometric system vulnerability
−

System Failures
There are two ways in which a biometric system can fail to work −

 Intrinsic failures − They are failures such as non-working

sensors, failure of feature extraction, matching, or decision
making modules, etc.
 Failures due to attacks − They are due to loopholes in the
biometric system design, availability of any computations to
the attackers, insider attacks from unethical system
administrators, etc.

Non-secure Infrastructure
The biometric system can be accessible to malicious users if its
hardware, software, and user data are not safeguarded.

Risks with Biometric System Security

The security of a biometric system is important as the biometric
data is not easy to revoke or replace. There are following
prominent risks regarding security of biometric systems −

Risk of User Data Being

Stolen
If the biometric system is vulnerable, the hacker can breach the
security of it and collect the user data recorded in the database. It
creates more hazards to privacy.

Risk of User Data Getting

Compromised
After acquiring the biometric sample, the hacker can present a
fake sample to the system. If user data is compromised, it
remains compromised forever. The obvious reason is, user has
only a limited number of biometrics and they are difficult to
replace, unlike passwords or ID cards.

Though biometric data is encrypted and stored, it needs to be

decrypted for matching purpose. At the time of matching a hacker
may breach the security.

Biometric System Security

A number of solutions are proposed to address the biometric
system security issue. Biometric templates are never stored in
the raw form. They are encrypted; sometimes even twice.

In the case of biometrics, there are various resources involved

such as humans (subjects or candidates), entities (system
components or processes), and biometric data (information). The
security requirements of confidentiality, integrity,
authenticity, non-repudiation, and availability are essential
in biometrics. Let us go through them briefly −

Authenticity
It is the quality or the state of being pure, genuine, or original,
rather than being reproduced. Information is authentic when it is
in the same state and quality when it was created, stored, or
transferred.

There are two authenticities in a biometric system − entity

authenticity and data origin authenticity. Entity authenticity
confirms that all entities involved in the overall processing are the
ones they claim to be. Data origin authenticity ensures
genuineness and originality of data. For example, the biometrics
data is captured with sensor devices. The captured data that
came from a genuine sensor is not spoofed from a previous
recording.

Confidentiality
It is limiting information access and disclosure to authorized users
and preventing access by or disclosure to unauthorized people. In
cases of a biometric system, it mainly refers to biometric and
related authentication information when it is captured and stored,
which needs to be kept secret from unauthorized entities.

The biometric information should only be accessible completely to

the person it belongs. During identification and variation, the
accessing candidate needs to be restricted with appropriate
security measures.

Integrity
It is the condition of being complete and unaltered that refers to
its consistency, accuracy, and correctness. For a biometric
system, the integrity should be high. Any malicious manipulations
during operation and storage should be kept away or detected
earliest by including its notification and correction.

Non-repudiation
It is identification of involved resources such as entities and
components. It is also seen as accountability. For example, it
prohibits a sender or a recipient of biometric information from
denying having sent or received biometric information.

Availability
A resource has the property of availability with respect to a set of
entities if all members of the set can access the resource. An
aspect called reachability ensures that the humans or system
processes either can or cannot be contacted, depending on user
interests.

Attackers can make the system unusable for genuine users, thus
preventing them from using authenticated applications. These
attackers target the availability of the information.

Criteria for Generating Biometric Templates

Here are the criteria for generating biometric templates −
 Ensuring that the template comes from a human candidate
and is captured by a genuine sensor and software.
 Securing a biometric template by encryption with
irreversibility properties. This makes it difficult for hackers to
compute the original biometric information from secure
template.
 Creating an unlikable (unique) biometric template. A
biometric system should not be able to access the template
of the same candidate recorded into another biometric
system. In case if a hacker manages to retrieve a biometric
template from one biometric system, he should not be able
to use this template to gain access through another
biometric system even though both verifications may be
based on the same biometric template of the candidate.
Further, an unlinkable biometric system should make it
impossible to derive any information based on the relation
between two templates.
 Creating a cancellable and renewable template. It
emphasizes on the ability to cancel or deactivate the
compromised template and reproduce another one, in a
similar manner that a lost or stolen smartcard can be
reproduced.
 The ‘renewable’ and ‘unlinkable’ characteristics are
achieved through salting techniques. Salting adds
randomly generated unique data known as ‘salt’ to the
original information to make it distinct from the others.
 Designing a biometric system accuracy with respect to both
FAR and FRR.
 Selecting a suitable encryption algorithm carefully. Some
algorithms may amplify even small variations inherent in an
individual’s biometric data, which can lead to higher FRR.
 Using an important encryption technique such as hashing
method, which is effective when a different permutation is
applied with each template generation. Different
permutations ensure the uniqueness of each template
despite using the same input biometric data.
 Employing an effective protection scheme to elevate
the performance of the system.