Chapter 3
Biometric Technologies
Outline
• Biometric Classes
• Biometric Identifiers
• Acquisition Devices
• Matching Approaches
• Application categories
• Biometrics in Early Stages
• The Future
2
In General
Biometrics can be sorted into two classes:
• Physiological
Examples: face, fingerprint, hand
geometry and iris recognition
• Behavioral
Examples: signature and voice
Biometric Identifiers
Common: Others:
Fingerprint DNA
Recognition Retina recognition
Thermograms
Face Recognition Gait
Speaker Keystroke
Ear recognition
Recognition
Skin reflection
Iris Recognition Lip motion
Hand Geometry Body odor
Signature
verification
Some More* …
Vein Pattern
Sweat Pores
Fingernail Bed
Hand Grip
Brain Wave Pattern
Footprint and Foot Dynamics
*See details in Chapter 7 Esoteric Biometrics of Biometrics by John D.
Woodward, Nicholas M. Orlans, Peter T. Higgins, New York : McGraw-
Hill/Osborne, c2003
1. Fingerprint Recognition
• An extremely useful biometrics
technology since fingerprints have long
been recognized as a primary and
accurate identification method.
Acquisition Devices
✓ Ink & paper – the oldest way
✓ Ink-less Methods - sense the ridges on a finger
• “Livescan” fingerprint
scanners
➢ Optical methods
(FTIR)
➢ CMOS capacitance
➢ Thermal sensing
➢ Ultrasound sensing
Applications
Authentication, or 1-to-1: matches a
person's claimed identity to his/her
biometric and one or more other security
technologies (password, PIN, Token).
Identification, or 1-to-Many:
identifies a person from the entire
enrolled population. (See [Link] )
Minutiae
▪ Uses the ridge endings and bifurcation's on a
persons finger to plot points known as Minutiae
▪ The number and locations of the minutiae vary
from finger to finger in any particular person, and
from person to person for any particular finger
Finger Image Finger Image + Minutiae
Minutiae
Fingerprint scanning (Minutiae based approach)
Matching Approaches
Two basic classes of matching techniques:
• Image techniques
Use both optical and numerical image correlation
techniques
• Feature techniques
Extracts features and develop representations
from these features
Combining the above two techniques:
• Hybrid techniques (with improved accuracy)
2. Face Recognition
• Uses an image or series of images either
from a camera or photograph to recognize a
person.
• Principle: analysis of the unique shape,
pattern and positioning of facial features.
Features
• Passive biometrics and does not require
a persons cooperation
• Highly complex technology and largely
software based.
• Primary advantage is that the biometric
system is able to operate “hands-free”
and a user’s identity is confirmed by
simply staring at the screen.
Details
• Source of data: Single image, video
sequence, 3D image and Near Infrared
• Models: weak models of the human
face that model face shape in terms of
facial texture
➢ Face appearance
Examples: eigenfaces
➢ Face geometry
Examples: feature-based method
Examples
MIT Media Laboratory
Vision and Modeling Group
Face Recognition Demo
3. Voice Recognition
• Voice recognition is not the same as speech
recognition, it is speaker recognition
• Considered both physiological and behavioral
• Popular and low-cost, but less accurate and
sometimes lengthy enrollment
Application categories
• Fixed text
• Text dependent
• Text independent
• Conversational
Features
• Advantage
▪ Less requirements for users, such that they do not have to go
through a separate process for verification
▪ Very little hardware is required, and ideally suited to telephone-
based system for a remote identification
▪ Zero client-side cost, no special reader needs to be installed
• Disadvantage
▪ Acoustic features : 1. Misspoken or misread phrases; 2. The
human voice's tremendous variability, due to colds, aging, and
simple tiredness
▪ Can be captured surreptitiously by a third party and replayed
4. Iris recognition
• Analysis of the iris of the eye, which is the colored ring
of tissue that surrounds the pupil of the eye.
• Based on visible features, i.e. rings, furrows, freckles
and the corona. Features and their location are used to
form the Iriscodes, which is the digital template.
• Widely regarded as the most safe, accurate biometrics
technology and capable of performing 1-to-many
matches at extraordinarily high speeds, without
sacrificing accuracy.
Example Iris Images
Applications
• Iris recognition is a highly
mature technology with a
proven track record in a
number of application
areas.
• Used very effectively all
over the world. Heathrow Airport (London) - Iris
•
5. Hand geometry
• Hand geometry systems are commonly available in two main forms.
Full hand geometry systems take an image of the entire hand for
comparison while Two Finger readers only image two fingers of the
hand.
• Hand recognition technology is currently one of the most deployed
biometrics disciplines world wide
How does it work
• A camera capture an image of the hand, with the help
of a mirror to get also the edge. The silhouette of the
hand is extracted, and some geometrical characteristics
stored.
( See Jain et al. A Prototype Hand Geometry-based Verification System )
Applications
BenGurion Airport - Hand Geometry INSPASS - Hand Geometry
see INS Passenger
Accelerated Service System
6. Signature Verification
• Static/Off-line: the conventional way
• Dynamic/On-line: using electronically
instrumented device
➢ Principle: the movement of the pen during the signing
process rather than the static image of the signature.
➢ Many aspects of the signature in motion can be studied,
such as pen pressure, the sound the pen makes
Applications
For more technical information:
• IBM online signature verification
Examples of Commercial products:
• Cyber-SIGN PenOp
• CIC Communication Intelligence
Corp.
"The power to sign online"
Biometrics in Early Stages
DNA Retina Thermograms
recognition
Gait Keystroke Ear recognition
Skin reflection Lip motion Body odor
• DNA has been called the “ultimate identifier”
I. DNA
• Identify information from every cell in the body in a
digital form
• Not yet fully automated, not fast and expensive
• Theoretical limitation: Identical twins have the same
DNA
• Privacy issue – DNA contains information about race,
paternity, and medical conditions for certain disease
Comparison Chart
DNA Conventional Biometrics
Requires an actual Uses an impression, image, or
physical sample recording
Not done in real-time; not Done in real-time; “lights-out”
all stages of comparison automated process
are automated
Does a comparison of Uses templates or feature extraction
actual samples
logo_retinal
II. Retina recognition
• The pattern of blood vessels that emanate
from the optic nerve and disperse
throughout the retina depends on
individuals and never changes.
• No two retinas are the same, even in
identical twins.
• Commercial products: Retinal Technologies
III. Thermograms
• Thermograms requires an infrared camera to
detect the heat patterns of parts of the body that
are unique to every human being (such as the face)
• Normally expensive because of the sensors
• Useful paper: Illumination Invariant Face
Recognition Using Thermal Infrared Imagery
(Solikinski & als)
Gait
logo_gait
• The final objective: to recognize
persons using standard cameras
in any conditions.
• Gait recognition is particularly
studied as it may enable
identification at distance.
Examples for measurements
(from Georgia Institute of
Technology)
logo_keystroke
V. Keystroke
• The rhythms with which one types at a keyboard are sufficiently distinctive to form
the basis of the biometric technology known as keystroke dynamics
• 100% software-based, requiring
no sensor more sophisticated
than a home computer
• Example
logo_ear
VI. Ear recognition
• Ear geometry recognition uses the shape of
the ear to perform identification
• Suggestions have been made that the
shapes and characteristics of the human ear
are widely different
• An infrared image can be used to eliminate
hair
• Might be recognized at a distance
Example
VII. Skin reflection
• Lumidigm Inc. has established that the
absorption spectrum of the skin depends on
the individuals.
• In a range of wavelengths over 6mm patch,
several LEDs send light into the skin, and
photodiodes read the scattered light, which is
analyzed to perform the authentication.
logo_lips
[Link] motion
• Compares the characteristic lip motions of
people while they speak.
• Helps identification associated with speaker
recognition.
• Different imaging conditions: Infrared (high
security & cost) and Near Infrared (cheap,
normally used for active sensing)
• It’s
absolutely clear that people with differing
immunity genes produce different body odors
• Electronic/artificial noses: developed as a
system for the automated detection and Prometheus (Alpha Mos)
,
classification of odors, vapors, gases. an example of electronic
nose
•Artificial noses are not
yet sophisticated
enough to do all the job
Schematic Diagram of Artificial nose
The Future
“Your body as password”
?
Challenges:
Are biometric technologies ready for
what is being expected of them?
➢ Technical issues
➢ legal and privacy issues