Introduction to Biometrics

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Outline

• Introduction

• Biometrics Definition

• Biometric Characteristics

• Examples of Biometric Traits: Fingerprints, Face, Iris, Gait

• Comparison of Biometric Technologies

• Operation of a Biometric System: Enrollment, Verification, Identification

• Conclusion

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Introduction (Definition of Terms)

Identification – associating an identity with an

individual

Two types of identification problems:

• Verification – confirming or denying a

person’s identity, i.e., Am I who I claim I am?

• Identification – establishing identity, i.e.,

Who am I?

Face Fingerprint

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Introduction (Background)

• In 2006, fraud in the United Kingdom alone was

estimated at £535 million, or US$750–830 million at
prevailing 2006 exchange rates.

• Afghan insurgency – hinder militant movement around

the country, and to keep Taliban infiltrators out of the
army

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Biometrics Definition

Biometrics – the science of establishing the identity of an

individual based on physical, chemical, or behavioral attributes of
the person1

1Jain, Anil K.; Flynn, Patrick; Ross, Arun A. (Eds.), “Handbook of Biometrics,” Springer, 1 ed. (August 31, 2007)

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Biometric Characteristics
Jain et al.2 have identified seven factors that determine the suitability of a physical or a
behavioral trait to be used in a biometric application.

• Universality – everyone should have it

• Uniqueness – small probability that two persons are the same with this
characteristic

• Permanence – invariance with time

• Collectability – can be measured quantitatively

• Performance – high identification accuracy

• Acceptability – acceptance by people

• Circumvention – how easy to fool the system by fraudulent techniques

2A.K. Jain, R. Bolle, and S. Pankanti, editors. Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society. Kluwer
Academic Publishers, 1999.
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Examples of Biometric Traits

Fingerprint Ear

Signature Gait
Face

Iris

Hand
Geometry

Keystroke Voice Vein Pattern

Dynamics
Facial
Thermogram

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Examples of Biometric Traits: Fingerprints
Fingerprints – graphical flow-like ridges

• formation determined during the first 7 months

of fetal development

• empirically determined that fingerprints of

identical twins are different
Ridge
Major representations

• image, ridges, minutia (features derived from

ridges), pores

Basic approaches to identification

Ridge ending Bifurcation
• correlation-based, global ridge patterns
(classes), etc.
Minutia features

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Examples of Biometric Traits: Face

Face – one of the most acceptable biometrics,

most common biometric feature to be used
by humans to recognize
– non-intrusive
Basic approaches to identification
Factors that influence recognition:
• Transform-based (PCA, LDA)
• Facial disguise • Attributes-based (EBGM)
• Facial expression
• Lighting conditions
• Pose variation
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Examples of Biometric Traits: Iris
Iris – one of the most reliable biometrics

Frontal images are obtained using near-infrared

camera (320x480 pixels) at distance < 1 meter

• Requires subject cooperation

Iris images are:

Iris code
• Segmented
• Encoded

Twins have different iris patterns.

Segmentation
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Examples of Biometric Traits: Gait

Gait – the specific way one walks, complex spatio-temporal behavioral characteristic

Influenced by:

• Injuries involving joints or brain

• Aging

Gait features derived from a video sequence and consists of characterization of

several movements.

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Examples of Biometric Traits: Voice, hand geometry, ear, retina,
infrared facial/hand vein thermograms, keystroke, DNA

Homework #1: Due (1/20/2011)

• Biometrics survey

• One page per biometric attribute (see p. 7 of slides)

• Identify recent research papers for each attribute

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Comparison of Biometric Technologies3

3A.K. Jain, R. Bolle, and S. Pankanti, editors. Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society. Kluwer
Academic Publishers, 1999.
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Operation of a Biometric System

Biometric system – a pattern recognition system that:

• acquires biometric data from an individual

• extracts a salient feature set from the data
• compares the feature set against feature set(s) stored in the database
• executes an action based on the result of the comparison

Therefore, it is composes of four main modules:

• Sensor module
• Quality assessment and feature extraction module
• Matching and decision making module
• System database module

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Operation of a Biometric System: Enrollment

Quality Assessment and Feature System Database

Sensor module Extraction Module Module

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Operation of a Biometric System: Verification
Matching and
Quality Assessment and Feature Decision-making System Database
Sensor module Extraction Module module Module

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Operation of a Biometric System: Identification
Matching and
Quality Assessment and Feature Decision-making System Database
Sensor module Extraction Module module Module

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Conclusion

• Introduction

• Biometrics Definition

• Biometric Characteristics

• Examples of Biometric Traits: Fingerprints, Face, Iris, Gait

• Comparison of Biometric Technologies

• Operation of a Biometric System: Enrollment, Verification, Identification

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Next Topic

Introduction to Statistical Pattern Recognition

Anil K. Jain, Robert P. W. Duin, Jianchang Mao, “Statistical Pattern Recognition: A Review,” IEEE
Transactions on PAMI, Vol. 22, No. 1. (January 2000), pp. 4-37

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References
Jain, Anil K.; Flynn, Patrick; Ross, Arun A. (Eds.), “Handbook of Biometrics,” Springer, 1 ed.
(August 31, 2007)

A. K. Jain, R. Bolle, and S. Pankanti, editors. Biometrics: Personal Identification in

Networked Society. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999.

Natalia A. Schmid, BIOM 426 (Introduction to Biometrics Systems) Course Website,

http://www.csee.wvu.edu/~natalias/biom426/biom426_fall05.html

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