State of Art: Biometrics and Beyond
Bill Willis
November
2014
© 2010 IBM Corporation
Outline
What is a Biometric?
History
Why are they important?
Where are they used today?
Do Biometrics work?
What are the issues to Adoption?
Consumers
Where is the Technology headed?
Examples
Questions
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What is a Biometric?
• Biometrics refers to metrics related to human characteristics and traits. Biometrics
authentication (or realistic authentication)[note 1] is used in computer science as a form of
identification and access control.[1] It is also used to identify individuals in groups that are
under surveillance.
• Biometric identifiers are the distinctive, measurable characteristics used to label and
describe individuals.[2] Biometric identifiers are often categorized as physiological versus
behavioral characteristics.[3] Physiological characteristics are related to the shape of the
body. Examples include, but are not limited to fingerprint, palm veins, face recognition, DNA,
palm print, hand geometry, iris recognition, retina and odour/scent. Behavioral
characteristics are related to the pattern of behavior of a person, including but not limited to
typing rhythm, gait, and voice.[note 2] Some researchers have coined the term behaviometrics
to describe the latter class of biometrics.[4]
•More traditional means of access control include token-based identification systems, such as
a driver's license or passport, and knowledge-based identification systems, such as a
password or personal identification number.[2] Since biometric identifiers are unique to
individuals, they are more reliable in verifying identity than token and knowledge-based
methods; however, the collection of biometric identifiers raises privacy concerns about the
ultimate use of this information.[2][5]
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History
Fingerprints : 1890’s
In 1863, Paul-Jean Coulier (1824–1890), professor for chemistry and hygiene at the medical and pharmaceutical
school of the Val de Grâce military hospital in Paris, discovered that iodine fumes can reveal fingerprints on
paper.[65]
In 1880, Dr. Henry Faulds, a Scottish surgeon in a Tokyo hospital, published his first paper on the subject in the
scientific journal Nature, discussing the usefulness of fingerprints for identification and proposing a method to
record them with printing ink. He also established their first classification and was also the first to identify
fingerprints left on a vial.[66] Returning to the UK in 1886, he offered the concept to the Metropolitan Police in
London but it was dismissed at that time.[67] Faulds wrote to Charles Darwin with a description of his method but,
too old and ill to work on it, Darwin gave the information to his cousin, Francis Galton, who was interested in
anthropology. Having been thus inspired to study fingerprints for ten years, Galton published a detailed statistical
model of fingerprint analysis and identification and encouraged its use in forensic science in his book Finger
Prints. He had calculated that the chance of a "false positive" (two different individuals having the same
fingerprints) was about 1 in 64 billion.[68]
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History
Facial Recognition: 1960’s –
Pioneers of automated facial recognition include Woody Bledsoe, Helen Chan Wolf, and Charles Bisson.
During 1964 and 1965, Bledsoe, along with Helen Chan and Charles Bisson, worked on using the computer to recognize
human faces (Bledsoe 1966a, 1966b; Bledsoe and Chan 1965). He was proud of this work, but because the funding was
provided by an unnamed intelligence agency that did not allow much publicity, little of the work was published. Given a
large database of images (in effect, a book of mug shots) and a photograph, the problem was to select from the database a
small set of records such that one of the image records matched the photograph. The success of the method could be
measured in terms of the ratio of the answer list to the number of records in the database. Bledsoe (1966a) described the
following difficulties:
“ This recognition problem is made difficult by the great variability in head rotation and tilt, lighting intensity and angle,
facial expression, aging, etc. Some other attempts at facial recognition by machine have allowed for little or no variability in
these quantities. Yet the method of correlation (or pattern matching) of unprocessed optical data, which is often used by
some researchers, is certain to fail in cases where the variability is great. In particular, the correlation is very low between
two pictures of the same person with two different head rotations.
Iris Recognition: 1980’s –
Although John Daugman developed and patented the first actual algorithms to perform iris recognition, published
the first papers about it and gave the first live demonstrations, the concept behind this invention has a much longer
history and today it benefits from many other active scientific contributors. In a 1953 clinical textbook, F.H. Adler [2]
wrote: "In fact, the markings of the iris are so distinctive that it has been proposed to use photographs as a means
of identification, instead of fingerprints." Adler referred to comments by the British ophthalmologist J.H. Doggart,[3]
who in 1949 had written that: "Just as every human being has different fingerprints, so does the minute
architecture of the iris exhibit variations in every subject examined. [Its features] represent a series of variable
factors whose conceivable permutations and combinations are almost infinite." Later in the 1980s, two American
ophthalmologists, L. Flom and A. Safir managed to patent Adler's and Doggart's conjecture that the iris could serve
as a human identifier, but they had no actual algorithm or implementation to perform it and so their patent
remained conjecture
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History: Fingerprints
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human
finger.[1] The recovery of fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of
forensic science. Fingerprints are easily deposited on suitable surfaces (such as glass or
metal or polished stone) by the natural secretions of sweat from the eccrine glands that
are present in epidermal ridges.
In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction
ridges of any part of a human or other primate hand. A print from the foot can also leave
an impression of friction ridges.
Deliberate impressions of fingerprints may be formed by ink or other substances
transferred from the peaks of friction ridges on the skin to a relatively smooth surface
such as a fingerprint card.[2] Fingerprint records normally contain impressions from the
pad on the last joint of fingers and thumbs, although fingerprint cards also typically
record portions of lower joint areas of the fingers.
Human fingerprints are detailed, unique, difficult to alter, and durable over the life of an
individual making them suitable as long-term markers of human identity and may be
employed by police or other authorities to identify individuals who wish to conceal their
identity, or to identify people are incapacitated or deceased and thus unable to identify
themselves, as in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Fingerprint analysis, in use since
the early 20th century, has led to many crimes being solved.[3] This means that many
criminals consider gloves essential.[4][5]
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History: Iris Recognition
Iris recognition is an automated method of biometric identification that
uses mathematical pattern-recognition techniques on video images of
one or both of the irises of an individual's eyes, whose complex random
patterns are unique, stable, and can be seen from some distance.
Iris recognition uses video camera technology with subtle near infrared
illumination to acquire images of the detail-rich, intricate structures of
the iris which are visible externally. Digital templates encoded from
these patterns by mathematical and statistical algorithms allow the
identification of an individual or someone pretending to be that
individual.[1] Databases of enrolled templates are searched by matcher
engines at speeds measured in the millions of templates per second per
(single-core) CPU, and with remarkably low false match rates.
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History: Facial Recognition
Most current facial recognition systems work with
numeric codes called faceprints. Such systems identify
80 nodal points on a human face. In this context, nodal
points are end points used to measure variables of a
person’s face, such as the length or width of the nose,
the depth of the eye sockets and the shape of the
cheekbones.
These systems work by capturing data for nodal points
on a digital image of an individual’s face and storing the
resulting data as a faceprint. The faceprint can then be
used as a basis for comparison with data captured from
faces in an image or video.
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Why are Biometrics Important?
A person’s identity is not well defended in today’s world
There are only 3 choices to define and confirm Identity:
Something you Know: Password, Challenge Question
Something you Have: ID Card, Drivers License
Something you Are: Face, Eye, Fingers
Something you Know can be compromised
Something you Have can be Stolen / Duplicated
Spoofing of a Biometric is quite difficult.
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Where are Biometrics Used Today?
Travelling
Driving
Voting
Healthcare
Social Services / Benefits
National Registries
Law Enforcement
Military / Defense
Intelligence
Social Media
Smart Phone Apps
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Do Biometrics Work?
In order to make a solution work, it needs
Standards – National / International
Image based interaction
Identity based decisioning
Devices
Usability
Algorithm(s)
Interoperability
Capability versus Price
Identity versus Verify (1:N versus 1:1)
The Answer is YES, they work for Identification
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What are the Issues to Adoption?
Privacy Concerns
Price
Usability
Speed
Fixed, Portable, Mobile
Understanding the Barriers versus the Benefits
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Consumers
Biometrics are used already, use just did not know it.
Shopping Patterns
Public Surveillance
Social Media
Smartphones
The promise of unique identity is becoming mainstream
Virginia Law: iPhone unlock for a criminal w/Fingerprint
How do I ‘Opt Out’
Face and Fingers so far
Why not Voice?
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Where is the Technology Headed?
Faster: Acquisition of Images, Quality of Images, Optics
Cheaper: Sensors, Lenses, Devices, Algorithms, Solutions
Adoption: Shrinking the Outlyer Population
Multi-Biometric Single Gesture Acquisition
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Examples.
I brought some
examples to touch
and try.
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Questions.
Ask Away.
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Thank You for
Your Time!!!
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