Biometric Identification
Presented to the
Minnesota Futurists
May 3, 2008
David Keenan
Biometrics
• Measurement of living systems
• Currently – the study of methods for
uniquely recognizing humans based upon
one or more intrinsic physical or
behavioral traits.
Our Context
• We will concentrate our attention on
biometric systems for personal
identification
Classification of some
biometric traits
Two main classes
Physiological - related to
the shape of the body
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Fingerprints used >100 years
Palm prints
Hand geometry
Hand veins
Iris recognition
Retina scan
Ear canal
Face recognition
Facial thermogram
DNA
• Behavioral - related to
the behavior of a person.
– Signature
– Keystroke dynamics
– Voice
Comparison of various
biometric technologies
Human characteristics can be used for biometrics in
terms of the following parameters:
• Universality each person should have the characteristic
• Uniqueness can the biometric separate one individual from another
• Permanence measures how well a biometric resists aging.
• Collectability whether a biometric can be measured quantitatively
• Performance accuracy, speed, and robustness of technology used
• Acceptability degree of approval of a technology
• Circumvention ease of use of a substitute
Comparison of various
biometric technologies
Biometrics:
Face
Fingerprint
Hand geometry
Keystrokes
Hand veins
Iris
Retinal scan
Signature
Voice
Facial thermograph
Odor
DNA
Gait
Ear Canal
according to A. K. Jain
(H=High, M=Medium, L=Low)
Univer- Unique- Perman- Collect- Perform- Accept- Circumsality
ness
ence
ability
ance
ability vention*
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Steps in a Biometric System
• Enrollment: The first time you use a biometric system, it
records basic information about you, like your name or
an identification number. It then captures an image or
recording of your specific trait.
• Storage: Contrary to what you may see in movies, most
systems don't store the complete image or recording.
They instead analyze your trait and translate it into a
code or graph. Some systems also record this data onto
a smart card that you carry with you.
• Comparison: The next time you use the system, it
compares the trait you present to the information on file.
Then, it either accepts or rejects that you are who you
claim to be.
Components of a Biometric System
• A sensor that detects the characteristic
being used for identification
• A computer that reads and stores the
information
• Software that analyzes the characteristic,
translates it into a graph or code and
performs the actual comparisons
Block Diagram of System
Functions
A biometric system can provide the following two functions:
• Verification Authenticates its users in conjunction with a
smart card, username or ID number. The biometric
template captured is compared with that stored against
the registered user either on a smart card or database
for verification.
• Identification Authenticates its users from the biometric
characteristic alone without the use of smart cards,
usernames or ID numbers. The biometric template is
compared to all records within the database and a
closest match score is returned. The closest match
within the allowed threshold is deemed the individual and
authenticated.
Performance Measurement
• false accept rate (FAR) or false match rate (FMR): the probability that the system
incorrectly declares a successful match between the input pattern and a non-matching
pattern in the database. Measures the percent of invalid inputs being accepted.
• false reject rate (FRR) or false non-match rate (FNMR): the probability that the
system incorrectly declares failure of match between the input pattern and the matching
template in the database. Measures the percent of valid inputs being rejected.
• relative operating characteristic (ROC): In general, the matching algorithm performs
a decision using a threshold. In biometric systems the FAR and FRR can typically be
traded off against each other by changing those parameters.
• equal error rate (EER): the rate at which both accept and reject errors are equal. The
lower the EER, the more accurate the system is considered to be.
• failure to enroll rate (FTE or FER): the percentage of data input is considered invalid
and fails to input into the system. Failure to enroll happens when the data obtained by
the sensor are considered invalid or of poor quality.
• failure to capture rate (FTC): Within automatic systems, the probability that the system
fails to detect a biometric characteristic when presented correctly.
• template capacity: the maximum number of sets of data which can be input in to the
system.
State of the Art of
Biometric Recognition Systems
Biometrics
Equal False False
Error Accept Reject Subjects
Ratio Ratio Ratio
Face
n.a.
1%
10%
37437
Fingerprint
n.a.
1%
0.1%
25000
Fingerprint
2%
2%
2%
100
Hand geometry
1%
2%
0.1%
129
Iris
< 1%
0.94%
0.99%
1224
Iris
0.01% 0.0001% 0.2%
132
Keystrokes
1.8%
7%
0.1%
15
6%
2%
10%
310
Voice
Comment
Varied lighting,
indoor/outdoor
US Government
operational data
Rotation and exaggerated
skin distortion
With rings and improper
placement
Indoor environment
Best conditions
During 6 months period
Text independent,
multilingual
Reference
FRVT (2002)
FpVTE (2003)
FVC (2004)
(2005)
ITIRT (2005)
NIST (2005)
(2005)
NIST (2004)
Fingerprint Identification
• Fingerprints remain constant throughout life.
• In over 140 years of fingerprint comparison
worldwide, no two fingerprints have ever been
found to be alike, not even in identical twins.
• Good fingerprint scanners have been installed
in PDAs like the iPaq Pocket PC; so scanner
technology is also easy.
• Requires clean hands.
• Fingerprint identification involves comparing
the pattern of ridges and furrows on the
fingertips, as well as the minutiae points of a
specimen print with a database of prints on file.
Images from
Consumer Guide Products and Elecom
Sidebar - Fingerprint
• Pay By Touch was a privately held company
which enabled consumers to pay for goods and
services with a swipe of their finger on a
biometric sensor. It allowed secure access to
checking, credit card, loyalty, healthcare, and
other personal information, through the unique
characteristics of an individual's biometric
features, thereby creating a highly secure antiidentity theft platform.
• Based in San Francisco, CA with 10 offices
worldwide, Pay By Touch had over 800
employees and provided retailers with products
in biometric financial transactions, biometric
age verification, loyalty and personalized
marketing, and payment processing.
• On March 19th, 2008, without notifying their
customers, Pay By Touch shut down and is no
longer in operation.
Hand and Finger Geometry
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•
•
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Hands and fingers are unique -- but not as unique as
other traits, like fingerprints or irises.
Businesses and schools typically use hand and finger
geometry readers to authenticate users, not to
identify them.
Disney theme parks use finger geometry readers to
grant ticket holders admittance to different parts of
the park.
Systems that measure hand and finger geometry use
a digital camera and light. You place your hand on a
flat surface, aligning your fingers against several
pegs to ensure an accurate reading. Then, a camera
takes one or more pictures of your hand and the
shadow it casts. It uses this information to determine
the length, width, thickness and curvature of your
hand or fingers. It translates that information into a
numerical template.
Strengths and Weaknesses
• Since hands and fingers are less distinctive than
fingerprints or irises, some people are less likely to
feel that the system invades their privacy. However,
many people's hands change over time due to injury,
changes in weight or arthritis.
Photo courtesy Ingersoll-Rand
Vein Geometry
•
•
A person's veins are completely unique.
Twins don't have identical veins, and a person's veins differ
between their left and right sides.
• Many veins are not visible through the skin, making them
extremely difficult to counterfeit or tamper with. Their shape
also changes very little as a person ages.
Vein scanners use near-infrared light to reveal the patterns in
a person’s veins.
• Place your finger, wrist, palm or the back of your hand on or
near the scanner. A camera takes a digital picture using nearIR light. The hemoglobin in your blood absorbs the light, so
veins appear black in the picture. Software creates a
reference template based on the shape and location of the
vein structure.
• Scanners that analyze vein geometry
are completely different from vein
scanning tests that happen in hospitals.
Vein scans for medical purposes
usually use radioactive particles.
Biometric security scans use light that
is similar to the light that comes from a
remote control.
Image from HowStuffWorks.com and Fujitsu
Facial Recognition
• Humans have always had the innate ability to recognize and distinguish between faces, yet
computers only recently have shown the same ability.
• Identix®, a company based in Minnesota, is one of many developers of facial recognition
technology. Its software, FaceIt®, can pick someone's face out of a crowd, extract the face
from the rest of the scene and compare it to a database of stored images. In order for this
software to work, it has to know how to differentiate between a basic face and the rest of the
background. Facial recognition software is based on the ability to recognize a face and then
measure the various features of the face.
• Every face has numerous, distinguishable landmarks,
the different peaks and valleys that make up facial features.
FaceIt defines these landmarks as nodal points.
Each human face has approximately 80 nodal points.
Some of these measured by the software are:
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Distance between the eyes
Width of the nose
Depth of the eye sockets
The shape of the cheekbones
The length of the jaw line
• These nodal points are measured creating a numerical code,
called a faceprint, representing the face in the database.
Photo © Identix Inc.
Facial Recognition
Iris Scanning
• Iris scanning - at the heart of the system is a CCD digital
camera. It uses both visible and near-IR light to take a
clear, high-contrast picture of an iris.
• The iris is a visible but protected structure, and it does
not usually change over time. Most of the time, people's
eyes also remain unchanged after eye surgery, and
blind
people can use iris scanners as long as their
eyes
have irises. Eyeglasses and contact lenses
typically
do not interfere or cause inaccurate readings.
• When you look into an iris scanner, either the camera focuses
automatically or you use a mirror or audible feedback from the
system to make sure that you are positioned correctly. Usually,
your eye is 3 to 10 inches from the camera. When the camera
takes a picture, the computer locates:
– The center of the pupil
– The edge of the pupil
– The edge of the iris
– The eyelids and eyelashes
– It then analyzes the patterns in the iris and translates them into a code.
Photos courtesy Iridian Technologies
Iris Scanning
• Becoming more common in high-security applications because
people's eyes are so unique (false match rate is 1 in 1078)
• They also allow more than 200 points of reference for comparison,
as opposed to 60 or 70 points in fingerprints.
• Iridian Technologies, who hold the patents on iris recognition, claim
that the iris is the most accurate and invariable of biometrics, and
that their system is the most accurate form of biometric technology.
• Iridian's system also has the benefit of extremely swift comparisons.
The compay claims that it can match an iris against a database of
100,000 reference samples in 2-3 seconds, whereas a fingerprint
search against a comparable database might take 15 minutes.
Retinal Scanning
• Some people confuse iris scans with retinal scans.
• Retinal scans, however, are an older technology that
required a bright light to illuminate a person's retina.
• The sensor would then take a picture of the blood
vessel structure in the back of the person's eye.
• Some people found retinal scans to be uncomfortable
and invasive.
• People's retinas also change as they age, which could
lead to inaccurate readings.
• Still used in some high security facilities.
DNA
• The key to DNA evidence lies in comparing the DNA from
the scene of a crime with a suspect's DNA. To do this,
investigators have to do three things:
– Collect DNA from the subject
(intrusive and messy)
– Analyze the DNA to create a DNA profile (slow and costly)
– Compare the profile to a database
(not well populated)
• DNA can be extracted from almost any tissue, including
hair, fingernails, bones, teeth and bodily fluids.
• The most commonly used database in the United States is
called CODIS, which stands for Combined DNA Index
System. CODIS is maintained by the FBI.
Other methods
Physiological
• Ear shape recognition
• Body odor recognition
• Dental pattern recognition
Behavioral
• Voice print recognition
• Signature recognition
• Keystroke analysis
Privacy Concerns
• Some people object to biometrics for cultural or religious reasons.
• Others imagine a world in which cameras identify and track them as
they walk down the street, following their activities and buying
patterns without their consent. They wonder whether companies will
sell biometric data the way they sell e-mail addresses and phone
numbers. People may also wonder whether a huge database will
exist somewhere that contains vital information about everyone in
the world, and whether that information would be safe there.
• At this point, however, biometric systems don't have the capability to
store and catalog information about everyone in the world. Most
store a minimal amount of information about a relatively small
number of users. They don't generally store a recording or real-life
representation of a person's traits -- they convert the data into a
code. Most systems also work in only in the one specific place
where they're located, like an office building or hospital. The
information in one system isn't necessarily compatible with others,
although several organizations are trying to standardize biometric
data.
Other Concerns
In addition to the potential for invasions of privacy, critics raise
several concerns about biometrics, such as:
• Over reliance: The perception that biometric systems are
foolproof might lead people to forget about daily, commonsense security practices and to protect the system's data.
• Accessibility: Some systems can't be adapted for certain
populations, like elderly people or people with disabilities.
• Interoperability: In emergency situations, agencies using
different systems may need to share data, and delays can
result if the systems can't communicate with each other.
• Cleanliness: Does the fingerprint scanner or iris scanner
have germs or some debris from previous uses
Electronic Freedom Foundation
Concerns
• Biometric technology is inherently individuating and interfaces
easily to database technology, making privacy violations easier
and more damaging. If we are to deploy such systems, privacy must
be designed into them from the beginning, as it is hard to retrofit
complex systems for privacy.
• Biometric systems are useless without a well-considered threat
model. Before deploying any such system on the national stage, we
must have a realistic threat model, specifying the categories of people
such systems are supposed to target, and the threat they pose in light
of their abilities, resources, motivations and goals. Any such system
will also need to map out clearly in advance how the system is to work,
in both in its successes and in its failures.
• Biometrics are no substitute for quality data about potential risks.
No matter how accurately a person is identified, identification alone
reveals nothing about whether a person is a terrorist. Such information
is completely external to any biometric ID system.
Electronic Freedom Foundation
Concerns
• Biometric identification is only as good as the initial ID. The quality of
the initial "enrollment" or "registration" is crucial. Biometric systems are
only as good as the initial identification, which in any foreseeable system
will be based on exactly the document-based methods of identification
upon which biometrics are supposed to be an improvement. A terrorist with
a fake passport would be issued a US visa with his own biometric attached
to the name on the phony passport. Unless the terrorist A) has already
entered his biometrics into the database, and B) has garnered enough
suspicion at the border to merit a full database search, biometrics won't
stop him at the border.
• Biometric identification is often overkill for the task at hand. It is not
necessary to identify a person (and to create a record of their presence at
a certain place and time) if all you really want to know is whether they're
entitled to do something or be somewhere. When in a bar, customers use
IDs to prove they're old enough to drink, not to prove who they are, or to
create a record of their presence.
Electronic Freedom Foundation
Concerns
• Some biometric technologies are discriminatory.A nontrivial
percentage of the population cannot present suitable features to
participate in certain biometric systems. Many people have fingers that
simply do not "print well." Even if people with "bad prints" represent 1%
of the population, this would mean massive inconvenience and
suspicion for that minority. And scale matters. The INS, for example,
handles about 1 billion distinct entries and exits every year. Even a
seemingly low error rate of 0.1% means 1 million errors, each of which
translates to INS resources lost following a false lead.
• The cost of failure is high. If you lose a credit card, you can cancel it
and get a new one. If you lose a biometric, you've lost it for life. Any
biometric system must be built to the highest levels of data security,
including transmission that prevents interception, storage that prevents
theft, and system-wide architecture to prevent both intrusion and
compromise by corrupt or deceitful agents within the organization
Electronic Freedom Foundation
Concerns
• The chronic, longitudinal capture of biometric data is useful for
surveillance purposes. Biometric systems entail repeat surveillance,
requiring an initial capture and then later captures.
• Another major issue relates to the "voluntariness" of capture.
• Some biometrics, like faces, voices, and fingerprints, are easily
"grabbed."
• Other biometrics, at least under present technology, must be consciously
"given."
• It is difficult, for instance, to capture a scan of a person's retina or to
gather a hand geometry image without the subject's cooperation.
• Easily grabbed biometrics are a problem because people can't control
when they're being put into the system or when they're being tracked.
But even hard-to-grab biometrics involve a trust issue in the biometric
capture device and the overall system architecture.
Electronic Freedom Foundation
Concerns
Tracking
• By far the most significant negative aspect of biometric ID systems
is their potential to locate and track people physically. While many
surveillance systems seek to locate and track, biometric systems
present the greatest danger precisely because they promise
extremely high accuracy. Whether a specific biometric system
actually poses a risk of such tracking depends on how it is designed.
• Why should we care about perfect tracking? EFF believes that
perfect tracking is inimical to a free society. A society in which
everyone's actions are tracked is not, in principle, free. It may be a
livable society, but would not be our society.
• EFF believes that perfect surveillance, even without any deliberate
abuse, would have an extraordinary chilling effect on artistic and
scientific inventiveness and on political expression. This concern
underlies constitutional protection for anonymity, both as an aspect
of First Amendment freedoms of speech and association, and as an
aspect of Fourth Amendment privacy.
Some Current Biometric Initiatives
• Sec. 403(c) of the USA-PATRIOT Act specifically requires the
federal government to "develop and certify a technology standard
that can be used to verify the identity of persons" applying for or
seeking entry into the United States on a U.S. visa "for the purposes
of conducting background checks, confirming identity, and ensuring
that a person has not received a visa under a different name."
• The recently enacted Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry
Reform Act of 2002, Sec. 303(b)(1), requires that only "machinereadable, tamper-resistant visas and other travel and entry
documents that use biometric identifiers" shall be issued to aliens by
October 26, 2004. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
and the State Department currently are evaluating biometrics for use
in U.S. border control pursuant to EBSVERA.
Australia
• Visitors intending to visit Australia may soon have to submit to
biometric authentication as part of the Smartgate system, linking
individuals to their visas and passports.
• Biometric data are already collected from some visa applicants by
Immigration.
• Australia is the first country to introduce a Biometrics Privacy Code,
which is established and administered by the Biometrics Institute.
• The Biometrics Institute Privacy Code Biometrics Institute forms part
of Australian privacy legislation. The Code includes privacy
standards that are at least equivalent to the Australian National
Privacy Principles (NPPs) in the Privacy Act and also incorporates
higher standards of privacy protection in relation to certain acts and
practices..
Brazil
• Since 2000, Brazilian citizens have had user ID cards.
• The government to adopted fingerprint-based biometrics based on the
work of Dr. Juan Vucetich, who invented one of the most complete
tenprint classification systems in existence. The Vucetich system was
adopted by most of the other South American countries.
• The ID cards printed in Rio de Janeiro are fully digitized using a 2D bar
code with information which can be matched against its owner off-line.
The 2D bar code encodes a color photo, a signature, two fingerprints,
and other citizen data.
• By the end of 2005, the Brazilian government started the development of
its new passport. The new documents started to be released in 2007.
• Brazilian citizens will have their signature, photo, and 10 rolled
fingerprints collected during passport requests. All of the data is planned
to be stored in ICAO E-passport standard. This allows for contactless
electronic reading of the passport content and Citizens ID verification
since fingerprint templates and token facial images will be available for
automatic recognition.
Germany
• Biometrics market in Germany will increase from 12 mil € (2004) to 377
mil € (2009).
• In May 2005 the Germany approved the implementation of the ePass, a
passport issued to all German citizens which contain biometric
technology. In circulation since Nov. 2005,it contains a chip that holds a
digital photograph and one fingerprint from each hand, usually of the
index fingers, though others may be used if these fingers are missing or
have extremely distorted prints. A third biometric identifier – iris scans –
could be added at a later stage.
• An increase in the prevalence of biometric technology in Germany is an
effort to not only keep citizens safe within German borders but also to
comply with the current US deadline for visa-waiver countries to
introduce biometric passports.
• New requirements for visitors to apply for visas within the country. “Only
applicants for long-term visas, which allow more than three months'
residence, will be affected by the planned biometric registration program.
The new work visas will also include fingerprinting, iris scanning, and
digital photos”.
Iraq
• Biometrics are being used extensively in Iraq to catalog as many Iraqis
as possible providing Iraqis with a verifiable identification card,
immune to forgery.
• During account creation, the collected biometrics information is logged
into a central database which then allows a user profile to be created.
• Even if an Iraqi has lost their ID card, their identification can be found
and verified by using their unique biometric information.
• Additional information can also be added to each account record, such
as individual personal history. This can help American forces
determine whether someone has been causing trouble in the past.
• One major system in use in Iraq is called BISA. This system uses a
smartcard and a user's biometrics (fingerpint, iris, and face photos) to
ensure they are authorized access to a base or facility.
• Another is called BAT for Biometric Automated Tool.
Israel
•
Biometrics have been used extensively in Israel for several years.
•
The border crossing points from Israel to the Gaza Strip and West Bank are
controlled by gates through which authorized Palestinians may pass.
Upwards of 90,000 Palestinians pass through the turnstiles every day to
work in Israel, and each of them has an ID card which has been issued by
the Israeli Military at the registration centers. At peak periods more than
15,000 people an hour pass through the gates. The ID card is a smartcard
with stored biometrics of fingerprints, facial geometry and hand geometry. In
addition there is a photograph printed on the card and a digital version
stored on the smartcard chip.
•
Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport has a frequent flyer's fast check-in system which
is based on the use of a smartcard which holds information relating to the
holders hand geometry and fingerprints. For a traveller to pass through the
fast path using the smartcard system takes less than 10 seconds.
•
The Immigration Police at Tel Aviv Airport use a system of registration for
foreign workers that utilizes fingerprint, photograph and facial geometry
which is stored against the Passport details of the individual. There is a
mobile version of this which allows the police to check on an individual's
credentials at any time.
Japan
• Several banks in Japan have adopted palm vein
authentication technology on their ATMs.
• This technology which was developed by Fujitsu,
among other companies, proved to have low
false rejection rate (around 0.01%) and a very
low false acceptance rate (less than 0.00008%).
Here at Home
• The United States government has become a strong advocate of
biometrics with the increase in security concerns since 9/11.
• Starting in 2005, US passports with facial (image-based) biometric data
were scheduled to be produced. Privacy activists in many countries
have criticized the technology's use for the potential harm to civil
liberties, privacy, and the risk of identity theft.
• Currently, there is some apprehension in the United States (and the
European Union) that the information can be "skimmed" and identify
people's citizenship remotely for criminal intent, such as kidnapping.
• There also are technical difficulties currently delaying biometric
integration into passports in the United States, the United Kingdom, and
the rest of the EU. These difficulties include compatibility of reading
devices, information formatting, and nature of content (e.g. the US
currently expect to use only image data, whereas the EU intends to use
fingerprint and image data in their passport RFID biometric chip(s)).
Here at Home
• The speech made by President Bush on May 15, 2006,
live from the Oval Office, was very clear: from now on,
anyone willing to go legally in the United States in order
to work there will be card-indexed and will have to
communicate his fingerprints while entering the country.
• "A key part of that system [for verifying documents and
work eligibility of aliens] should be a new identification
card for every legal foreign worker. This card should use
biometric technology, such as digital fingerprints, to
make it tamper-proof." President George W Bush
(Addresses on Immigration Reform, May 15, 2006)
Here at Home
• The US Department of Defense (DoD) Common Access
Card, is an ID card issued to all US Service personnel
and contractors on US Military sites. This card contains
biometric data and digitized photographs. It also has
laser-etched photographs and holograms to add security
and reduce the risk of falsification. There have been over
10 million of these cards issued.
• According to Jim Wayman, director of the National
Biometric Test Center at San Jose State University, Walt
Disney World is the nation's largest single commercial
application of biometrics.
• However, the US Visit program will very soon surpass
Walt Disney World for biometrics deployment.
Links
• Basics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometrics
• NIST consortia http://www.biometrics.org/
• US Government http://www.biometrics.gov/
• Tech Explained science.howstuffworks.com/biometrics.htm
• More Explained electronics.howstuffworks.com/facial-recognition.htm
• Privacy Concerns http://www.eff.org/wp/biometrics-whos-watching-you
• More basics
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/TechnologyArticle.asp?ArtNum=13
• 2008 Conference http://www.biometrics.org/BC2008/index.htm