FUNDAMENTALS OF BIOMETRIC ANALYSIS

What is biometrics?
 Biometrics comprises methods for uniquely recognizing humans based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioral traits.  Biometric characteristics can be divided into two main classes: Physiological -Related to the shape of the body. Eg: Fingerprint, face recognition, DNA, hand and palm geometry, iris recognition, odor/scent. Behavioral Related to the behaviour of a person. Eg: Typing rhythm, gait and voice.

 Whether a human character can be used for biometric will depend on the following parameters:  Universality- Each person should have the characteristic.  Uniqueness- Is how well the biometric separates individuals from one another.  Permanence-Measures how well a biometric resists aging and other variance over time.  Collectability- Ease of acquisition for measurement.  Performance- Accuracy, speed and robustness of technology used.  Acceptability- Degree of approval of a technology.  Curcumvention- Ease of use of a substitute.

OPERATION
A biometric system operates in the following two modes:  Verification: A one to one comparison of a captured biometric with a stored template to verify that the individual is who he claims to be. Can be done in conjunction with a smart card, users name or ID number.  Identification : A one to one comparison of the captured biometric against a biometric database in attempt to identify an unknown individual.

BASIC BLOCK DIAGRAM OF A BIOMETRIC SYSTEM

Enrollment: The first time an individual uses a biometric system is called enrollment.  During enrollment biometric information from an individual is stored.  In subsequent uses biometric information is detected and compared.  The first block (sensor) is the interface between the real world and the system, it has to acquire all the necessary data. Most of the times it is an image acquisition system.

Second block performs all the necessary preprocessing: it has to remove artifacts from the sensor, to enhance the input ( eg: removing background noise), to use some kind of normalization.  In the Third block features needed are extracted. Correct features need to be extracted in an optimal way. A vector of numbers or an image with particular properties is used to create a template.

 Template - template is a synthesis of the relevant characteristics extracted from the source. - biometric measurements that are not used in the algorithm are discarded in the template to reduce the file size. - if enrollment is being performed the template is simply stored somewhere. - if a matching phase is being performed the obtained template is passed to a matcher that compares it with other existing templates. - the matching program will analyze the template with input. This will then be output for any specified use or purpose.

PERFORMANCE:
The following are used as performance metrics for biometric systems:  False accept rate or false match rate ( FAR or FMR ) : the probability that the system incorrectly matches the input pattern to a nonmatching template in the database. Measures the percent of invalid inputs which are incorrectly accepted.
 False reject rate or false non-match rate (FRR or FNMR) : the probability that the system fails to detect a match between the input pattern and a matching template in the database. It measures the percent of valid inputs which are incorrectly rejected.

PERFORMANCE
 Receiver operating characteristic or Relative operating characteristic (ROC) - is a visual charactization of the trade-off between the FAR and the FRR. In general, the matching algorithm performs a decision based on a threshold which determines how close to a template the input needs to be for it to be considered a match. If the threshold is reduced, there will be less false nonmatches but more false accepts.  Equal error rate or crossover error rate (EER or CER) the rate at which both accept and reject errors are equal.

 Failure to enroll rate (FTE or FER) the rate at which attempts to create a template from an input is unsuccessful. This is most commonly caused by low quality inputs.  Failure to capture rate (FTC) Within automatic systems, the probability that the system fails to detect a biometric input when presented correctly.  Template capacity the maximum number of sets of data which can be stored in the system.

WHY USE BIOMETRICS?

Only biometrics can verify you as you Tokens (smartcards, etc.) aren't you and can be: lost stolen duplicated (some) forgotten Passwords aren't you and can be: forgotten shared observed broken

 Fingerprint Technology Local Features (Minutiae) Characteristics Type Orientation Spatial Frequency Curvature Position

 Iris Technology Based on visible features, i.e. rings, furrows, freckles and the corona Iris essentially formed by 8 months of age and remains stable through life Each iris has 266 unique spots vs. 13-60 for other biometrics Features and their location are used to form the IrisCodeT, which is the digital template (512 bytes)

 Face Technology

Uses low cost off-the-shelf camera at low speed, low resolution (3-5fps, 320x240) Several pictures taken at enrollment to allow for more accurate searches All technologies emphasize facial features that are less susceptible to alteration such as eye sockets, cheekbones, sides of mouth Features extracted to form template (1300 bytes)

 Voice Technology Voice recognition is not the same as speech recognition Considered physiological and behavioral Popular and low-cost, but less accurate and sometimes lengthy enrollment Capable of working over the phone telephone banking password reset calling card security call center authentication (i.e. home alarm systems) probation/house arrest monitoring Many vendors; many proprietary technologies

Cultural & Social Issues

In any large scenario some portion of the general population is likely to be physiologically unable to use one or more technique. Some people have a concern for the physical effects of the technology upon them. This accounts for the greater acceptance of newer iris recognition technology over the older retinal scan technology. Religious and cultural concerns may also need to be accommodated by organizations implementing biometric technology. For example, certain cultures and religions prohibit or look with great disfavor upon photographing of individuals.