Biometrics

1. Biometrics • Biometrics • U.S. Government Site • Intro Layered vs. Multimodal • Measurement Accuracy • Voiceprints • Iris Scanning • Vein Geometry • DNA • Gait • Facial

2. Biometrics http://www.biometrics.gov/ Biometrics.gov is the central source of information on biometrics-related activities of the Federal government. Two sister sites provide a repository of biometrics-related public information (www.biometricscatalog.org) and opportunities for discussion (www.biometrics.org). These websites, working together, were developed to encourage greater collaboration and sharing of information on biometric activities among government departments and agencies; commercial entities; state, regional, and international organizations; and the general public. Biometrics.gov provides basic information and links to specific biometric activities in the Federal government. The site includes three main “rooms”: Biometrics Reference. This room provides general information about biometric technologies, government programs and privacy planning NSTC Subcommittee on Biometrics. This room provides information on the National Science & Technology Council’s Subcommittee on Biometrics. The NSTC, a Cabinet-level Council, is the principal means within the executive branch to coordinate science and technology policy across the diverse entities that make up the Federal research and development enterprise.

3. Biometrics • Instead of using something you have (like a key) or something you know (like a password), biometrics uses who you are to identify you. Biometrics can use physical characteristics, like your face, fingerprints, irises or veins, or behavioral characteristics like your voice, handwriting or typing rhythm • Storage: Contrary to what you may have seen, 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. • Layered vs. Multimodal • For some security systems, one method of identification is not enough. • Layered systems combine a biometric method with a keycard or PIN. • Multimodal systems combine multiple biometric methods, like an iris scanner and a voiceprint system.

4. Biometrics (cont) • Systems also use the same three components: • 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 • Measurement of accuracy: • False Accept Rate (FAR): How many imposters the system accepts • False Reject Rate (FRR): How many authorized users the system rejects • Failure to Enroll Rate (FTE): How many people's traits are of insufficient quality for the system to use • Failure to Acquire Rate (FTA): How many times a user must present the trait before the system correctly accepts or rejects them • Hand and Finger Geometry • Systems that measure hand and finger geometry use a digital camera and light. • It uses this information to determine the length, width, thickness and curvature of your hand or fingers and translates that information into a numerical template. • However, many people's hands change over time due to injury, changes in weight or arthritis.

5. Biometrics (cont) • Voiceprints • Your voice is unique because of the shape of your vocal cavities and the way you move your mouth when you speak. To enroll in a voiceprint system, you either say the exact words or phrases that it requires, or you give an extended sample of your speech so that the computer can identify you no matter which words you say. • When people think of voiceprints, they often think of the wave pattern they would see on an oscilloscope. But the data used in a voiceprint is a sound spectrogram, not a wave form. A spectrogram is basically a graph that shows a sound's frequency on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis. Different speech sounds create different shapes within the graph. Spectrograms also use colors or shades of grey to represent the acoustical qualities of sound.

6. Biometrics (cont) • Fingerprint Basics • People have tiny ridges of skin on their fingers because this particular adaptation was extremely advantageous to the ancestors of the human species. The pattern of ridges and "valleys" on fingers make it easier for the hands to grip things, in the same way a rubber tread pattern helps a tire grip the road. • the specific way it forms is a result of random events. The exact position of the fetus in the womb at a particular moment and the exact composition and density of surrounding amniotic fluid decides how every individual ridge will form. • Instead, most fingerprint scanner systems compare specific features of the fingerprint, generally known as minutiae. Typically, human and computer investigators concentrate on points where ridge lines end or where one ridge splits into two (bifurcations). Collectively, these and other distinctive features are sometimes called typica. Pattern Intensity

7. Biometrics (cont) • Iris Scanning • Iris scanning uses a simple CCD digital camera. • It uses both visible and near-infrared light to take a clear, high-contrast picture of a person's iris. • With near-infrared light, a person's pupil is very black, making it easy for the computer to isolate the pupil and iris. • The computer locates: • The center of the pupil • The edge of the pupil • The edge of the iris • The eyelids and eyelashes • The iris ( regulates the amount of light into the eye)consists of pigmented fibrovascular tissue known as a stroma. The stroma connects a sphincter muscle (sphincter pupillae), which contracts the pupil, and a set of dilator muscles (dilator pupillae which open it. • The iris is a visible but protected structure, and it does not usually change over time, making it ideal for biometric identification.

8. Biometrics (cont) • Vein Geometry • As with irises and fingerprints, a person's veins are completely unique. • Twins don't have identical veins • 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. • A camera takes a digital picture using near-infrared light. • The hemoglobin in your blood absorbs the light, so veins appear black in the picture. As with all the other biometric types, the software creates a reference template based on the shape and location of the vein structure. • Their shape also changes very little as a person ages

9. Biometrics (cont) • The Future of Biometrics • Biometrics can do a lot more than just determine whether someone has access to walk through a particular door. • Some hospitals use biometric systems to make sure mothers take home the right newborns. • Experts have also advised people to scan their vital documents, like birth certificates and social security cards, and store them in biometrically-secured flash memory in the event of a national emergency. Here are some biometric technologies you might see in the future: • New methods that use DNA, nail bed structure, teeth, ear shapes, body odor, skin patterns and blood pulses • More prevalent biometric systems in place of passports at border crossings and airports

10. Biometrics (cont) • DNA • You can extract DNA 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. By law, authorities in all 50 states must collect DNA samples from convicted sex offenders for inclusion in CODIS. Some states also require all convicted felons to submit DNA. • The FBI's CODIS database uses samples that have undergone STR analysis examining 13 loci. • The odds of two people having identical 13-loci STR profiles are about one in a billion.

11. Biometrics (cont) • Gait - walking pattern recognition some applications are based on "far distances", that is the ability to classify and identify humans at distances up to 500 feet away under day or night, all-weather conditions • Problems: gait is effected by load - what a person might be carrying; it could be heavy clothes in winter, or an object being carried. Gait is also effected by injuries that a person would sustain - which puts it in the category of non-static (or variable) recognition Gait Animation "Facial recognition analyzes the characteristics of a person's face images input through a digital video camera. It measures the overall facial structure, including distances between eyes, nose, mouth, and jaw edges. These measurements are retained in a database and used as a comparison when a user stands before the camera." 

12. Biometrics (cont) Keystroke Recognition "Individual typing behaviour is characterized by writing dynamics and by underlying psychometrical features such as left and/or right-handedness or key finger placing. These criteria can be measured using standard hardware and can be used for identity verification of the computer user."