Online finger-knuckle-print verification for personal authentication

Biometric based personal authentication is an effective method for automatically recognizing, with a high confidence, a person's identity. By observing that the texture pattern produced by bending the finger knuckle is highly distinctive, in this paper we present a new biometric authentication system using finger-knuckle-print (FKP) imaging. A specific data acquisition device is constructed to capture the FKP images, and then an efficient FKP recognition algorithm is presented to process the acquired data in real time. The local convex direction map of the FKP image is extracted based on which a local coordinate system is established to align the images and a region of interest is cropped for feature extraction. For matching two FKPs, a feature extraction scheme, which combines orientation and magnitude information extracted by Gabor filtering is proposed. An FKP database, which consists of 7920 images from 660 different fingers, is established to verify the efficacy of the proposed system and promising results are obtained. Compared with the other existing finger-back surface based biometric systems, the proposed FKP system achieves much higher recognition rate and it works in real time. It provides a practical solution to finger-back surface based biometric systems and has great potentials for commercial applications.

Related papers:

title: Handbook of Fingerprint Recognition
abstract: A major new professional reference work on fingerprint security systems and technology from leading international researchers in the field. Handbook provides authoritative and comprehensive coverage of all major topics, concepts, and methods for fingerprint security systems. This unique reference work is an absolutely essential resource for all biometric security professionals, researchers, and systems administrators.

title: Automatic Fingerprint Recognition Systems
abstract: An authoritative survey of intelligent fingerprint-recognition concepts, technology, and systems is given. Editors and contributors are the leading researchers and applied R&D developers of this personal identification (biometric security) topic and technology. Biometrics and pattern recognition researchers and professionals will find the book an indispensable resource for current knowledge and technology in the field.

title: High Confidence Visual Recognition of Persons by a Test of Statistical Independence
abstract: A method for rapid visual recognition of personal identity is described, based on the failure of a statistical test of independence. The most unique phenotypic feature visible in a person's face is the detailed texture of each eye's iris. The visible texture of a person's iris in a real-time video image is encoded into a compact sequence of multi-scale quadrature 2-D Gabor wavelet coefficients, whose most-significant bits comprise a 256-byte "iris code". Statistical decision theory generates identification decisions from Exclusive-OR comparisons of complete iris codes at the rate of 4000 per second, including calculation of decision confidence levels. The distributions observed empirically in such comparisons imply a theoretical "cross-over" error rate of one in 131000 when a decision criterion is adopted that would equalize the false accept and false reject error rates. In the typical recognition case, given the mean observed degree of iris code agreement, the decision confidence levels correspond formally to a conditional false accept probability of one in about 10/sup 31/. >

title: How iris recognition works
abstract: The principle that underlies the recognition of persons by their iris patterns is the failure of a test of statistical independence on texture phase structure as encoded by multiscale quadrature wavelets. The combinatorial complexity of this phase information across different persons spans about 249 degrees of freedom and generates a discrimination entropy of about 3.2 bits/mm/sup 2/ over the iris, enabling real-time decisions about personal identity with extremely high confidence. Algorithms first described by the author in 1993 have now been tested in several independent field trials and are becoming widely licensed. This presentation reviews how the algorithms work and presents the results of 9.1 million comparisons among different eye images acquired in trials in Britain, the USA, Korea, and Japan.

title: Palmprint verification using binary orientation co-occurrence vector
abstract: The development of accurate and robust palmprint verification algorithms is a critical issue in automatic palmprint authentication systems. Among various palmprint verification approaches, the orientation based coding methods, such as competitive code (CompCode), palmprint orientation code (POC) and robust line orientation code (RLOC), are state-of-the-art ones. They extract and code the locally dominant orientation as features and could match the input palmprint in real-time and with high accuracy. However, using only one dominant orientation to represent a local region may lose some valuable information because there are cross lines in the palmprint. In this paper, we propose a novel feature extraction algorithm, namely binary orientation co-occurrence vector (BOCV), to represent multiple orientations for a local region. The BOCV can better describe the local orientation features and it is more robust to image rotation. Our experimental results on the public palmprint database show that the proposed BOCV outperforms the CompCode, POC and RLOC by reducing the equal error rate (EER) significantly.

title: Online Palmprint Identification
abstract: Biometrics-based personal identification is regarded as an effective method for automatically recognizing, with a high confidence, a person's identity. This paper presents a new biometric approach to online personal identification using palmprint technology. In contrast to the existing methods, our online palmprint identification system employs low-resolution palmprint images to achieve effective personal identification. The system consists of two parts: a novel device for online palmprint image acquisition and an efficient algorithm for fast palmprint recognition. A robust image coordinate system is defined to facilitate image alignment for feature extraction. In addition, a 2D Gabor phase encoding scheme is proposed for palmprint feature extraction and representation. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed system.

title: Competitive coding scheme for palmprint verification
abstract: There is increasing interest in the development of reliable, rapid and non-intrusive security control systems. Among the many approaches, biometrics such as palmprints provide highly effective automatic mechanisms for use in personal identification. This paper presents a new method for extracting features from palmprints using the competitive coding scheme and angular matching. The competitive coding scheme uses multiple 2-D Gabor filters to extract orientation information from palm lines. This information is then stored in a feature vector called the competitive code. The angular matching with an effective implementation is then defined for comparing the proposed codes, which can make over 9,000 comparisons within 1s. In our testing database of 7,752 palmprint samples from 386 palms, we can achieve a high genuine acceptance rate of 98.4% and a low false acceptance rate of 3/spl times/10/sup -6/%. The execution time for the whole process of verification, including preprocessing, feature extraction and final matching, is 1s.

title: Palmprint identification using feature-level fusion
abstract: In this paper, we propose a feature-level fusion approach for improving the efficiency of palmprint identification. Multiple elliptical Gabor filters with different orientations are employed to extract the phase information on a palmprint image, which is then merged according to a fusion rule to produce a single feature called the Fusion Code. The similarity of two Fusion Codes is measured by their normalized hamming distance. A dynamic threshold is used for the final decisions. A database containing 9599 palmprint images from 488 different palms is used to validate the performance of the proposed method. Comparing our previous non-fusion approach and the proposed method, improvement in verification and identification are ensured.

title: Ordinal palmprint represention for personal identification [represention read representation]
abstract: Palmprint-based personal identification, as a new member in the biometrics family, has become an active research topic in recent years. Although great progress has been made, how to represent palmprint for effective classification is still an open problem. In this paper, we present a novel palmprint representation - ordinal measure, which unifies several major existing palmprint algorithms into a general framework. In this framework, a novel palmprint representation method, namely orthogonal line ordinal features, is proposed. The basic idea of this method is to qualitatively compare two elongated, line-like image regions, which are orthogonal in orientation and generate one bit feature code. A palmprint pattern is represented by thousands of ordinal feature codes. In contrast to the state-of-the-art algorithm reported in the literature, our method achieves higher accuracy, with the equal error rate reduced by 42% for a difficult set, while the complexity of feature extraction is halved.

title: Palmprint verification based on principal lines
abstract: In this paper, we propose a novel palmprint verification approach based on principal lines. In feature extraction stage, the modified finite Radon transform is proposed, which can extract principal lines effectively and efficiently even in the case that the palmprint images contain many long and strong wrinkles. In matching stage, a matching algorithm based on pixel-to-area comparison is devised to calculate the similarity between two palmprints, which has shown good robustness for slight rotations and translations of palmprints. The experimental results for the verification on Hong Kong Polytechnic University Palmprint Database show that the discriminability of principal lines is also strong.

title: Palmprint verification based on robust line orientation code
abstract: In palmprint recognition field, orientation based approaches are thought to achieve the best results in terms of recognition rates. In this paper, we propose a novel orientation based scheme, in which three strategies, the modified finite Radon transform, enlarged training set and pixel to area matching, have been designed to further improve its performance. The experimental results of verification conducted on Hong Kong Polytechnic University Palmprint Database show that our approach has higher recognition rates and faster processing speed.

title: A Prototype Hand Geometry-based Verication System
abstract: Geometric measurements of the human hand have been used for identity authentication in a number of commercial systems. Yet, there is not much open public literature addressing research issues underlying hand geometry-based identity authentication. This work is our attempt to draw attention to this important biometric by designing a prototype hand geometrybased identity authentication system. We also present our preliminary veric ation results based on hand measurements of 50 individuals captured over a period of time. The results are encouraging and we plan to address issues to improve the system performance.

title: Biometric Identification through Hand Geometry Measurements
abstract: A work in defining and implementing a biometric system based on hand geometry identification is presented here. Hand features are extracted from a color photograph taken when the user has placed his hand on a platform designed for such a task. Different pattern recognition techniques have been tested to be used in classification and/or verification from Euclidean distance to neural networks. Experimental results, up to a 97 percent rate of success in classification, will show the possibility of using this system in medium/high security environments with full acceptance from all users.

title: Deformable matching of hand shapes for user verification
abstract: We present a method for personal authentication based on deformable matching of hand shapes. Authentication systems are already employed in domains that require some sort of user verification. Unlike previous methods on hand shape based verification, our method aligns the hand shapes before extracting a feature set. We also base the verification decision on the shape distance which is automatically computed during the alignment stage. The shape distance proves to be a more reliable classification criterion than the handcrafted feature sets used by previous systems. Our verification system attained a high level of accuracy: 96.5% genuine accept rate vs. false accept rate. This performance is further improved by learning an enrolment template shape for each user.

title: Personal authentication using hand vein triangulation
abstract: This paper presents a new approach to authenticate individuals using triangulation of hand vein images. The proposed method is fully automated and employs palm dorsal hand vein images acquired from the low-cost, near infrared, contactless imaging. The knuckle tips are used as key points for image normalization and the extraction of region of interest. The matching scores are generated in two parallel stages; (i) hierarchical matching score from the four topologies of triangulation in binarized vein structures and (ii) from the geometrical features consisting of knuckle point perimeter distances in the acquired images. The weighted score level combination from these two matching scores are used to authenticate the individuals. The achieved experimental results from the proposed system using contactless, palm dorsal hand vein images are promising and suggest more user friendly alternative for user identification.

title: Finger surface as a biometric identifier
abstract: We present a novel approach for personal identification and identity verification which utilizes 3D finger surface features as a biometric identifier. Using 3D range images of the hand, a surface representation for the index, middle, and ring finger is calculated and used for comparison to determine subject similarity. We use the curvature based shape index to represent the fingers' surface. Gallery and probe shape index signatures are compared using the normalized correlation coefficient to compute a match score. A large unique database of hand images supports the research. We use data sets obtained over time to examine the performance of each individual finger surface as a biometric identifier as well as the performance obtained when combining them. Both identification and verification experiments are conducted. In addition, probe and gallery sets sizes are increased to further improve recognition performance in our experiments. Our approach yields good results for a first-of-its-kind biometric technique, indicating that this approach warrants further research.

title: Personal identification utilizing finger surface features
abstract: In this paper we present a novel approach for personal identification, which utilizes finger surface features as a biometric identifier. Using dense range data images of the hand, we calculate the curvature-based surface representation, shape index, for the index, middle, and ring fingers. This representation is used for comparisons to determine subject similarity. Our experiments involve the use of a large data set of range images collected over time. We examine the performance of individual finger surfaces as a biometric identifier as well as the performance when using the three finger surfaces in conjunction. The results of our experiments are presented, which indicate that this approach performs well for a first-of-its-kind biometric technique.

title: Biometric Authentication using Finger-Back Surface
abstract: This paper investigates a new biometric system based on texture of the hand knuckles. The texture pattern produced by the finger knuckle bending is highly unique and makes the surface a distinctive biometric identifier. Hand geometry features can be acquired from the same image, at the same time and integrated to improve the performance of the system. The finger back surface images from each of the users are used to extract scale, translation and rotational invariant knuckle images. The proposed system, especially on the peg-free and non-contact imaging setup, achieves promising results when tested over a database of 105 users.

title: Personal Authentication Using Finger Knuckle Surface
abstract: This paper investigates a new approach for personal authentication using fingerback surface imaging. The texture pattern produced by the finger knuckle bending is highly unique and makes the surface a distinctive biometric identifier. The finger geometry features can be simultaneously acquired from the same image at the same time and integrated to further improve the user-identification accuracy of such a system. The fingerback surface images from each user are normalized to minimize the scale, translation, and rotational variations in the knuckle images. This paper details the development of such an approach using peg-free imaging. The experimental results from the proposed approach are promising and confirm the usefulness of such an approach for personal authentication.

title: Human identification using KnuckleCodes
abstract: The usage of finger knuckle images for personal identification has shown promising results and generated lot of interest in biometrics. In this work, we investigate a new approach for efficient and effective personal identification using KnuckleCodes. The enhanced knuckle images are employed to generate KnuckleCodes using localized Radon transform that can efficiently characterize random curved lines and creases. The similarity between two KnuckleCodes is computed from the minimum matching distance that can account for the variations resulting from translation and positioning of fingers. The feasibility of the proposed approach is investigated on the finger knuckle database from 158 subjects. The experimental results, i.e., equal error rate of 1.08% and rank one recognition rate of 98.6%, suggest the utility of the proposed approach for online human identification.

title: Personal identification using finger knuckle orientation features
abstract: A novel approach for personal identification using finger images which exploits the orientation features from the random knuckle lines using finite Radon transform is proposed. The feasibility of this approach is rigorously evaluated on a publically available finger knuckle database from 158 subjects and achieves highly promising results.

title: Personal Identification Using Knuckleprint
abstract: A novel biometric defined as “knuckleprint” is presented in this paper The Line feature of the knuckleprint with its distribution in the finger (which is defined as location feature) is extracted to identify a person To enhance the performance of identification, hierarchical classification method is used to classify the location feature and line feature in different levels Though this is the first attempt of knuckleprint identification, the accuracy rate reaches 96.88% on the database that contains 1,432 image samples, which testifies that knuckleprint is reliable as a biometric, and demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of the features.

title: A multi-matcher system based on knuckle-based features
abstract: We describe a new multi-matcher biometric approach, using knuckle-based features extracted from the middle finger and from the ring finger, with fusion applied at the matching-score level. The features extraction is performed by Radon transform and by Haar wavelet, then these features are transformed by non-linear Fisher transform. Finally, the matching process is based on Parzen window classifiers. Moreover, we study a method based on tokenised pseudo-random numbers and user specific knuckle features. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the system in terms of equal error rate (EER) (near zero equal error rate).

title: Forensic Voice Identification
abstract: 1.  Aural-Perceptual Approaches 5. Use of Professionals 6. Voiceprints 7. Machine Approaches 8. SAUSI (Semi-Automatic Speaker Identification System) 9. The Future

title: Automatic signature verification and writer identification - the state of the art
abstract: This paper presents a survey of the literature on automatic signature verification and writer identification by computer, and an overview of achievements in static and dynamic approaches to solving these problems, with a special focus on preprocessing techniques, feature extraction methods, comparison processes and performance evaluation. In addition, for each type of approache special attention is given to requirement analysis, human factors, practical application environments, and appropriate definitions and terminology. Throughout the paper, new research directions are suggested.

title: On selecting Gabor features for biometric authentication
abstract: We describe a Gabor feature selection technique that allows us to develop a fast and robust Gabor-feature based biometric system. Existing Gabor based methods use a huge number of Gabor features to represent the patterns. Our experiments on different biometric characteristics show that by using only few (∼10) Gabor features, it is possible to achieve a very low Equal Error Rate (EER). Only a low number of Gabor filters and sub-images, selected by running the Sequential Forward Floating Selection (SFFS), are exploited in the fusion step. The system has been tested on two biometric traits: ear authentication and finger authentication.

title: Image Representation Using 2D Gabor Wavelets
abstract: This paper extends to two dimensions the frame criterion developed by Daubechies for one-dimensional wavelets, and it computes the frame bounds for the particular case of 2D Gabor wavelets. Completeness criteria for 2D Gabor image representations are important because of their increasing role in many computer vision applications and also in modeling biological vision, since recent neurophysiological evidence from the visual cortex of mammalian brains suggests that the filter response profiles of the main class of linearly-responding cortical neurons (called simple cells) are best modeled as a family of self-similar 2D Gabor wavelets. We therefore derive the conditions under which a set of continuous 2D Gabor wavelets will provide a complete representation of any image, and we also find self-similar wavelet parametrization which allow stable reconstruction by summation as though the wavelets formed an orthonormal basis. Approximating a "tight frame" generates redundancy which allows low-resolution neural responses to represent high-resolution images.