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SUBJECT: BIOMETRIC SECURITY

ABSTRACT:
Today we live in the age were security is very important parameter.
Traditional ways of security is password security. But there are chances of
password to be stolen or forgotten. So we would like to give information on more
secured way, which is biometrics security.

In biometric security we use physical characteristics or behavioral traits of

an individual for security purpose. Mainly there are five types of biometrics
security: finger recognition, face recognition, hand geometry, voice recognition
and iris recognition.

The main advantage of password verification is that it only requires

keyboard for input purpose and matching is done very easily. The biometrics
system requires scanners, digital image processor and complex matching circuitry.

The other thing is that in password security we have to remember the

password an it may leak out. But here in biometrics security the password is
always present as an indent which can neither be stolen nor is to be remembered.

Thus from cost point of view password system is better and simple to
implement.
But biometrics security provides a very high security and thus eliminates its
demerit of cost from security point of view. So where security is highly required,
implementation of biometrics security is a very good solution as there is to fear of
stealing or forgetting the password.

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INTRODUCTON
WHAT IS BIOMETRICS?
• A biometric is a measurable, physical characteristic or personal behavioral trait
used to recognize the identity or verify the claimed identity of an enrolled user.
• In the development of biometric identification systems, physical and behavioral
features for recognition are required which:
• are as unique as possible, that is, an identical trait won't appear in two people:
Uniqueness
• occur in as many people as possible: Universality
• don't change over time: Permanence
• are measurable with simple technical instruments: Measurability
• are easy and comfortable to measure: User friendliness

Biometrics security can be mainly classified as follows:

1. Finger recognition.
2. Hand geometry.
3. Face recognition.
4. Voice recognition.
5. Iris recognition.

FINGER RECOGNITION:

Among all the biometric

techniques, fingerprint-based
identification is the oldest method
which has been successfully used
in numerous applications. Everyone
is known to have unique,
immutable fingerprints. A
fingerprint is made of a series of
ridges and furrows on the surface
of the finger. The uniqueness of a fingerprint can be determined by the
pattern of ridges and furrows as well as the minutiae points. Minutiae points
are local ridge characteristics that occur at either a ridge bifurcation or a
ridge ending.

What is Fingerprint Scanning?

Fingerprint scanning is the acquisition and recognition of a person’s
fingerprint characteristics for identification purposes. This allows the
recognition of a person through quantifiable physiological characteristics that

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verify the identity of an individual. There are basically two different types of
finger-scanning technology that make this possible.

1. One is an optical method, which starts with a visual image of a finger.

2. The other uses a semiconductor-generated electric field to image a finger.

There are a range of ways to identify fingerprints. They include traditional police
methods of matching minutiae, straight pattern matching, moiré fringe patterns and
ultrasonics.

Fingerprint matching techniques can be placed into two categories:

minutae-based and correlation based. Minutiae-based techniques first find minutiae
points and then map their relative placement on the finger. However, there are some
difficulties when using this approach. It is difficult to extract the minutiae points
accurately when the fingerprint is of low quality. Also this method does not take into
account the global pattern of ridges and furrows. The correlation-based method is
able to overcome some of the difficulties of the minutiae-based approach. However,
it has some of its own shortcomings. Correlation-based techniques require the precise
location of a registration point and are affected by image translation and rotation.
Fingerprint matching based on minutiae has problems in matching different sized
(unregistered) minutiae patterns. Local ridge structures can not be completely
characterized by minutiae. A commercial fingerprint-based authentication system
requires a very low False Reject Rate (FAR) for a given False Accept Rate (FAR).
This is very difficult to achieve with any one technique.

Fingerprint Classification:

Large volumes of fingerprints are collected and stored everyday in a

wide range of applications including forensics, access control, and driver
license registration. An automatic recognition of people based on fingerprints
requires that the input fingerprint be matched with a large number of
fingerprints in a database (FBI database contains approximately 70 million
fingerprints!). To reduce the search time and computational complexity, it is
desirable to classify these fingerprints in an accurate and consistent manner
so that the input fingerprint is required to be matched only with a subset of
the fingerprints in the database

The algorithms are developed to classify fingerprints into five classes,

namely, whorl, right loop, left loop, arch, and tented arch. The algorithm
separates the number of ridges present in four directions (0 degree, 45
degree, 90 degree, and 135 degree) by filtering the central part of a
fingerprint.

The classifier is tested on 4,000 images in the database. . For the four-class
problem (arch and tented arch combined into one class), we are able to achieve a
classification accuracy of 94.8%.

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Accuracy and Integrity

Someone may attempt to use latent print residue on the sensor just after a
legitimate user accesses the system. At the other end of the scale, there is the gruesome
possibility of presenting a finger to the system that is no longer connected to its owner.
Therefore, sensors attempt to determine whether a finger is live, and not made of latex (or
worse). Detectors for temperature, blood-oxygen level, pulse, blood flow, humidity, or
skin conductivity would be integrated.

FACE RECOGNITION:
Facial recognition technology

Facial recognition systems are built on computer

programs that analyze images of human faces for the
purpose of identifying them. The programs take a facial
image, measure characteristics such as the distance
between the eyes, the length of the nose, and the angle of
the jaw, and create a unique file called a "template." Using
templates, the software then compares that image with
another image and produces a score that measures how
similar the images are to each other. Typical sources of images for use in facial
recognition include video camera signals and pre-existing photos such as those in driver's
license databases.

How well does facial recognition work?

Computers can do increasingly amazing things, but they are not magic. If human
beings often can't identify the subject of a photograph, why should computers be able to
do it any more reliably? The fact is that faces are highly complex patterns that often differ
in only subtle ways, and that it can be impossible for man or machine to match images
when there are differences in lighting, camera, or camera angle, let alone changes in the
appearance of the face itself.

Not surprisingly, government studies of face-recognition software have found

high rates of both "false positives" (wrongly matching innocent people with photos in the
database) and "false negatives" (not catching people even when their photo is in the
database). One problem is that unlike our fingerprints or irises, our faces do not stay the
same over time. These systems are easily tripped up by changes in hairstyle, facial hair,
or body weight, by simple disguises, and by the effects of aging.

For example by study, it was found false-negative rates for face-recognition

verification of 43 percent using photos of subjects taken just 18 months earlier, for
example. The study also found that a change of 45 degrees in the camera angle rendered
the software useless. The technology works best under tightly controlled conditions,
when the subject is starting directly into the camera under bright lights.

In addition, questions have been raised about how well the software works on

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dark-skinned people, whose features may not appear clearly on lenses optimized for
light-skinned-people.
Samir Nanavati of the International Biometric Group, a consulting firm, sums it
up: "You could expect a surveillance system using biometrics to capture a very, very
small percentage of known criminals in a given database."
It would work especially poorly in the frenetic environment of an airport, where
fast-moving crowds and busy background images would further reduce its already limited
effectiveness.

Should we deploy face-recognition in airports to prevent terrorism?

It makes no sense to use face-recognition in airports. To begin with, there is no

photo database of terrorists. Only two of the 19 hijackers on September 11 were known to
the FBI. It would work especially poorly in the frenetic environment of an airport, where
fast-moving crowds and busy background images would further reduce its already limited
effectiveness.
HAND GEOMETRY:
How it Works

Every hand is unique. Hand geometry scanners

such as those made by Recognition Systems Inc. take
over 90 measurements of the length, width, thickness,
and surface area of the hand and four fingers--all in
just 1 second.

The technology uses a 32,000-pixel CCD digital camera to record the

hand's three-dimensional shape from silhouetted images projected within the
scanner. The scanner disregards surface details, such as fingerprints, lines,
scars, and dirt, as well as fingernails, which may grow or be cut from day to
day.

When a person uses the scanner, it compares the shape of the user's
hand to a template recorded during an enrollment session. If the template
and the hand match, the scanner produces an output--it may unlock a door,
transmit data to a computer, verify identification, or log the person's arrival
or departure time.

To register in a hand-scan system a hand is placed on a reader’s

covered flat surface. This placement is positioned by five guides or pins that
correctly situate the hand for the cameras. A succession of cameras captures
3-D pictures of the sides and back of the hand. The attainment of the hand-
scan is a fast and simple process. The hand-scan device can process the 3-D
images in 5 seconds or less and the hand verification usually takes less than
1 second. The image capturing and verification software and hardware can
easily be integrated within standalone units. Hand-scan applications that
include a large number of access points and users can be centrally
administered, eliminating the need for individuals to register on each device.

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The user's template may reside in internal memory or on other media

such as a hard disk or smart card chip.

Applications
Geometry scanners verify identity at the front entrances of over half
the nuclear power plants in the U.S.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) use Rhand

geometry scanners to allow over 60,000 frequent travelers to bypass
immigration lines (through the INSPASS program).

Employers use hand-scan for entry/exit, recording staff movement and

time/attendance procedures.

The drastic reductions in cost of microprocessors in recent years have

brought affordable hand geometry technology to the commercial market.
Biometrics are no longer found only in nuclear power plants. Day care
centers, athletic clubs, obstetrics wards, and police departments now use
scanners.

Tomorrow will find ever-expanding applications for this thoroughly

time-tested technology--for financial transactions, ticket-less travel, and new
business and residential applications where high security is a major concern.

IRIS RECOGNITION:

Iris scan biometrics employs the

unique characteristics and features of the
human iris in order to verify the identity of
an individual. The iris is the area of the eye
where the pigmented or colored circle,
usually brown or blue, rings the dark pupil
of the eye.

The iris-scan process begins with a

photograph. A specialized camera, typically
very close to the subject, no more than
three feet, uses an infrared imager to illuminate the eye and capture a very
high-resolution photograph. This process takes only one to two seconds and
provides the details of the iris that are mapped, recorded and stored for
future matching/verification.

Eyeglasses and contact lenses present no problems to the quality of

the image and the iris-scan systems test for a live eye by checking for the
normal continuous fluctuation in pupil size.

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The inner edge of the iris is located by an iris-scan algorithm which

maps the iris’ distinct patterns and characteristics. An algorithm is a series of
directives that tell a biometric system how to interpret a specific problem.
Algorithms have a number of steps and are used by the biometric system to
determine if a biometric sample and record is a match.

Iris’ are composed before birth and, except in the event of an injury to
the eyeball, remain unchanged throughout an individual’s lifetime. Iris
patterns are extremely complex, carry an astonishing amount of information
and have over 200 unique spots. The fact that an individual’s right and left
eyes are different and that patterns are easy to capture, establishes iris-scan
technology as one of the biometrics that is very resistant to false matching
and fraud.

The false acceptance rate for iris recognition systems is 1 in 1.2

million, statistically better than the average fingerprint recognition system.
The real benefit is in the false-rejection rate, a measure of authenticated
users who are rejected. Fingerprint scanners have a 3 percent false-rejection
rate, whereas iris scanning systems boast ratees at the 0 percent level.

Iris-scan technology has been piloted in ATM environments in England,

the US, Japan and Germany since as early as 1997.

Airports have begun to use iris-scanning for such diverse functions as

employee identification/verification for movement through secure areas and
allowing registered frequent airline passengers a system that enables fast
and easy identity verification in order to expedite their path through passport
control.

Other applications include monitoring prison transfers and releases, as

well as projects designed to authenticate on-line purchasing, on-line banking,
on-line voting and on-line stock trading to name just a few. Iris-scan offers a
high level of user security, privacy and general peace of mind for the
consumer.

A highly accurate technology such as iris-scan has vast appeal because

the inherent argument for any biometric is, of course, increased security.

Important points:

• The iris is a thin membrane on the interior of the eyeball. Iris patterns are
extremely complex.
• Patterns are individual (even in fraternal or identical twins).
• Patterns are formed by six months after birth, stable after a year. They remain the
same for life.
• Imitation is almost impossible.
• Patterns are easy to capture and encode

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VOICE RECONITION:
"Biometric technologies - those use voice - will
be the most important IT innovations of the next
several years. "
-Bill Gates at Gartner Group Itexpo '97.

In comparing voice to other forms of biometrics, the frequency

locations plotted on the voice print table are proportionate to the physical
locations of minutiae used in fingerprint identification. The minutiae are the
endpoints and bifurcations of the swirls of your fingerprint. The advantage of
using speech is that the number of locations is almost endless. The capacity
to extend data collection over multiple words for even better accuracy is a
distinct advantage over image-based techniques such as fingerprints and
retina scans where only a finite amount of biometric data is available.
Although it is virtually impossible for an impostor to copy someone's voice, it
is also very difficult for someone to repeat exactly the phrase originally
enrolled. This is very similar to the fact it is difficult to reproduce the exact
version of your signature on your credit card.

Voice biometrics works by digitizing a profile of a person's speech to

produce a stored model voice print, rather like a template, which is referred
to each time that person attempts to access secure data. The position and
movement of the glottal tissues, lips, jaw and tongue correspond with speech
movements in the vocal tract. Biometrics technology reduces each spoken
word into segments: sub-word like syllables, phonemes, trip hones or similar
units of sound, composed of several dominant frequencies called formants,
which remain relatively constant over that segment. Each segment has three
or four dominant tones that can be captured in digital form and plotted on a
table or spectrum. This table of tones yields the speaker's unique voice print.

The voice print is stored as a table of numbers, where the presence of

each dominant frequency in each segment is expressed as a binary entry.
Since all table entries are either 1 or 0, each column can be read bottom to
top as a long binary code. When a person speaks his or her passphrase, the
code word or words are extracted and compared to the stored model for that
person.

When authenticating, a user is asked to answer up to three prompted

questions, the answers to which are easily remembered by the user. In order
to provide audible content of at least one second in length, typical prompts
are:

• User's first, middle and last name .User's date and month of birth Mother's first,
middle and last maiden name .Home telephone number

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SIGNATURE RECONITION:

Signature verification is the process used to

recognize an individual’s hand-written signature.

There are two types of signature recognition

techniques: simple and dynamic.There is an
important distinction between simple signature
comparisons and dynamic signature verification. Both can be computerized,
but a simple comparison only takes into account what the signature looks
like. Dynamic signature verification takes into account how the signature was
made. With dynamic signature verification it is not the shape or look of the
signature that is meaningful, it is the changes in speed, pressure and timing
that occur during the act of signing.

There will always be slight variations in a person’s handwritten

signature, but the consistency created by natural motion and practice over
time creates a recognizable pattern that makes the handwritten signature a
natural for biometric identification.

CONCLUSION:

Misidentification
Method Coded Pattern Security Applications
rate

High-security
Iris Recognition Iris pattern 1/1,200,000 High
facilities

Fingerprinting Fingerprints 1/1,000 Medium Universal

Size, length and thickness Low-security

Hand Shape 1/700 Low
of hands facilities

Outline, shape and

Facial Low-security
distribution of eyes and 1/100 Low
Recognition facilities
nose

Shape of letters, writing Low-security

Signature 1/100 Low
order, pen pressure facilities

Voice printing Voice characteristics 1/30 Low Telephone service

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