Advanced Biometric Technologies

Biometrics concerns the study of automated methods for identifying an individual or recognizing an individual among many people by measuring one or more physical or behavioral features. Certain physical human features or behaviors are characteristics that are specific and can be uniquely associated with one person. Retinas, iris, DNA, fingerprint, palm print, or pattern of finger lengths are typical physical features that are specific to individuals. Also, the voice print, gait, or handwriting can be used to this purpose.

Nowadays biometrics is rapidly evolving. This science is getting more and more accurate in recognizing and identifying persons and behaviors. Consequently, these technologies become more and more attractive and effective in critical applications, such as to create safe personal IDs, to control the access to personal information or physical areas, to recognize terrorists or criminals, to study the movements of people, to monitor the human behavior, and to create adaptive environments.

The use of biometrics in the real-life often requires very complex signal and image processing and scene analysis, for example encompassing biometric feature extraction and identification, individual tracking, face tracking, eye tracking, liveness/anti-spoofing tests, and facial expression recognition.

This talk will review the main biometric traits and analyze the opportunities offered by biometric technologies and applications to support a broad variety of applications. Attention will be given to the current trends in research and applications.