Biometrics is becoming increasingly common in establishments that require high security such as state security and financial sectors. The increased threat to national security by terrorists has led to the explosive popularity of biometrics. Biometric devices are now available to capture biometric measurements such as fingerprints, palm, retinal scans, keystroke, voice recognition and facial scanning. However, the accuracy of these measurements varies, which has a direct relevance on the levels of security they offer. With the need to combat the problems related to identify theft and other security issues, society will have to compromise between security and personal freedoms. Securing Biometrics Applications investigates and identifies key impacts of biometric security applications, while discovering opportunities and challenges presented by the biometric technologies available.

Biometrics is becoming increasingly common in establishments that require high security such as state security and financial sectors. The increased threat to national security by terrorists has led to the explosive popularity of biometrics. Biometric devices are now available to capture biometric measurements such as fingerprints, palm, retinal scans, keystroke, voice recognition and facial scanning. However, the accuracy of these measurements varies, which has a direct relevance on the levels of security they offer. With the need to combat the problems related to identify theft and other security issues, society will have to compromise between security and personal freedoms. Securing Biometrics Applications investigates and identifies key impacts of biometric security applications, while discovering opportunities and challenges presented by the biometric technologies available.

This important text/reference presents the latest secure and privacy-compliant techniques in automatic human recognition. Featuring viewpoints from an international selection of experts in the field, the comprehensive coverage spans both theory and practical implementations, taking into consideration all ethical and legal issues. Topics and features: presents a unique focus on novel approaches and new architectures for unimodal and multimodal template protection; examines signal processing techniques in the encrypted domain, security and privacy leakage assessment, and aspects of standardization; describes real-world applications, from face and fingerprint-based user recognition, to biometrics-based electronic documents, and biometric systems employing smart cards; reviews the ethical implications of the ubiquity of biometrics in everyday life, and its impact on human dignity; provides guidance on best practices for the processing of biometric data within a legal framework.

Biometric recognition-the automated recognition of individuals based on their behavioral and biological characteristic-is promoted as a way to help identify terrorists, provide better control of access to physical facilities and financial accounts, and increase the efficiency of access to services and their utilization. Biometric recognition has been applied to identification of criminals, patient tracking in medical informatics, and the personalization of social services, among other things. In spite of substantial effort, however, there remain unresolved questions about the effectiveness and management of systems for biometric recognition, as well as the appropriateness and societal impact of their use. Moreover, the general public has been exposed to biometrics largely as high-technology gadgets in spy thrillers or as fear-instilling instruments of state or corporate surveillance in speculative fiction. Now, as biometric technologies appear poised for broader use, increased concerns about national security and the tracking of individuals as they cross borders have caused passports, visas, and border-crossing records to be linked to biometric data. A focus on fighting insurgencies and terrorism has led to the military deployment of biometric tools to enable recognition of individuals as friend or foe. Commercially, finger-imaging sensors, whose cost and physical size have been reduced, now appear on many laptop personal computers, handheld devices, mobile phones, and other consumer devices. Biometric Recognition: Challenges and Opportunities addresses the issues surrounding broader implementation of this technology, making two main points: first, biometric recognition systems are incredibly complex, and need to be addressed as such. Second, biometric recognition is an inherently probabilistic endeavor. Consequently, even when the technology and the system in which it is embedded are behaving as designed, there is inevitable uncertainty and risk of error. This book elaborates on these themes in detail to provide policy makers, developers, and researchers a comprehensive assessment of biometric recognition that examines current capabilities, future possibilities, and the role of government in technology and system development.

This book showcases the technologies and algorithms being used for human authentication and recognition. Examining the full range of biometrics solutions, including unimodal and multimodal biometrics, the book covers conventional biometric techniques as well as novel systems developed over the past few years. It includes coverage of new biometric algorithms with novel feature extraction techniques, new computer vision approaches, soft computing approaches, and machine learning techniques under a unified framework used in biometrics systems. The text includes model question papers, mathematical notations, and exercises to reinforce understanding.

Security and authentication issues are surging to the forefront of the research realm in global society. As technology continues to evolve, individuals are finding it easier to infiltrate various forums and facilities where they can illegally obtain information and access. By implementing biometric authentications to these forums, users are able to prevent attacks on their privacy and security. Biometrics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a multi-volume publication highlighting critical topics related to access control, user identification, and surveillance technologies. Featuring emergent research on the issues and challenges in security and privacy, various forms of user authentication, biometric applications to image processing and computer vision, and security applications within the field, this publication is an ideal reference source for researchers, engineers, technology developers, students, and security specialists.

Many governments around the world are calling for the use of biometric systems to provide crucial societal functions, consequently making it an urgent area for action. The current performance of some biometric systems in terms of their error rates, robustness, and system security may prove to be inadequate for large-scale applications to process millions of users at a high rate of throughput. This book focuses on fusion in biometric systems. It discusses the present level, the limitations, and proposed methods to improve performance. It describes the fundamental concepts, current research, and security-related issues. The book will present a computational perspective, identify challenges, and cover new problem-solving strategies, offering solved problems and case studies to help with reader comprehension and deep understanding. This book is written for researchers, practitioners, both undergraduate and post-graduate students, and those working in various engineering fields such as Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, Electronics, and Communications.