Biometric Systems

• Explain concrete biometric models introduced in the course
• Analyse the suitability of biometric models for a given scenario
• Use the biometric ingredients of existing systems to obtain a given security goal
• Indicate the potential limitations biometric ingredeints in existing systems for achieving a given security goal
• Judge the appropriateness of proposals in research papers and text books for a given application
• Design a biometric solution for a given application scenario
• The students should be able to achieve the above goals in a group effort while maintaining individual accountability
• The student should be able to communicate his/her results in a clear and precise manner

Authentication of individuals based on the biological and behavioural characteristics such as the face, the iris or fingerprints is a promising research domain. Biometric algorithms allow the recognition of individuals in physical or logical access control systems and thus provide an efficient and convenient alternative to knowledge based or token based systems.

The lecture covers the most important mechanisms in today’s commercial biometric systems: Face recognition, iris recognition and fingerprint recognition. The course covers sensors, biometric image processing, feature extraction and classification methods. Furthermore evaluation schemes for biometric systems will be discussed such as biometric performance testing and security testing. The lecture will also map data privacy principles to the biometric system design process.

The complementary seminar extends the content of the lecture with topics on current application areas. Theses topics are researched and analysed. Specific Focus is given on applications that are specific for the European data privacy culture .
Furthermore the seminar will discuss interoperability issues and international standardization in the field.
The seminar will address selected topics from current biometric research regarding 3D face recognition, biometric sample quality, multimodal biometrics and biometric template protection (e.g. www.3dface.org)

02239/02502, The course assumes basic knowledge of computer security and students may also benefit from a basic understanding of image analysis.

Lectures and individual projects.

The course is given by professor Christoph Busch from the Hochschule Darmstadt/Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphic Research (IGD) in Darmstadt, Germany