Chapter-1

INTRODUCTION TO BIOMETRICS

1.1 WHAT IS BIOMETRICS?

Automated measurement of Physiological and/or behavioral characteristics to determine or

authenticate identity is known as Biometrics [5]. Three components of above definition will
determine what is and what is not a biometric and also its different types and functionalities. Let’s
start with the First component of the definition: “Automated measurement”, which means no
human intervention or involvement is required. Biometrics are automated in as much as the
processes involved in sample acquisition, feature extraction, record retrieval, and algorithm-based
matching are computerized or machine-based. Also the record retrieval and comparison against
another measurement must take place in Real- Time. So for an instance, DNA sampling is NOT a
biometric measurement because today it still requires human intervention and it’s NOT done in
real time. The second component of the definition: “Physiological and/or behavioral
characteristics”, determine the two main biometric categories: behavioral and physiological. The
behavioral characteristics measure the movement of a user, when users walk, speak, type on a
keyboard or sign their name. The physiological characteristics would be the physical human traits
like fingerprints, hand shape, eyes and face, veins, etc., and the last component of the definition is
“determine or authenticate identity”, which categorizes the two types of biometric
functionalities[5]. The first type is identification systems or the systems that answer the question
who am I? and determine the identity of a person. The second type is verification systems or
systems that answer the question, am I who I claim to be? and authenticate a person.

An example of an Identification System using biometrics would be: You approach an ATM with
NO card, NO claimed identity, NO PIN. The ATM scans your iris and determines who you are
and gives you access to your money.

An example of a Verification System using biometrics would be: You approach an ATM and swipe
a card or enter an account number. The ATM scans your iris and uses it as a password to
authenticate you are the rightful owner of the card and therefore give you access to your money.
1.2 USAGE OF BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY MINIMIZES
RISKS
 The person, who has my office id card, can…
 The person, who has my house key, can…
 The person, who knows my password, can…
 The person, who knows the pin number of my credit card, can…
 The person, who is able to forge my signature, can…
 The person, who steals my passport, can…

1.3 BIOMETRICS - SECURITY & CONVENIENCE

Fig-1.1 Threats in various security systems

Biometrics is more convenient and secure than other security methods like key, ID card, PIN code
etc., because someone can lose the key or ID card and may forget the PIN codebut in case of
Biometrics where your body part or the some of your behaviour is your identity which you cannot
lose or forget. Even the palm vein patterns of identical twins don’t match. Also no human is
involved and the system is fully automated so chances of biasing or misuse of the identity is
minimized. Also biometric features of an individual cannot be copied easily with perfection.
1.4 BIOMETRIC FEATURES
 It becomes obsolete to beware passwords safely or to remember to all of them.
 Abuse of stolen id cards and passports will be reduced enormously.
 Abuse of stolen credit cards will be prevented.
 Taking over foreign identities will be impossible.
 Building access right to people without the right of admittance will be prevented.
 Access to devices/computers will be not possible for persons without the right of
admittance.
 Unnecessary costs will be drastically reduced.
 Level of common convenience and safety will grow.

1.5 DIFFERENT BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGIES

 Voice Print Technology
 Finger/palm Print Technology
 Face Recognition Technology
 Iris Scan Technology
 Retina Scan Technology
 Ear shape recognition Technology
 Dynamic Signature Recognition (DSR)
 Typing Pattern Technology
 Gait Recognition Technology
 Palm Vein Technology
 Chapter-2
PALM VEIN TECHNOLOGY REVIEWS

2.1 THE BASIS OF PALM VEIN TECHNOLOGY

Every individual have unique pattern of Palm veins, so the palm vein pattern is used to authenticate
some individual’s identity. The process of authentication and registration is discussed in next
topics. An individual first rests his wrist, and on some devices, the middle of his fingers, on the
sensor's supports such that the palm is held centimetres above the device's scanner, which flashes
a near-infrared ray on the palm [6]. Unlike the skin, through which near-infrared light passes,
deoxygenated haemoglobin in the blood flowing through the veins absorbs near-infrared rays,
illuminating the haemoglobin, causing it to be visible to the scanner.

Fig-2.1 Palm vein scanning

Arteries and capillaries, whose blood contains oxygenated haemoglobin, which does not absorb
near-infrared light, are invisible to the sensor. The still image captured by the camera, which
photographs in the near-infrared range, appears as a black network, reflecting the palm's vein
pattern against the lighter background of the palm. An individual's palm vein image is converted
by algorithms into data points, which is then compressed, encrypted, and stored by the software
and registered along with the other details in his profile as a reference for future comparison. Then,
each time a person logs in attempting to gain access by a palm scan to a particular bank account
or secured entryway, etc., the newly captured image is likewise processed and Numbers and
positions of veins and their crossing points are all compared and, depending on verification, the
person is either granted or denied access.compared to the registered one or to the bank of stored
files for verification, all in a period of seconds.

2.2 REGISTERING THROUGH P.V.T.

STEP 1: Palm vein authentication technology consists of a small Palm vein scanner that's easy
and natural to use, fast and highly accurate. Simply hold your palm a few centimetres over the
scanner.

Fig-2.2 A view from scanning device

STEP 2: Scanner makes use of a special characteristic of the reduced haemoglobin coursing
through the palm veins; it absorbs near-infrared light. This makes it possible to take a snapshot of
what’s beneath the outer skin, something very hard to read or steal.

Fig-2.3 View of palm pattern at various stages of registering palm vein pattern
STEP 3: The integrated optical system in the palm vein sensor uses this phenomenon to generate
an image of the palm vein pattern and the generated image is digitized, encrypted and finally stored
as a registered template in the database.

2.3 WORKING OF PALM VEIN TECHNOLOGY

Once the palm vein pattern is registered in the system, user can authenticate him/herself in the
system. The working of Palm Vein Technology is described in following steps [2].
STEP 1: Hold your palm over the palm vein image sensor and camera which will take the snapshot
of palm.

Fig-2.4 Palm vein image sensor and palm image captured.

STEP 2: Now palm image is processed and digitalized with the help of algorithm implemented in
the system

Fig-2.5 Magnified view of palm vein pattern. [4]

STEP 3: This digitalized image is matched with the previously stored database and
authenticates user identity.

2.4 PERFORMANCE METRICS OF BIOMETRIC SYSTEM

FALSE ACCEPTANCE RATE (FAR)

The probability that the system incorrectly matches the input pattern to a non-matching
template in the database. It measures the percent of invalid inputs which are incorrectly
accepted [5].

FALSE REJECTION RATE (FRR)

The probability that the system fails to detect a match between the input pattern and a matching
template in the database. It measures the percent of valid inputs which are incorrectly rejected [5].

EQUAL ERROR RATE OR CROSSOVER ERROR RATE (EER OR CER)

The rate at which both accept and reject errors are equal. The value of the EER can be easily
obtained from the ROC curve [5]. The EER is a quick way to compare the accuracy of devices
with different ROC curves. In general, the device with the lowest EER is most accurate. Obtained
from the ROC plot by taking the point where FAR and FRR have the same value. The lower the
EER, the more accurate the system is considered to be.

RELATIVE OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS OR RECEIVER OPERATING

CHARACTERISTICS (ROC)

The ROC plot is a visual characterization of the trade-off between the FAR and the FRR. In
general, the matching algorithm performs a decision based on a threshold which determines how
close to a template the input needs to be for it to be considered a match[5]. If the threshold is
reduced, there will be less false non-matches but more false accepts. Correspondingly, a higher
threshold will reduce the FAR but increase the FRR.
A common variation is the Detection error trade-off (DET), which is obtained using normal deviate
scales on both axes. This more linear graph illuminates the differences for higher performances
(rarer errors).

Fig-2.6 Receiver operating characteristics (graph between FRR and FAR).

Fig-2.7 Graph showing EER identification by plotting FAR and FRR on same graph. [5]
FAILURE TO ENROL RATE (FTE OR FER)

The rate at which attempts to create a template from an input is unsuccessful [5]. This is
most commonly caused by low quality inputs.

FAILURE TO CAPTURE RATE (FTC)

Within automatic systems, the probability that the system fails to detect a biometric input
when presented correctly [5].

TEMPLATE CAPACITY
The maximum number of sets of data which can be stored in the system.

2.5 HOW SECURE IS THE TECHNOLOGY ?

On the basis of testing the technology on more than 70,000 individuals , Fujitsu
declared that the new system had a FRR of 0.01% FAR of 0.00008% . Also, if your
profile is registered with your right hand, don't log in with your left - the patterns of an
individual's two hands differ. And if you registered your profile as a child , it'll still be
recognized as you grow, as an individual's patterns of veins are established in uterus
(before birth). No two people in the world share a palm vein pattern, even those of
identical twins differ. In addition the device ability to perform personal authentication
was verified using the following:

1. Data from people ranging from 6 to 85 years old including people in various
occupations in accordance with the demographics realized by the Statistics Canter
of the Statistics Bureau.
2. Data about foreigners living in Japan in accordance with the world demographics
released by the United Nations.

3. Data taken in various situations in daily life including after drinking alcohol, taking bath, going
outside and waking up.
2.6 FEATURES OF PALM VEIN TECHNOLOGY

1. The human palm vein pattern is extremely complex and it shows a huge number
of vessels.
2. The biometric information is located inside the human body, and therefore it is
protected against forgery and manipulation.
3. The position of the palm vein vessels remain the same for the whole life and its pattern is
absolutely unique.
4. The enrolment of the palm vein pattern can be done without any physical contact
to the sensor.
5. Skin colour, skin dirtying, surface wounds, skin humidity, skin temperature, aging
do not have major influence to enrol and to authenticate the palm vein pattern
correctly.
6. Palm Secure is based on a near infrared method, and it has no negative influence
to the health.
7. Since it is contact less and uses infrared beam, it is more hygienic.

2.7 WHAT HAPPENS IF THE REGISTERED PALM GETS DAMAGED?

There may be a chance that the palm we had registered may get damaged then we cannot
use this technology, so during the time of registration we take the veins of both the hands
so that if one gets damaged we can access through the second hand. When hand get
damaged up to large extent we can get veins because deeper into the hand veins are
obtained.

Fig-2.8 registering vein pattern of both palms simulteniously.

 Chapter-3
PALM VEIN PATTERN EXTRACTION

Palm Vein Technology uses different algorithms and programmes for different stages of the
technology [6]. Also different algorithms are proposed for same processes like ICP (Iterative
Closest Point), P2PM (Point to Point Matching), SMM (Similarity based Mixed Matching) etc.
which we will discuss in next chapter. Usually, in the image-based biometric systems, a number
of pre-processing tasks are required prior to enhance the image quality, such as: contrast,
brightness, edge information, noise removal, sharpen image, etc, furthermore, to produce a better
quality of image that will be used on the later stage as an input image and assuring that relevant
information can be detected. Actually, the better quality of image will gain the better accuracy rate
to the biometric system itself. In this paper we propose three required pre-processing tasks which
are as follow:

1. Vascular pattern marker algorithm

2. Vascular pattern extraction algorithm
3. Vascular pattern thinning algorithm

After vascular pattern thinning, extracted image is matched with the previously stored database,
for which various algorithm are used which are to be discussed in next chapter. Here we will
discuss the palm vein pattern extraction [6].

3.1 VASCULAR PATTERN MARKER ALGORITHM

1. Open Near-Infrared Palm Image File in input mode.

2. Convert the Loaded Image into Planar Image.
3. Set the Horizontal and Vertical kernels (3 x 3), respectively as follow:
1 0 -1 1 3 1
3 0 -3 0 0 0
1 0 -1 3x3 -1 -3 -1 3x3
4. Generated Planar Image in Step2, is passed through kernels created in
Step3.
5. Modified fine-grained Planar Image is stored into another
Greyscale Image File.
6. Close all Image file(s).

Here we are considering monochrome binary Image, two-pass masking is used, namely,
Horizontal and Vertical kernels. The Planar Image now passed through these masks or kernels.
Resultant transformed Image generates the distinct marks of Vascular Pattern; the
process is Smoothing the Image [6].

3.2 VASCULAR PATTERN EXTRACTION ALGORITHM

a. Open resultant Greyscale Image File from Vascular Pattern Marker Algorithm, in input mode
b. Open Binary Image File in output mode
c. While not End of File
d. Loop
e. Read pixel intensity value
f. If pixel intensity value lies in between 20 and 130, then
g. Convert the intensity value to 0 (black)
h. Else
i. Convert the intensity value to 255 (white)
j. End if
k. Write the intensity value to Binary Image
l. End Loop
m. Close all Image Files

Thresholding is an image processing technique for converting a greyscale or colour image to a

binary image based upon a threshold value. If a pixel in the image has an intensity value less than
the threshold value, the corresponding pixel in the resultant image is set to black. Otherwise, if the
pixel intensity value is greater than or equal to the threshold intensity, the resulting pixel is set to
white. Thus, creating a binarized image, or an image with only two colours, black (0) and white
(255). Image thresholding is very useful for keeping the significant part of an image and getting
rid of the unimportant part or noise. This holds true under the assumption that a reasonable
threshold value is chosen. In our case the threshold range is taken 20 to 130. Threshold range may
vary but a large range results into higher EER [6].

3.3 VASCULAR PATTERN THINNING ALGORITHM

a. Open the Resultant Binary Image File generated from Vascular Pattern Extraction Algorithm,
in input mode
b. Read each pixel intensity value and stored into corresponding location of a 2dimensional Matrix
c. Matrix processing as following steps:
int rows = Image Width, columns = Image Height;

for(int i = 0; i < rows; ++i)

{
for(int j = 0; j < columns; ++j)
{
if((i==0) || (j==0) || (i==(rows-1)) || (j==(columns-1)))
matrix[i][j] = -1;
}
}
for(int r = 1; r < rows-1; r++)
{
for(int c = 1; c < columns-1; c++)
{
if((matrix[r][c] != -1))
{
if (((matrix[r][c+1] != -1) || (matrix[r][c-1] != -1))
&&((matrix[r+1][c] != -1) || (matrix[r-1][c] != -1)))
{
matrix[r][c] = -1 ;
}
}
}
}
for(int r = 1; r < rows-1; r++)
{
for(int c = 1; c < columns-1; c++)
{
if((matrix[r][c] != -1))
{
if(((matrix[r][c-1] == -1)) && ((matrix[r][c+1] == -1)))
{
if(((matrix[r-1][c] == -1)) && ((matrix[r+1][c] == -1)))
{
matrix[r][c] = -1;
}
}
}
}
}
d. Write the 2 Dimensional Matrixes into a Binary Image File.
e. Close all Image Files
Generated Binary Image is stored in the Image Database. For each individual one or multiple
images are required to be stored. More Images for an individual are desired for perfect
Identification of the corresponding individual in future. Thinning is done for capturing the
Vascular Pattern of hand Palm of an individual.

3.4 PALM VEIN EXTRACTION (Mathematical approach)

In the above sections, we have discussed about the programming algorithm part of palm vein
extraction process. Here we will discuss the mathematical approach for the palm vein extraction.
For palm vein extraction generally Multiscale Gaussian Matched filter is used. Details of this
method including mathematical equations are as follows:
Fig 3.1(a) shows an infrared image of a palm, which contains palm vein information. ROI (with a
fixed size of 128*128 pixels) is extracted according to the two key points between fingers, as
shown in Fig 3.1(b). There may be different ways to select ROI for different devices [7].

Fig-3.1 (a) an infrared palm image; (b) ROI extraction.

After ROI is extracted, a Multiscale Gaussian Matched filter was used to extract the structure
information of palm vein. Since the cross-sections of palm veins are Gaussianshaped lines, it is
natural to choose a Gaussian Matched filter to extract palm vein [7]. The Gaussian Matched filter
was defined as (3.1), where
g(x,y) = Gaussian filter function
ϕ = filter direction,
σ = standard deviation of Gaussian,
m = mean value of the filter,
L = length of the filter in y direction.
S = scale to reduce the window size
.
Fig 3.2 Palm vein extraction.(a) ROI; (b)&(c) response of match filter at different scales

To reduce noise in the matched filter responses, a multiscale scheme is adopted. In this scheme,
the scale s is used to regulate size of the filter window: |x '| ≤ 3sσx, |y'| ≤ sL/2. By using two
different scales, we can get two different filter responses. And it has been proved that the
production of two filter responses at different scales can greatly reduce the noise.

Fig 3.2 (d) scale production of (b),(c); (e) binarized image of (d); (f) thinned image of (e).[7]

After a low-noise palm vein image is obtained, some post processing operations such as binarizing
and thinning are applied. Fig-3.2 shows an example of the Multiscale Gaussian Matched filter
responses and palm vein extraction of an infrared palm image.
 Chapter-4
PALM VEIN PATTERN MATCHING

In the previous chapter we have discussed about the extraction of palm vein pattern by infrared
imaging using infrared sensors and also discussed about the different algorithms used in palm vein
extraction. In this chapter we will discuss the next process in the palm vein authentication system
i.e. mathematical algorithms for different pre-processes and comparison among the different
matching algorithms like ICP (Iterative Closest Point), P2PM (Point to Point Matching), SMM
(Similarity based Mixed Matching) etc. Also differences, drawbacks and advantaged of them will
be discussed.

4.1 PALM VEIN MATCHING BY ICP ALGORITHM

Matching is very important for palm vein recognition. Here we introduce a new palm vein
matching method based on ICP algorithm. The key step of ICP algorithm is to get the proper
rotation R and translation T to align two point-sets from different coordinate systems [7]. This can
be done by using optimization analytic methods, such as Singular Value Decomposition (SVD)
method. For two point-sets P and Q, SVD method tries to find the proper R and T so as to minimize
the total error of this transformation:

Let p and q be the centroids of the point-sets P and Q, respectively. And let

Denote H as

Let U and V be the SVD matrix of H, then it can be proved that the rotation R is:
R = VUT (4.4)
And the translation T can be obtained by:
T = q − Rp (4.5)
Let two point sets P and Q be the two palm vein images to be matched. These two palm vein
images are represented by their respective pixel-sets:

Let Pk be the point-set P in the k-th iteration, and Qk is the set of the points in Q which are
corresponding to Pk in the k-th iteration. The procedures of our algorithm are summarized as
follows.

4.2 ALGORITHM BASED ON ICP METHOD

Begin
do
1: For every point pi in P , find the closest point qi in Q. And for every point qi in
Q find the closest point pi in P. Save the pairs of points which are closest to each
other.
2: Calculate the distances of those point pairs obtained in step 1, and remove the
point pairs whose distance is larger than a prescribed threshold.
3: Calculate the rotation Rk and translation Tk using ICP method.
4: Update
Pk+1 = { Pi
k+1 | Pi
k+1 = RkPi
k + Tk, Pi
k ∈ Pk }
5: Let C be the size of the point pairs obtained in step 1. If C does not increase,
then calculate the matching score: Score = 2*C/(A+B); otherwise go back to step
1 and repeat.
While (The value of Score is larger than a prescribed small threshold or less than a
prescribed large threshold; or the iterative number doesn’t reach the maximal
number N)
Return the matching score of P and Q.
End

Two thresholds are set on the value of Score: a small threshold and a large threshold. If the Score
in step 5 is less than the small threshold, then we believe those two images are determinately not
from the same palm; if the score is larger than the large threshold, we consider that those two
images must be from the same palm; in other cases, we cannot give a certain decision, so we use
a prescribed iteration times to end the algorithm. It should be noted that all the thresholds in the
algorithm are tuned according to a subset of our database, and the algorithm iterates till no more
correspondences can be found. The proposed matching method can efficiently solve the problem
of rotation and translation which may have great effect on other matching methods.

4.3 POINT TO POINT MATCHING METHOD

The point-to-point matching (P2PM) method is the most popular method in template matching.
This method matches two images through logical “exclusive or” operation [7]. Let A and B be the
two binarized images, then their matching score S(A,B) is calculated as:

Where A and B have the same size m x n. Though this method has many advantages such as low
complexity, it suffers from the problem of rotation and translation. Hence P2PM method cannot
get high accuracy. The authors tried to overcome rotation and shift problem by translating the
matching template vertically and horizontally. However, they cannot solve the problem
thoroughly, especially the rotation problem. The input of P2PM method is binarized images instead
of thinned images. We have tested the performance of P2PM on the thinned images and found that
P2PM got much lower accuracy. The reason is that thinned images lose much information which
may be useful for template matching. To overcome these limitations, we improve P2PM and give
another template matching method, which is called Similarity-based Mix Matching (SMM)
method. This method is discussed in brief in next topic.

4.4 SIMILARITY-BASED MIX MATCHING

The idea of this matching method can be summarized as follows: Denote Img1 and Img2 as two
binarized images, and Thin1 and Thin2 as their thinned images respectively[7]. Let S1, S2 be the
matching score of (Img1 and Thin2), (Img2 and Thin1) respectively. Then the matching score of
Img1 and Img2 is (S1+S2)/2. We define the matching score of a binarized image and a thinned
image as.

where I is the binarized image, H is the thinned image, H’ is a sub-image of H which takes part in
the matching. Experiments show that the perform ance of SMM is much better than P2PM. But it
still has trouble with the rotation problem. In some situations, P2PM method and SMM method
would give wrong judgments, especially when the rotation is large. Fig. 12(a) and (d) are two palm
vein images from the same palm, where (d) is obtained by rotating (a) for 18 degrees clockwise.
The matching scores calculated by the above three methods are listed in Table 1. From the results
of these three matching experiments, we can see that only our method (denoted as ICPM) can
decide that (a) and (d) are from the same palm when the rotation is large.
Fig-4.1 An example. (a) ROI; (b)binarized image; (c)thinned image; (d) an image obtained by
rotating picture (a) for 18 degrees clockwise; (e)&(f)similar meaning as (b)&(c) respectively. [7]

4.5 EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS

The experiments are based on a palm vein database which includes 6000 images from 500 different
palms (12 samples for each palm). These images are captured by a self designed and low cost near
infrared CCD camera. The process of a matching experiment includes several steps: palm vein
extraction, matching and decision-making. In the following experiments, Equal error rate (EER)
is used to measure the performance of every method. EER is a classical criterion to evaluate a
biometric system or algorithm [7]. It is the rate at which both false acceptance rate (FAR) and false
rejection rate (FRR) are equal. The lower the EER is, the better the system’s performance is.
Firstly, the methods LHD and MHD which are used in hand vein matching are tested on a small
database, which is a subset of the large database described above, contains 1000 images from 100
different palms (10 images for each palm). The experiment results show that the EERs of LHD
and MHD are higher than 5%. The EERs of LHD method are both 0, but their databases are small,
which only contain 270 and 108 images respectively, and the quality of hand vein images is better
than palm vein images, since they used more expensive cameras. The EER of MHD in is 0 too.
The reasons are similar as above, the testing database only has hand vein images from 47 people,
and the images were captured by an expensive infrared thermal camera. Besides, the line features
and minutiae features are very sensitive to the image noise, rotation and shift. Secondly, to
compare the performance of P2PM, SMM and ICPM, the database is divided into two non-
overlapping groups: gallery and probe group. The gallery group includes 500 images, where each
palm provides one image. The probe group includes the rest of 5500 images. In the following
experiments, each image in probe group is compared with all of the images in the gallery group.
Hence, there would be 500×5500=2,750,000 times of matching. A
successful matching is called intra-class matching or genuine if the two samples are from the same
class (i.e. the same palm). Otherwise, the unsuccessful matching is called interclass matching or
impostor.

Fig 4.2 Experiment results: (a) ROC curves of the P2PM, SMM and ICPM.

Fig-4.2(a) gives the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves for the P2PM, SMM and
ICPM methods respectively. From this figure, we can find that the ICPM method hasmuch higher
accuracy than P2PM and SMM since for every same false accept rate, ICPM has higher genuine
rate than the other two methods.
 Fig-4.2 Experiment results: (b) Similarity distribution of the ICPM method. [7]
Fig 4.2(b) plots the curve of Genuine and Impostor similarity distribution for the ICPM method.
The distribution curves help to set up a threshold to separate the genuine from the impostor. The
threshold value is obtained from the intersect point of these two curves. So the less these two
curves overlap, the lower EER the corresponding method has. Table 2 lists the detail comparison
of these three methods. It can be seen that the proposed ICPM method has the lowest EER. The
P2PM method is achieved 98.8% recognition rate where the false acceptance rate is 5.5%. Authors
got 99% recognition rate where the FAR is 6%~7%. According to the experiment results, the ICPM
method can operate at genuine acceptance rate (GAR) of 99.41% while the corresponding false
acceptance rate is 0.53%.
Table 1: Results of three matching experiments [7].
Score Threshold Decision

P2PM 0.69725 <0.28000 Wrong

SSM 0.28430 >0.33000 Wrong

ICPM 0.80000 >0.28000 Right

 Table 2: Detail comparison of the three methods [7].
FAR FFR EER

P2PM 1.885% 3.473% 2.679%

SSM 0.607 0.673% 0.639%

ICPM 0.533% 0.582% 0.577%

4.6 CONCLUSION

From the results of above experiments, we can see that ICPM is better than all the other
methods. It comes from the fact that ICPM can effectively and accurately correct the
rotation and shift variations between palm vein images, which consequently improves the
accuracy of palm vein verification. So most of the Palm Secure devices use ICPM.

Chapter-5
COMPARISON WITH OTHER BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGIES

In this chapter we will compare the palm vein technology with biometric technologies. Also
limitations and advantages of these biometric technologies are discussed in this chapter.

5.1 VOICE PRINT

Voice verification is a biometric authentication technology well suited for applications and
systems in which other biometric technologies would be difficult or inconvenient to implement.
This form of biometric is most often deployed in environments where the voice is already captured,
such as telephony and call centres. Making use of distinctive qualities of a person's voice, some of
which are behaviourally determined and others of which are physiologically determined; voice
verification is typically deployed in such areas as home improvement and security, banking
account access, home PC, network access, and many others [8]. Some of the key advantages and
disadvantages for voice recognition technology are listed below:

Fig-5.1 Voice print. [8]

ADVANTAGES
o Easy to use and requires no special training or equipment.
o Relatively inexpensive compared to other biometrics.
o Consumers prefer to use voiceprints over other biometric technology for
identification according to a Chase bank’s research study.

DISADVANTAGES
o When processing a person’s voice over multiple channels such a microphone and
then over a telephone reduces the recognition rate.
o Physical conditions of the voice, such as those due to sickness, affect the voice
verification process.
o Environment noise reduces the overall accuracy and effectiveness of the
recognition.
o The storage requirement for voiceprint database can be very large.
o A person’s voice changes over time.
o FRR is high because of that sometimes users are required to input the data or
speak 2-3 times, hence speed is much slower.
5.2 FINGER/PALM PRINT

A fingerprint usually appears as a series of dark lines that represent the high, peaking portion of
the friction ridge skin, while the valleys between these appears as white space and are the low,
shallow portion of the friction ridge skin[9]. Fingerprint identification is based primarily on the
minutiae, or the location and direction of the ridge endings and bifurcations along a ridge path.
The images below presents examples of the other detailed characteristics sometimes used during
the automatic classification and minutiae extraction processes.

ADVANTAGES
o Since fingerprints are the composition of protruding sweat glands, everyone has
unique fingerprints. They do not change naturally.
o Its reliability and stability is higher compared to the iris, voice, and face
recognition method.
o Fingerprint recognition Fig-5.2 Finger prints. [9] equipment is relatively low-
priced compared to other biometric system and R&D investments are very robust
in this field.

DISADVANTAGES
o Vulnerable to noise and distortion brought on by dirt and twists.
o Some people may feel offended about placing their fingers on the same place where
many other people have continuously touched.
o Some people have damaged or eliminated fingerprints.
 o Since users have to touch the sensing device, so it gets damaged on scratches on it
and that’s why the FFR increases with increased used of device.

5.3 FACE RECOGNITION

Every face has numerous, distinguishable landmarks, the different peaks and valleys that
make up facial features. It defines these landmarks as nodal points. Each human face has
approximately 80 nodal points. Some of these measured by the software are:
o Distance between the eyes
o Width of the nose
o Depth of the eye sockets
o The shape of the cheekbones
o The length of the jaw line

Fig-5.3 Nodal points and Face print. [10]

These nodal points are measured creating a numerical code, called a face print, representing the
face in the database [10]. The face print obtained from scanning is then matched with existing
database for authentication. This technology faces many problems but it is quite accurate.

ADVANTAGES
o Non intrusive, privacy cannot be invaded easily.
o Cheap technology.
o It requires small data base.
DISADVANTAGES

o 2D recognition is affected by changes in lighting, the person’s hair, the age, and if
the person wear glasses.
o It also depends on orientation/angle of user’s face with camera.
o Requires camera equipment for user identification; thus, it is not likely to
becomepopular until most PCs include good resolution cameras as standard
equipment.
o Even the expressions on the face also affect the recognition process. For example:
in Canada passport size photo with neutral face expression are accepted.
o High FRR.

5.4 IRIS SCAN

Iris recognition is the process of recognizing a person by analyzing the random pattern of the iris.
The iris muscle within the eye regulates the size of the pupil, controlling the amount of light that
enters the eye [8]. It is the coloured portion of the eye with colouring based on the amount of
melatonin pigment within the muscle. Although the colouration and structure of the iris is
genetically linked, the details of the patterns are not. The iris develops during prenatal growth
through a process of tight forming and folding of the tissue membrane. Prior to birth, degeneration
occurs, resulting in the pupil opening and random, unique patterns of the iris.
ADVANTAGES
o Very high accuracy.
o Verification time is generally less than 5 seconds.
o The eye from a dead person would deteriorate too fast to be useful, so no extra
precautions have to been taken with retinal scans to be sure the user is a living
human being.

Fig-5.4 Iris and Iris pattern of human eye. [8

DISADVANTAGES
o Intrusive.
o A lot of memory for the data to be stored.
o Very expensive.
o Difficult to use because of positioning eye.
o Requires more time for matching with database stored.

5.5 RETINA SCAN

The human retina is a thin tissue composed of neural cells that is located in the posterior of the
complex structure of the capillaries that supply the retina with blood; each person's retina is unit
ion of the eye. The network of blood vessels in the retina is so complex that even identical twins
do not share a similar pattern [8]. A biometric identifier known as a retinal scan is used to map the
unique patterns of a person's retina. The blood vessels within the retina absorb light more readily
than the surrounding tissue and are easily identified with appropriate lighting. A retinal scan is
performed by casting an unperceived beam of low-energy infrared light into a person’s eye as they
look through the scanner's eyepiece. This beam of light traces a standardized path on the retina.
Because retinal blood vessels are more absorbent of this light than the rest of the eye, the amount
of reflection varies during the scan. The pattern of variations is converted to computer code and
stored in a database.

Fig-5.5 Retina and its pattern. [8]

ADVANTAGES
o Very high accuracy.
o Low occurrence of false positives
o Extremely low (almost 0%) false negative rates
o Highly reliable because no two people have the same retinal pattern
o There is no known way to replicate a retina.
o The eye from a dead person would deteriorate too fast to be useful, so no extra
precautions have to been taken with retinal scans to be sure the user is a living
human being.

DISADVANTAGES
o It has the stigma of consumer's thinking it is potentially harmful to the eye.
o Comparisons of template records can take upwards of 10 seconds, depending on
the size of the database.
o Measurement accuracy can be affected by a disease such as cataracts.
o Measurement accuracy can also be affected by severe astigmatism.
o Scanning procedure is perceived by some as invasive
o Not very user friendly.
o Subject being scanned must be close to the camera optics.
o High equipment costs.

Table-3: Comparison with other technologies based on FRR and FAR

Technology FAR FRR

Palm vein 0.00008 % 0.01 %

Finger print 1-2 % 3%

Iris / Retina 0.0001-0.94 % 0.99-0.2 %

voice 2% 10 %
 Fig-5.6 Graph created from the data in table-3. [2]

5.6 EAR SHAPE

There are specified nodal points on ear and relative position of these nodal points are identical for
every individual. The ear biometric graph model is prepared. Also the convergence and force fields
are defined [11]. On the basis of these field pattern and graph, authentication is performed. If we
use ICP algorithm in this technology, results will be far better because of 3D shape and orientation
of ear. Left and right ears of most of the individual are bilaterally symmetric, but a few have
different shapes of right and left ear.

Fig-5.7 Stages in building the ear biometric graph model. A generalized Voronoi diagram (centre)
of the Canny extracted edge curves (left) is built and a neighbourhood graph
(right) is extracted. [11]
Fig-5.8 Force and convergence fields for an ear. The force field for an ear (left) and its
corresponding convergence field (centre). The force direction field (right) corresponds to the small
rectangular inserts surrounding a potential well on the inner helix. [11]

ADVANTAGES
o Low occurrence of false positives.
o Relatively cheap technology.
o Requires small database.

DISADVANTAGES
o Ear shape changes slightly with weather and atmospheric condition.
o High false rejection rate
o User faces difficulty to position his/her ear for using the device. It requires a little
training.
o It can be invaded easily as the landmark lines and nodal point can be replicated and
liveliness of user cannot be verified.
o Authentication time is comparatively higher.
o Not very user friendly.
o 2D recognition gives very low accuracy while using 3D recognition increases cost.

5.7 DYNAMIC SIGNATURE RECOGNITION (DSR)

In this technology, a digital (touchpad) paper is used. Signature biometrics work by analyzing the
stroke order, the pressure applied and the speed [8]. The signature image is also analyzed. A
scanner is used to record the way a person writes on tablet, and even with a sensored pen. Another
way of capturing a signature biometric is by using ultrasonic sensing. Once the signature is
captured, it is verified against the database.

ADVANTAGES
o Unique for every individual and user himself can decide the identity.
o Lesser false acceptance rate.
o Relatively cheap technology.
o No expert training required.

DISADVANTAGES
o Signature of a person may change after a long time, like if an user gone through an
accident and he cannot use his hand and then he signs after a long time, his sign
and pressure points may change.
o High false rejection rate.
o Pressure points may change because of weather or some disease.
o System can be fooled by imitating
5.8 TYPING PATTERN

This particular biometric identification analyses the way a person types. While the user is
typing a phrase with the keyboard, the biometric system records the timing of the typing.
This usually has to be done a number of times in order to verify that the keystrokes are
distinctive. It is compared against the database to verify and identify the user.
ADVANTAGES
o Relatively cheaper technology to implement.
o User friendly
o Cannot be invaded easily
o Easy to implement
DISADVANTAGES
 o Takes more time for authentication

5.9 GAIT RECOGNITION

Gait is the biometric identification scheme that analyses the way a person walks. Gait technology
works by analyzing the way a person walks and that individual’s surroundings. Photographs and
camera can be used to capture images of the person walking. The images then are compared and
verified against a database. This technology is currently used in hospitals to determine medical
issues. Athletes use gait technology to optimize and improve their performance. This technology
is not used widely for authentication purpose because of very slow authentication process.

ADVANTAGES
o Can be obtained from distance
o Can be used to determine medical illness
o Comparatively cheap technology

DISADVANTAGES
o Can be obtained from distance – invasion of privacy
o System can be fooled by imitating
o Time consuming

Fig-5.9 Comparison on the basis of some basic factors. [12]

 Chapter-6
APPLICATIONS AND BUSINESS

This palm vein authentication technology is used in various areas for more security. The following
are some of the important areas where it is used:

6.1 ATM AND BANKING

In July 2004, to ensure customer security, Suruga bank launched its “Bio Security Deposit” the
world’s first financial service to use Palm Secure . This service features high security for customers
using vein authentication , does not require a bank card or pass book and prevents withdrawals
from branches other than the registered branch and ATMs thereby minimizing the risk of
fraudulent withdrawals. To open a Bio-Security Deposit account, customers go to a bank and have
their palm veins photographed at the counter in order to guarantee secure data management, the
palm vein data is stored only on the vein data base server at the branch office where the account is
opened.
In Oct 2004, The Bank of Tokyo launched its “Super –IC Card”. This card combines the functions
of a bankcard, credit card, electronic money and palm vein authentication. This Super –IC Card
contains the customers palm Vein data and vein Authentication algorithms and reforms vein
Authentication by itself. This system is advantageous because the customer’s information is not
stored at the bank. When a customer applies for a Super –IC Card, the bank sends the card to the
customer’s home. To activate the palm vein authentication function, the customer brings the card
and his passbook and seal to the bank counter where the customers vein information is registered
on the card . After registration the customer can make transactions at that branch counter and ATM
using palm vein authentication and a matching PIN number. PVT is used in 92% of all Japanese
ATMs including 18,000+ ATM machines for Bank of
Tokyo – Mitsubishi.

6.2 PERSONAL COMPUTERS

In personal computers palm vein technology can be applied by inserting the vein sensor inside
mouse or on the keyboard. When power is supplied to system the mouse/keyboard also gets power
and the sensor in the mouse/keyboard will be ready to sense palm veins. When one place his/her
palm the sensor sense the veins and if they are matched with the registered ones the system allows
the person to use it. One can use this technology even to lock folders , that should be maintained
as private information. This technology will be very helpful in protecting data saved in computers
and highly reducing the hacking of password. It can also be used in multiuser computers where
more than one people can use the computer. The users previously having account or login account
in particular computer can access the computer. Also this can be possible over a network like top
secure sites of defence or other corporate sites or accounts where some of the officials can access
the network.

(a)

Fig-6.1 use of PVT (a) in ATM (b) in personal computers. [1]

6.3 IN HOSPITALS AND LIBRARYS

PalmSecure device can also be used in hospitals for doctor and patient’s identification and where
the high level of security is required. In libraries also Palmsecure device may be used in place of
ID cards. Some public libraries are started using this technology. For example, a public library in
Japan is set to become the first in the world to use palm-vein biometrics as a substitute for
conventional library cards. The University of Tokyo hospital has taken delivery of a contactless
palm vein authentication system to secure physical access to its Department of Planning,
Information and Management.
Fig-6.2 PVT used in (a) Library (b) Hospitals for authentication. [13]

6.4 GENERAL AUTHENTICATION

o In front of our homes we can apply this Palm vein technology so that by registering
the veins of our family members and relatives we can maintain high range security
which is not possible through other technologies. Japanese recently used this
technology before front doors and getting high range security.
o Nowadays credit and debit cards lose are very general cases and customers faces
huge lose sometimes. So replacing credit card with palm vein will solve the all
problems.

6.5 USE OF PVT IN OFFICES AND SCHOOLS

Palm vein sensing devices can be used in offices, schools, colleges, universities for
attendance purpose. It also improves the security and prevents any sensitive case.

6.6 OTHER PRODUCT APPLICATIONS

 Management in healthcare
 Access control to medication dispensing
 Identification of doctors and nurses when accessing protected health records
 Patient identification management
 Operator authentication
 Settlement by credit card
 Obtaining various certificates using the Basic Resident Register Card
 Owner authentication
 Retrieval of checked luggage
 Driver authentication
 Attendance authentication
 Checking attendance in schools
 Clocking in and out of the workplace.

6.7 BUSINESS IMPACT

 Although, palm vein technology is quite new but it is creating an impact on market and
 replacing the conventional biometric technologies. It can be seen from the fact that 92%
 ATMs in JAPAN using this technology including TOKYO NATIONAL BANK. Also
 some of public libraries in JAPAN are using palm vein authentication in place of IDcards.
 Even PVT is used at front door of home. Various administrative and customer
 impacts are specified below:

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPACT
 _ Reduces, prevents sensitive financial information breach
 · Prevents law suits
 _ Discourages workplace fraud
 _ Easy to implemented, fast to train
 _ Portability provide off-site access
 · Without sacrifice security
 _ Increases Productivity by
 · Reduces password loss
 · Reduces the need of Technical Help Desk
 CUSTOMER IMPACT
 Leading type of ID theft
 Credit cards
 · Checking/savings accounts
  _ In 2007
 · $45.3 Billion loss ( $5,592 per person)
 · 8.1 Million victims (1 out of 8 American)
 · Reduce company loss
 · Give clients sense of security
 6.8 FUTURE ASPECTS
Fujitsu is the first one to invent the technology. Nowadays only Japan and Korea are the leading
manufacturers of Palm Secure devices. They supply the product mainly in Asia and America. But
because the size of the device needed in various applications is different. For example, some
companies want to incorporate this device in mobile phones and also in laptops and palmtops. So
the size of the device needed for these applications is small. Hence research works are going on to
reduce the size of device. Resolution of image captured depends on ambient light intensity and
temperature. Because these two factors strongly affects the resolution of captured image and hence
the accuracy of the device, so still some improvements are required in the technology and
some progress is going on. In near future these problems are expected to be solved and more
enhanced, accurate and secure device will be manufactured.

MULTIMODAL BIOMETRIC
Error rates are high while using single biometric, so the fusion of two or more biometric
are also used. Mostly palm vein and palm print technologies are used for fusion. This
fused technology is also called multimodal biometric. The error rates decreases to a large
extent. In this technology, separate templates of palm print and palm vein pattern are
taken using sensors and camera and matched with database.

Chapter-7
 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Palm vein technology has comparatively much more positives than negatives. Some of
them are discussed earlier in the report and now we will discuss all in detail.

7.1 ADVANTAGES

1. Palm vein authentication can be done using the vascular pattern on the back of a hand or a finger.
However, the palm vein pattern is the most complex and covers the widest area, because the palm
has no hair, it is easier to photograph its vascular pattern. The palm also has no significant
variations in skin colour compared with fingers or back of the hand, where the colour can darken
in certain areas. Also we can use fusion of two technologies, palm vein and palm print, which will
be more complex and more reliable but costly.
2. Because ICP method is used in this technology so there will be no false rejections or false
acceptance cases because of orientation problem. So FRR and FAR are very low in comparison to
other biometric technologies. So it is more secure and reliable.
3. The completely contactless feature of this device makes it suitable for use where high levels of
hygiene are required. It also eliminates any hesitation people might have about coming into contact
with something that other people have already touched.
4. The vascular pattern of our palm doesn’t change with our growth or age, Even palm vein pattern
is generated before birth. So once you registered the palm vein pattern, you need not to re-register
again anytime in whole life except any critical case of accident. Even in case of accident if palm
is not injured critically, palm vein pattern can be extracted because vein are located deeper inside
the hand. Also at the time of registration you have to register the vein pattern of both the palms,
so if one gets injured other one can be used.
5. Palm vein pattern of any individual cannot be theft. Also since it is contactless, privacy cannot
be invaded.
6. The average-selling price of the standard PalmSecure technology is between $300 and $350.
While this is slightly higher than the average cost of fingerprint biometric technology solutions,
customers are willing to pay the additional premium to receive the wide array of benefits associated
with palm vein biometrics. Fujitsu recently released a scaled-down version of this technology –
Fujitsu PalmSecure LT for SSO, which will retain most of the benefits of the premium product
and yet be priced below $200.

7.2 DISADVANTAGES
The only weaknesses of palm vein biometric system are the different factor that affects
the quality of captured image. Such factors include body temperature, ambient
temperature and humidity, unevenly distribution of heat, heat radiation, and nearness of
the vein to surface and camera calibration and focus. Most of these factors are natural
cause which is difficult to overcome.

Chapter-8
CONCLUSION

After discussing all about the Palm Vein Technology, now we will talk about the technical
specifications of the palm secure device, such as size of sensor used, verification time software
used etc.

8.1 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF DEVIC

Sensor size : 35x35x27 mm
Recording position : 4-6 cm over the Sensor; 0°, 90°, 180° ,270°, 360°
Verification time (1:1) : 1,5 sec
Identification time (1:n) : =/> 3 sec
Template size : 0,8 KB
Amount of templates / person : 2
FAR : 0,000 08%
FRR : 0,01%
Interface : USB 2
Encryption : AES
Software : Device driver for WIN 2000/XP und LINUX, PC Log in
SDK : Template Library SW, Tool & Adjustment, SW Demo SW
Power Supply : <2.5W for sensor, around 5W for CPU
Scan : Contactless, distance to sensor 5cm +/ 1cm, Scanning
method delivers life detection for free
Insensitive : Almost insensitive against ambient light (outdoor use
possible, no direct sunlight or lamp)
Fast enrolment : 10s-20s
I/O interface : Wiegand I/O, system will easily fit in present installations;
Seamless links to video management platform”Cware” and
therefore interacts with CCTV and additional applications
Operating temperature : 0oC to 60oC
Certified : Components are certified by German Federal Office for
Information Security (BSI)

Future proof : Solution can be easily adapted to diverse customer

requirements

8.2 PALMSECURE PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

Here are the details of availability of PalmSecure device in various packages according to
the various requirements. The device is available mainly in three packages as follows:
1. PalmSecure Developer Package (Part number FAT13S1A01)
· 1x PalmSecure Sensor
· 1x PS Hand guide
· 1x PS Direct USB connector
· 1x PS USB cable
· 1x SDK
It is the hardware and software package for OEMs, system integrators and developers.
This is the full package and each and every component required in the device is provided
within this package.
2. PalmSecure Sensor GuideKit (Part number FAT13-SGK)
· 1x PalmSecure Sensor
· 1x PS Hand guide
· 1x PS USB cable
· 1x PC LOG IN SW
This package is for PC Login hardware and software package for enterprises and endusers. In this
package SDK kit is not provided because for PC login users they can install software in their PC
itself.
3. PalmSecure Sensor OEM Set (Part number FAT13M1S1)
· 1x PalmSecure Sensor
It is available as single sensor for integration i.e. for access control.

8.3 CONCLUSION
In this report we have discussed all about Palm Vein Technology. Palm vein technology is the new
face of the biometric. It provides the maximum security as compared to other biometric
technologies because it uses information contained within the body and is also highly accurate
because the pattern of veins in the palm is complex and unique to each individual. It also gives
least FRR, FAR, EER among them. Also verification time is less as compared to other
technologies. Since in this technology ICP method is used which is free from orientation and
rotational problems of the image. Also there is no disadvantage. As discussed earlier, by using
multimodal of fusion of other technology with PVT will make it more secure. Moreover, its
contactless feature gives it a hygienic advantage over other biometric authentication technologies.
This paper also describes some examples of financial solutions and product applications for the
general market that have been developed based on this technology. Many of customers have
favourably evaluated this technology and have experienced no psychological resistance to using
it. This has encouraged manufacturers and developers to start development of new products for
various applications, beginning with financial solutions and followed by access control units and
login units. Manufacturers and developers are working on reducing the size of the device in order
to expand the range of application of the device. Fujitsu is continuing the work on reducing the
size and improving the technology so that it can be more secure and have lesser FAR, FRR and
EER.
REFERENCES
1. “Palm SecureTM” by Thomas Bengs, product manager EMEA.
2. “Biometric security - Fujitsu Palm Vein Technology” by Bao Nguyen, Henrik
Nilsen, Yoonjin Kim (Information Technology Department NNK Investment &
Banking).
3. White Paper –“Palm Vein Authentication”. 2006 Fujitsu Computer Products for
America, Inc,
4. “Analysis of Palm Vein Biometric System” by Kenneth Wong, Thomson Lai,
Bosco Lee, Frankie Shum.
5. “BIOMETRICS” by Alvaro E. Escobar.
6. “Vascular Pattern Analysis towards Pervasive Palm Vein Authentication” by
Debnath Bhattacharyya (Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata, India ),
Poulami Das (Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata, India), Tai-hoon Kim
(Hannam University, Daejeon, Korea), Samir Kumar Bandyopadhyay (University
of Calcutta, Kolkata, India).
7. “A New Palm Vein Matching Method Based on ICP Algorithm” Haifen Chen
Guangming Lu Rui Wang Bio-Computing Research Centre, HIT Shenzhen
Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, China
8. “Did I Do That? A Current Analysis of Biometric Technologies” by Jalaynea A.
Cooper.
9. Report on “Fingerprint Recognition” by NTSC (National Science and Technology
Council).
10. “Face Recognition Technology” by Satish Kumar.
11. The Ear as a Biometric by D.J. Hurley, M.S.Nixon, University of Southampton.
12. “Emerging Biometric Technologies” from www.indiasafe.com/image/pdfmar10/
64.pdf
13. Report on “Vascular Pattern Recognition” by NTSC (National Science and
Technology Council).
14. Fast ICP algorithms for shape registration Timothee Jost and Heinz Hugli Pattern
Recognition Group, Institute of Micro technology, University of Neuchatel,
Breguet, CH-2000 Neuchatel, Switzerland.