09-07-2011, 12:36 PM
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1. INTRODUCTION
In the ubiquitous network society, where individuals can easily access their information anytime and anywhere, people are also faced with the risk that others can easily access the same information anytime and anywhere. Because of this risk, personal identification technology, which can distinguish between registered legitimate users and imposters, is now generating interest. Currently, passwords, Personal Identification cards are used for personal identification. However, cards can be stolen, and passwords and numbers can be guessed or forgotten. To solve these problems, biometric authentication technology, which identifies people by their unique biological information, is attracting attention. In biometric authentication, an account holder’s body characteristics or behaviors (habits) are registered in a database and then compared with others who may try to access that account to see if the attempt is legitimate.
Vein recognition was first developed by Joseph Rice. In 1984 he had his identity stolen, which led to fraudulent use of his bank account. He decided to do something about it, which led to his first vein recognition prototype around1985. Biometric techniques can generally be classified into two main categories: Physiological and Behavioral. Physiological techniques include fingerprint recognition, retinal and iris scanning, facial recognition, hand and finger geometry and DNA analysis. Behavioral techniques include handwriting recognition, voice authentication, gait, and keystroke dynamics just to name a few.
Main advantage of palm vein recognition is that it is not affected by dryness or roughness of skin or by physical injury on surface of the hand but sometimes the temperature and humidity can affect the quality of the captured image. Even though is little bit expensive it is highly adaptable as it is highly secure because blood vessels are hidden within the body. And also in this there is no physical contact between the user and system but it causes apprehension. Palm vein pattern recognition is a convenient and easy to use biometric technology with high security and accuracy level. There are mainly far infrared scanning technology and near infrared scanning technologyand there are thermal hand vein pattern verification systems for security evaluation of biometric systems. Today, this technology plays a major role in providing authentication.
Palm vein biometric system can verify a person's identity by recognizing the pattern of blood veins in the palm. Palm vein authentication uses the vascular patterns of an individual’s palm as personal identification data.
Fig 1.1: Extracted vein image
Like fingerprints, the pattern of blood veins in the palm is unique to every individual, even twins have different patterns and apart from size, this pattern will not vary over the course of a person's lifetime. The palm is an ideal part of the body for this technology; it normally does not have hair which can be an obstacle for photographing the blood vessel pattern, and it is less susceptible to a change in skin color, unlike a finger or the back of a hand.
2. LITERATURE SURVEY
The following sources include available biometrics where biometric systems are being implemented, and how information is being compromised. The article, No cash? No card? Just stick in finger [1] discusses the current uses of the finger scanner biometric system. Mark Albright (2006) writes about Florida’s first biometric system and the advantage in which customers are able to quickly pay for their groceries with just their finger. Even though cards or PIN numbers are not remembered for purchase, the customers are limited to debit transactions. Pay by Touch is the company that has implemented finger scanning technologies around the country. There are tests in convenience stores, gas stations, and grocery chains. Finger scanning is also used at theme parks to prevent multiple people from using the same pass.
The Body Can Betray - II, by Nadia Alga (2002) [2], goes more into depth about the biometric systems that are available. Finger scanning was the most popular biometric with the facial scan coming in second. Retina scan was the least used biometric. Physiological biometrics is more widely used then behavioral biometrics due to a more accurate reading.Finger scanning has been confused with fingerprint recognition. Users are not aware of the differences in which fingerprint recognition is used for several other reasons and kept on file at places like a police station. Finger scanning authenticates users based on a string of numbers that represents the fingerprint pattern. The author states that there is a less than one in a billion chance to have the same print as someone else. The article continues on with iris scanning being extremely accurate due to the 266 unique spots that exist in the patterns. Although this biometric is extremely accurate the users must remain very still in order to receive an accurate reading. The behavioral biometrics such as keystroke monitoring and voice scans is not as accurate. If users have a cold, this may cause a change in their voice and produce a false reading.
Conversational biometrics such as voice recognition are studied more in depth by IBM. According to IBM (2006) [3], in the research Conversational Biometric, a voice recognition system that allows the user to speak more freely is more effective then a user that is expected to repeat prompted text. Using voice verification from IBM allows users to speak freely and is able to secure devices such as hand helds and personal computers. The computer identifies who is talking and also detects changes in a speaker’s voice.
A publication by Resonance (n.d.), Biometrics, explains what is needed for effective biometrics. In order to identify a person must be identified and verified. The pattern recognition system identifies a person’s behavioral or physiological characteristics. The uses of biometrics vary from criminal identification and prison security to a variety of civilian application areas. The publication continues on with more details about iris scanning and the accuracy. Further reading discusses vein biometrics, what it is, and the advantages of using this biometric.
Joseph Rice (n.d.) at the site Vein Biometric Homepage [4], explains vein biometrics and how it functions. Biowatches are used in conjunction with vein biometrics. The watches read the wrists or hands dorsal vein structures. The watch then outputs an encrypted access code to either a vehicle or access portal to gain access. If the watch is lost, then the user can use another watch and does not have to worry about his lost personal data. There are several advantages in using vein biometrics in which veins are not damaged, changed or observed easily. This biometric is also cheap to implement. There were no disadvantages listed in the site and no explanation on why it is not widely used.
Mohamed Shahin, Ahmed Badawi, and Mohamed Kamel proposed [5],biometric authentication using hand vein patterns, they designed a system a near IR cold source to provide back-of-hand illumination. The IR cold source is a solid-state array of 24 LEDs (light emitting diodes). The diodes are mounted in a square shape, 6 LEDs in each side, on a designed and assembled PCB (printed circuit board) and made housing and an attachment for fixing the LEDs around the CCD lens. Our experiments showed that the cold source provides better contrast than the ordinary tungsten filament bulbs. A commercially available, low cost, monochrome CCD fitted with an IR filter is used to image the back of hand.
