CSE 498Q/598Q – Biometrics: An Assessment of Technical and Social Issues

 

Professor Kevin W. Bowyer

 

Spring Semester 2004, Tues-Thursday 9:30-10:45, DeBartolo 125

 

Tentative Syllabus (revised 18 March 2004)

 

 

An introduction to the major biometric techniques (fingerprint, face, iris, voice, hand shape…), the underlying pattern recognition basis for these biometrics, and current concerns regarding privacy and social / ethical issues.

           

Text:  Ashburn, Biometrics, Springer-Verlag, 2000. ISBN: 1-85233-243-3.  Plus additional readings assigned as the course progresses.

 

Course Goals:   As a result of taking this course, one should: (1) develop a working knowledge of terms and concepts related to current biometric techniques, (2) be able to distinguish between application scenarios that involve “identification” versus “verification” of identity, (3) understand and be able to articulate the advantages and disadvantages of the most popular biometric techniques, (4) understand the basic issues and controversies related to biometrics as a threat to privacy, (5) be able to critically evaluate claims about biometric technologies that are made by different stakeholders.

 

Prerequisites: None.

           

This course is perhaps a bit unusual in several regards.  One way to characterize it is to imagine taking the part of a “Social Impact of Computing” course that deals with privacy issues, focusing it specifically on privacy and biometrics, injecting technical content that is often not there is such courses, and expanding it into a full course.  Another view on it is to imagine taking the “Pattern Recognition” course, focusing it specifically on applications of pattern recognition in biometrics, injecting coverage of ethical and social issues that is often ignored in such courses, and expanding it into a full course.  Also, this is a brand new course.  It has not been taught here before, and possibly not anywhere before.  While there are lots of books on biometrics, they are mostly in the nature of edited books where each author writes a chapter on their topic of professional expertise.  There is nothing that could be called a typical classroom textbook.  So we will be assembling a set of class notes as we go.  There is no way that we could cover all of the viable biometric technologies in one semester, so we will necessarily limit ourselves to what are considered the major technologies today.

           

Grading:  Tentatively, expect the workload and grading for the course to be distributed as follows: twelve graded homework assignments (12x4=48), class participation (12), term paper (20) and a final (20).  The final exam will involve understanding of a list of concepts that we accumulate over the semester; see the list at either www.cse.nd.edu/courses/cse498q/www/BiometricsConcepts.htm or www.nd.edu/~ksteinha/biovocab.html  (same list).  Important – This class will be conducted as a seminar class, so if you are not able to attend and participate in class regularly, you should not expect to be able to pass the course.

 

Term papers / projects: A list of possible term paper / project topics is available in this directory, by adding TermPaperTopics.htm to this address.  Select your topic by Tuesday February 17.  Rough drafts due for critique by Tuesday March 16.  Final versions are due on Tuesday April 20 – be prepared to make a 5-minute presentation on your topic that day!

 

 

Tentative Schedule:

 

Tuesday, January 13:  Basic technical concepts. Public perceptions of biometrics.

            (Email with first assignment.  Pick up reading on hand shape as a biometric.)

 

Thursday, January 15:  Basic technical concepts.  Public perceptions of biometrics.

            (Bring completed first assignment to class.)

 

Tuesday, January 20:  Fingerprint and “multi-modal” biometrics. (Prof. Arun Ross)

 

Thursday, January 22: Basic technical concepts, hand shape as a biometric.

 

Tuesday, January 27: Basic technical concepts, hand shape, fingerprint.

 

Thursday, January 29: Hand shape as a biometric. (Damon Woodard)

 

Tuesday, February 3: Basic technical concepts, iris recognition.

 

Thursday, February 5: Basic technical concepts, fingerprint.

 

Tuesday, February 10: Basic technical concepts, voice.

 

Thursday, February 12: Basic technical concepts, face recognition.

 

Tuesday, February 17: Basic technical concepts, face recognition.

(Term paper topic selection due.)

 

Thursday, February 19: Basic technical concepts, face recognition.

(Pick up Assign5.doc in this directory, due at beginning of this class.)

 

Tuesday, February 24: Case study analysis, California SFIS.

 

Thursday, February 26: Case study of fingerprint recognition.

 

Tuesday, March 2: Case study of iris recognition.

(Pick up Assign6.doc in this directory, due at beginning of this class.)

 

Thursday, March 4: Face Recognition technology; case study of face recognition application.

(Pick up Assign7.doc in this directory, due at beginning of this class.)

 

Tuesday, March 9:  << spring break >>.

Thursday, March 11:  << spring break >>.

 

Tuesday, March 16: Case study of biometric applications: fingerprint retail payments.

(Homework assignment 8 is the rough draft of term paper.)

 

Thursday, March 18: Case study of biometric applications: hand shape membership verification.

 

Tuesday, March 23: Social impact, privacy concerns.

(Pick up Assign9.doc in this directory, due at beginning of this class.)

 

Thursday, March 25: Social impact, privacy concerns.

 

Tuesday, March 30: Social impact, privacy concerns.

(Pick up Assign10.doc in this directory, due at beginning of this class.)

 

Thursday, April 1: Social impact, privacy concerns.

 

Tuesday, April 6: Overview of markets and applications for biometrics.

(Pick up RadioReview1.doc in this directory, due at beginning of class April 13.)

 

Thursday, April 8: Overview of markets and applications for biometrics.

(Pick up RadioReview2.doc in this directory, due at beginning of class April 13.)

 

Tuesday, April 13: Advanced topics.

Thursday, April 15: Advanced topics.

 

Tuesday, April 20: Term paper / project presentations.

Thursday, April 22: Term paper / project presentations.

 

Tuesday, April 27: Term paper / project presentations.

 

 

Reading list:

·        Biometrics by Ashburn.

·        Hand Geometry Based Verification article by Zunkel.

·        Recognizing Persons By Their Iris Patterns article by Daugman.

·        Iris recognition: an emerging biometric technology, by Rick Wildes, at www.cs.yorku.ca/~wildes/wildesPIEEE1997.pdf.

·        Fingerprint Verification, article by Lawrence O’Gorman.

·        Speaker Recognition, article by Joseph Campbell.

·        Patents Out Of Control? from USA Today (in the context of IP for biometrics).

·        Face Recognition Vendor Test (www.frvt.org), especially Overview and Summary.

·        A Survey of Face Recognition, Fromherz, Stucki, and Bischel, http://www.fromherz.net/papers/MML-97-01.pdf (an overview of techniques)

·        Face Recognition, Rosenbloom, http://individual.toronto.ca/rav/FR/FRindex.htm (more on “eigenfaces”)