"Bharatiya-AFIS" Overview

1. Project Overview

• Proposal summary: This project is funded by Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. The project duration is 24 months starting from 29th January 2009.

• Objective: To develop an indigenous automated fingerprint identification system based on additional information obtained from Level 3 features.

• Proposal Overview: This research will focus on developing image processing techniques/algorithms on level 3 (in conjunction with level 1 & 2) features for biometrics. Fingerprint identification involving level 3 features is an emerging area in biometrics. Level 1 and level 2 based fingerprint identification have been used for identification for over a century, more recently becoming automated (i.e. a biometric) due to advancements in computing capabilities. However, level 3 features add value to the classical information obtained through level 1 and 2 in such a manner that may increase the accuracy and speed of fingerprint identification substantially.

• User Problems Addressed through this Product/Solution: As we understand, establishing the identity of a person is becoming critical in our vastly interconnected society. The need for reliable user authentication techniques has increased in the wake of heightened concerns about security and rapid advancements in networking, communication and mobility. Biometrics, described as the science of recognizing an individual based on her physiological or behavioral traits, is beginning to gain acceptance as a legitimate method for determining an individual’s identity.
  Thus, aligned to the same direction, this biometric project “Bharatiya-AFIS” intends to come up with a prototype-based systems/solutions, which can be deployed in various commercial, civilian and forensic applications as a means of establishing identity fairly quickly. These solutions will rely on the evidence of fingerprints to either validate or determine an identity and are likely to cater to:
  
  • Governmental establishments, such as Passport division, DG–Shipping, Ministry of External Affair (M.E.A.) etc.
  • Country’s Security agencies, such as Police Departments, Intelligence Bureaus like CBI, RAW (the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) — India’s premier external intelligence agency) etc.
  • Contribute to Research and Development in Multimodal Biometric System etc.

• Salient Features
  
  • Hierarchical Matching Scheme – “Bharatiya-AFIS” will employ a hierarchical matching scheme, which will enable the use of an extended feature set (Level 3 features) for matching at a higher level to achieve robust matching decisions.
  • Authentication & Confidentiality will be built into the system to ensure information integrity.
  • Level 3 features avail the following benefits:
    
    • Level 3 features carry significant discriminatory information and encompass microfeatures (claimed to be permanent, immutable, and unique according to the forensic experts), such as sweat pores and ridge contours. With the advent of high resolution (1000ppi or above for capturing Level 3 features) scanning capability, Level 3 data has considerable promise for development of automated systems when complimenting traditional Level 2 systems.
    • Level 3 features (when employed in combination with Level 1 and Level 2 features) will allow us to introduce new techniques in algorithms. The presence of unique Level 3 features in fingerprints provides minute details for matching and the potential for increased accuracy.

2. Expected outcome

• An indigenous Biometric SDK to meet the following international standards:
  
  • ISO/IEC 19794-2:2005 (Fingerprint Minutiae Data)
  • ANSI/INCITS 378-2004 (Finger Minutiae Format for Data Interchange)
  • ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2007 (Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial, & Other Biometric Information)
• A secure biometric system built on top of Biometric SDK for sensitive applications.