A Multimodal Biometric System Based on an Active Database Paradigm

Today, on many occasions and in many different places, one must be authorised in order to use certain services or applications or to access protected data. A user (person) can be authorised in three different ways or combinations of ways: it is either information that the user knows, something that the user possesses or a measurement of some physical or psychological characteristics unique to that user, i.e. biometric characteristics. In this paper we emphasize this third possibility. When talking about biometrics we can distinguish two basic types of systems: unimodal and multimodal. The main difference is that the unimodal biometric system is based solely on a single biometric feature, while multimodal biometric systems combine several features. We intend to show how active databases could be used in order to implement a multimodal (unimodal) biometric system and reduce the time needed for authorisation (identification or verification). Specifically, the concept of reactivity upon which active databases rely could be the core of a multimodal biometric system, as will be shown in the paper. We will especially consider the use of complex events used in active databases for authorisation purposes. Key words: ADBMS, active database, complex events, biometrics, biometric systemDandanes se velikokrat dogodi, da ljudje, ki hočejo koristiti določene storitve ali aplikacije ali želijo dobiti pristop do zaščitenih podatkov itd., potrebujejo avtorizacijo. Uporabnik se lahko avtorizira na tri različne načine oziroma s kombinacijo teh treh načinov: s pomočjo nečesa, kar uporabnik pozna, s pomočjo nečesa, kar uporabnik poseduje, ali s pomočjo merjenja določenih fizičnih ali psihičnih značilnosti, ki so lastne in enkratne vsaki osebi, tj. tako imenovanih biometričnih značilnosti. V tem prispevku bo poudarek na tem zadnjem, tretjem načinu. Ko govorimo o biometriki, lahko razlikujemo med dvema osnovnima tipoma biometričnih sistemov - enomodalnim in večmodalnim biometričnim sistemom. Glavna razlika med njima je v tem, da enomodalni biometrični sistem temelji le na eni biometrični značilnosti, medtem ko večmodalni biometrični sistem za avtoriziranje posameznika kombinira več biometričnih značilnosti. V tem prispevku bomo pokazali, kako se lahko pri vgradnji večmodalnega (enomodalnega) biometričnega sistema uporabijo aktivne baze podatkov, s čimer se skrajša čas, ki je potreben za avtorizacijo (identifikacijo ali verifikacijo). Med drugim bomo pokazali, da je koncept reaktivnosti, na katerem temeljijo aktivne baze podatkov, lahko jedro večmodalnih biometričnih sistemov. Posebno pozornost bomo posvetili kompleksnim dogodkom za avtorizacijske namene, ki se v glavnem uporabljajo v aktivnih bazah podatkov. Ključne besede: ADBMS, aktivna baza podatkov, kompleksni dogodki, biometrika, biometrični siste

Active databases, business rules and reactive agents - what is the connection?

These three technologies were and still are mainly treated separately. Since not much work has been carried out in defining and combining them together, we are going to present what has been done and put accent on what could be done. Namely, they rely upon similar paradigms and concepts, as will be shown later on, and can be treated as complementary technologies. In this paper we will show that reactive agents react according to some set of business rules and active databases can be used as a suitable means for implementing business rules and in those way reactive agents as well. Since reactive agents have been well defined, recent improvements in the fields of active databases technology and especially business rules provide the reason to consider the benefits to be achieved from combining these fields

Active databases, business rules and reactive agents - what is the connection?

These three technologies were and still are mainly treated separately. Since not much work has been carried out in defining and combining them together, we are going to present what has been done and put accent on what could be done. Namely, they rely upon similar paradigms and concepts, as will be shown later on, and can be treated as complementary technologies. In this paper we will show that reactive agents react according to some set of business rules and active databases can be used as a suitable means for implementing business rules and in those way reactive agents as well. Since reactive agents have been well defined, recent improvements in the fields of active databases technology and especially business rules provide the reason to consider the benefits to be achieved from combining these fields

Equivalence-Invariant Algebraic Provenance for Hyperplane Update Queries

The algebraic approach for provenance tracking, originating in the semiring model of Green et. al, has proven useful as an abstract way of handling metadata. Commutative Semirings were shown to be the "correct" algebraic structure for Union of Conjunctive Queries, in the sense that its use allows provenance to be invariant under certain expected query equivalence axioms. In this paper we present the first (to our knowledge) algebraic provenance model, for a fragment of update queries, that is invariant under set equivalence. The fragment that we focus on is that of hyperplane queries, previously studied in multiple lines of work. Our algebraic provenance structure and corresponding provenance-aware semantics are based on the sound and complete axiomatization of Karabeg and Vianu. We demonstrate that our construction can guide the design of concrete provenance model instances for different applications. We further study the efficient generation and storage of provenance for hyperplane update queries. We show that a naive algorithm can lead to an exponentially large provenance expression, but remedy this by presenting a normal form which we show may be efficiently computed alongside query evaluation. We experimentally study the performance of our solution and demonstrate its scalability and usefulness, and in particular the effectiveness of our normal form representation

Aplicación de técnicas activas para el control de restricciones en el desarrollo de bases de datos

En las metodologías de desarrollo de BD nos encontramos que los modelos conceptuales que aplicamos son cada vez más ricos y capaces de recoger con mayor precisión las especificaciones del dominio. El problema surge cuando queremos mantener esta semántica en la siguiente fase de la metodología, la fase lógica. La mayoría de estas metodologías utilizan el modelo relacional para transformar el esquema conceptual a un esquema lógico. Para ello, se aplican un conjunto de reglas de transformación. Estas reglas son, en general, muy básicas pues solo especifican la transformación de los elementos más simples y sencillos del modelo conceptual, esto implica una pérdida de semántica significativa, que lleva al diseñador a controlar y comprobar las restricciones de integridad del dominio fuera de la BD. Para representar las restricciones de integridad, el estándar SQL3 y la mayoría de los SGBDs comerciales proporcionan dos maneras: mecanismos declarativos y mecanismos procedimentales. Los mecanismos declarativos aportan una base fundamental y estrategia tradicional para reforzar las reglas básicas de negocio (Not Null, Default, Unique, Primary Key, Foreign Key , Check, Domain y Assertion). Sin embargo, estas cláusulas no son capaces de expresar todas las restricciones de integridad incluidas en un modelo conceptual, por eso, se utilizan mecanismos procedimentales como reglas activas/disparadores para poder controlar estas restricciones dentro del SGBD. En este trabajo de tesis doctoral se propone incorporar reglas activas para preservar todas las restricciones de integridad asociadas a un dominio dentro de la BD y proporcionar a los diseñadores herramientas que faciliten la generación automática de estas reglas, el análisis de su comportamiento teniendo en cuenta las interacciones con el resto de elementos de la BD y su visualización. El trabajo está enmarcado dentro del proyecto "Plataforma de gestión de procesos software: Modelado, reutilización y medición“. TIN2004/07083 ----------------------------------------Abstract: In database development methodologies, conceptual models are more abstract and concerned to express more accurately the semantics of the real world. A problem is produced when we want to maintain this semantics in the following phase of methodologies: the logical phase. Most of these methodologies are agree with the application of the relational model to transform the conceptual scheme into a logical scheme. To do that, a set of transformation rules is applied. These rules are basics and simples, they specify the transformation of the simplest conceptual elements and this implies a lost semantics. Therefore, databases developers must employ different mechanisms to enforce database consistency. To verify integrity constraints, the recent SQL standard and almost all commercial DBMSs support two ways: declaratively mechanisms and procedural mechanisms. Declarative mechanisms provide a fundamental base and traditional strategy to enforce business basic rules by using constraints such as: Not Null, Default, Unique, Primary Key, Foreign Key, Check, Domain, and Assertion. Because of these constructors are insufficient to express all integrity constraints, procedural mechanisms active rules/triggers are used in order to control these constraints inside the DBMS. In this doctoral thesis work, incorporating active rules into database are proposed to preserve all integrity constraints associated. Moreover, we provide some tools to facilitate: automatic rules generation, rules analysis, and rules behaviour visualization considering the interactions with the reminder of elements. This work is part of the project "Software Process Management Platform: modelling, reuse and measurement". TIN2004/0708