Cattle Identification Using Muzzle Images and Deep Learning Techniques

Traditional animal identification methods such as ear-tagging, ear notching, and branding have been effective but pose risks to the animal and have scalability issues. Electrical methods offer better tracking and monitoring but require specialized equipment and are susceptible to attacks. Biometric identification using time-immutable dermatoglyphic features such as muzzle prints and iris patterns is a promising solution. This project explores cattle identification using 4923 muzzle images collected from 268 beef cattle. Two deep learning classification models are implemented - wide ResNet50 and VGG16\_BN and image compression is done to lower the image quality and adapt the models to work for the African context. From the experiments run, a maximum accuracy of 99.5\% is achieved while using the wide ResNet50 model with a compression retaining 25\% of the original image. From the study, it is noted that the time required by the models to train and converge as well as recognition time are dependent on the machine used to run the model.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

On the Performance Improvement of Iris Biometric System

Iris is an established biometric modality with many practical applications. Its performance is influenced by noise, database size, and feature representation. This thesis focusses on mitigating these challenges by efficiently characterising iris texture,developing multi-unit iris recognition, reducing the search space of large iris databases, and investigating if iris pattern change over time.To suitably characterise texture features of iris, Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) is combined with Fourier transform to develop a keypoint descriptor-F-SIFT. Proposed F-SIFT is invariant to transformation, illumination, and occlusion along with strong texture description property. For pairing the keypoints from gallery and probe iris images, Phase-Only Correlation (POC) function is used. The use of phase information reduces the wrong matches generated using SIFT. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of F-SIFT over existing keypoint descriptors.To perform the multi-unit iris fusion, a novel classifier is proposed known as Incremental Granular Relevance Vector Machine (iGRVM) that incorporates incremental and granular learning into RVM. The proposed classifier by design is scalable and unbiased which is particularly suitable for biometrics. The match scores from individual units of iris are passed as an input to the corresponding iGRVM classifier, and the posterior probabilities are combined using weighted sum rule. Experimentally, it is shown that the performance of multi-unit iris recognition improves over single unit iris. For search space reduction, local feature based indexing approaches are developed using multi-dimensional trees. Such features extracted from annular iris images are used to index the database using k-d tree. To handle the scalability issue of k-d tree, k-d-b tree based indexing approach is proposed. Another indexing approach using R-tree is developed to minimise the indexing errors. For retrieval, hybrid coarse-to-fine search strategy is proposed. It is inferred from the results that unification of hybrid search with R-tree significantly improves the identification performance. Iris is assumed to be stable over time. Recently, researchers have reported that false rejections increase over the period of time which in turn degrades the performance. An empirical investigation has been made on standard iris aging databases to find whether iris patterns change over time. From the results, it is found that the rejections are primarily due to the presence of other covariates such as blur, noise, occlusion, pupil dilation, and not due to agin

Development of Multirate Filter – Based Region Features for Iris Identification

The emergence of biometric system is seen as the next-generation technological solution in strengthening the social and national security. The evolution of biometrics has shifted the paradigm of authentication from classical token and knowledge-based systems to physiological and behavioral trait based systems. R & D on iris biometrics, in last one decade, has established it as one of the most promising traits. Even though, iris biometric takes high resolution near-infrared (NIR) images as input, its authentication accuracy is very commendable. Its performance is often influenced by the presence of noise, database size, and feature representation. This thesis focuses on the use of multi resolution analysis (MRA) in developing suitable features for non-ideal iris images. Our investigation starts with the iris feature extraction technique using Cohen −Daubechies − Feauveau 9/7 (CDF 9/7) filter bank. In this work, a technique has been proposed to deal with issues like segmentation failure and occlusion. The experimental studies deal with the superiority of CDF 9/7 filter bank over the frequency based techniques. Since there is scope for improving the frequency selectivity of CDF 9/7 filter bank, a tunable filter bank is proposed to extract region based features from non-cooperative iris images. The proposed method is based on half band polynomial of 14th order. Since, regularity and frequency selectivity are in inverse relationship with each other, filter coefficients are derived by not imposing maximum number of zeros. Also, the half band polynomial is presented in x-domain, so as to apply semidefinite programming, which results in optimization of coefficients of analysis/synthesis filter. The next contribution in this thesis deals with the development of another powerful MRA known as triplet half band filter bank (THFB). The advantage of THFB is the flexibility in choosing the frequency response that allows one to overcome the magnitude constraints. The proposed filter bank has improved frequency selectivity along with other desired properties, which is then used for iris feature extraction. The last contribution of the thesis describes a wavelet cepstral feature derived from CDF 9/7 filter bank to characterize iris texture. Wavelet cepstrum feature helps in reducing the dimensionality of the detail coefficients; hence, a compact feature presentation is possible with improved accuracy against CDF 9/7. The efficacy of the features suggested are validated for iris recognition on three publicly available databases namely, CASIAv3, UBIRISv1, and IITD. The features are compared with other transform domain features like FFT, Gabor filter and a comprehensive evaluation is done for all suggested features as well. It has been observed that the suggested features show superior performance with respect to accuracy. Among all suggested features, THFB has shown best performance

The drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility in the supply chain. A case study.

Purpose: The paper studies the way in which a SME integrates CSR into its corporate strategy, the practices it puts in place and how its CSR strategies reflect on its suppliers and customers relations. Methodology/Research limitations: A qualitative case study methodology is used. The use of a single case study limits the generalizing capacity of these findings. Findings: The entrepreneur’s ethical beliefs and value system play a fundamental role in shaping sustainable corporate strategy. Furthermore, the type of competitive strategy selected based on innovation, quality and responsibility clearly emerges both in terms of well defined management procedures and supply chain relations as a whole aimed at involving partners in the process of sustainable innovation. Originality/value: The paper presents a SME that has devised an original innovative business model. The study pivots on the issues of innovation and eco-sustainability in a context of drivers for CRS and business ethics. These values are considered fundamental at International level; the United Nations has declared 2011 the “International Year of Forestry”