Improved methods for finger vein identification using composite median-wiener filter and hierarchical centroid features extraction

Finger vein identification is a potential new area in biometric systems. Finger vein patterns contain highly discriminative characteristics, which are difficult to be forged because they reside underneath the skin of the finger and require a specific device to capture them. Research have been carried out in this field but there is still an unresolved issue related to low-quality data due to data capturing and processing. Low-quality data have caused errors in the feature extraction process and reduced identification performance rate in finger vein identification. To address this issue, a new image enhancement and feature extraction methods were developed to improve finger vein identification. The image enhancement, Composite Median-Wiener (CMW) filter would improve image quality and preserve the edges of the finger vein image. Next, the feature extraction method, Hierarchical Centroid Feature Method (HCM) was fused with statistical pixel-based distribution feature method at the feature-level fusion to improve the performance of finger vein identification. These methods were evaluated on public SDUMLA-HMT and FV-USM finger vein databases. Each database was divided into training and testing sets. The average result of the experiments conducted was taken to ensure the accuracy of the measurements. The k-Nearest Neighbor classifier with city block distance to match the features was implemented. Both these methods produced accuracy as high as 97.64% for identification rate and 1.11% of equal error rate (EER) for measures verification rate. These showed that the accuracy of the proposed finger vein identification method is higher than the one reported in the literature. As a conclusion, the results have proven that the CMW filter and HCM have significantly improved the accuracy of finger vein identification

Sensors for Wireless Body Monitoring Applications

Body monitoring systems have recently drawn great attention to modern electronic consumers due to their various health−care and security applications. However, most of the existing monitoring systems need wire connections that prevent free body movements. Complementary metal−oxide−semiconductor (CMOS) technology based wireless sensor systems need integration of different components that make the device volume and production cost high. In adition, their dependency on on−sensor power source limits the continuous monitoring capability. In the thesis, to demonstrate the feasibility of low cost and simple body monitoring systems, we propose a near−infrared (NIR) photodetector (PD) and a humidity sensor (HS) using low−temperature thin−film processes suitable for large−area electronics application. For NIR detection, a novel lateral metal−semiconductor−metal (MSM) PD architecture is proposed using low−temperature nanocrystalline silicon (nc−Si) as a NIR absorption layer and organic polyimide (PI) as a blocking layer. Experimental results show that addition of PI layer reduces the dark current (ID) up to 103−105 times compared with the PDs without PI layer. Fabricated devices exhibit a low ID of ~10−10 A, a response time of <1.5 ms, and an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 35−15% for the 740−850 nm wavelengths of light under 100−150 V biasing conditions. Unlike the standard p−i−n PD, our high−performance lateral PD does not require doped p+ and n+ layers. Thus, the reported device is compatible with industry standard amorphous silicon (a−Si) thin−film transistor (TFT) fabrication process, which makes it promising for large−area full hand biometric imagers suitable for various non−invasive body monitoring applications. For humidity detection, a 30 mm diameter passive LC (p−LC) HS is formed by joining an octagonal planer inductor and a moisture sensitive interdigital zinc oxide (ZnO) capacitor in series. A PCB reader coil is also designed, which is able to sense the HS from <25 mm distance. The HS reads 30−90% of relative humidity (RH) by interrogating change of the resonance frequency (fR) of the reader−sensor system. The reading resolution is ±2.38%RH and the sensitivity is 53.33−93.33 kHz/1%RH for the above 45% RH measurements. Experimental results show that the proposed HS is operational in a range of 0−75 oC as long as recalibration is performed for a temperature drift of above ±3 oC, which makes it suitable for various promising applications operated at different temperatures. Above all, the presented results are promising for the continuous body monitoring applications to observe the humidity wirelessly without any power source on the sensor

Image and Video Forensics

Nowadays, images and videos have become the main modalities of information being exchanged in everyday life, and their pervasiveness has led the image forensics community to question their reliability, integrity, confidentiality, and security. Multimedia contents are generated in many different ways through the use of consumer electronics and high-quality digital imaging devices, such as smartphones, digital cameras, tablets, and wearable and IoT devices. The ever-increasing convenience of image acquisition has facilitated instant distribution and sharing of digital images on digital social platforms, determining a great amount of exchange data. Moreover, the pervasiveness of powerful image editing tools has allowed the manipulation of digital images for malicious or criminal ends, up to the creation of synthesized images and videos with the use of deep learning techniques. In response to these threats, the multimedia forensics community has produced major research efforts regarding the identification of the source and the detection of manipulation. In all cases (e.g., forensic investigations, fake news debunking, information warfare, and cyberattacks) where images and videos serve as critical evidence, forensic technologies that help to determine the origin, authenticity, and integrity of multimedia content can become essential tools. This book aims to collect a diverse and complementary set of articles that demonstrate new developments and applications in image and video forensics to tackle new and serious challenges to ensure media authenticity

Nonintrusive Finger-Vein Recognition System Using NIR Image Sensor and Accuracy Analyses According to Various Factors

Biometrics is a technology that enables an individual person to be identified based on human physiological and behavioral characteristics. Among biometrics technologies, face recognition has been widely used because of its advantages in terms of convenience and non-contact operation. However, its performance is affected by factors such as variation in the illumination, facial expression, and head pose. Therefore, fingerprint and iris recognitions are preferred alternatives. However, the performance of the former can be adversely affected by the skin condition, including scarring and dryness. In addition, the latter has the disadvantages of high cost, large system size, and inconvenience to the user, who has to align their eyes with the iris camera. In an attempt to overcome these problems, finger-vein recognition has been vigorously researched, but an analysis of its accuracies according to various factors has not received much attention. Therefore, we propose a nonintrusive finger-vein recognition system using a near infrared (NIR) image sensor and analyze its accuracies considering various factors. The experimental results obtained with three databases showed that our system can be operated in real applications with high accuracy; and the dissimilarity of the finger-veins of different people is larger than that of the finger types and hands

Medical innovation : using mechatronics engineering to reduce inequities in healthcare.

Medical device innovation provides access to healthcare. Innovations come about be- cause of pressures, in particular financial pressures, and access to care. With increasing interoperability of devices, distinction is made between devices with specific interoperability (SIO) only able to communicate with a pre-determined range of other devices, and non-specific interoperability (NSIO). Devices with NSIO pose substantially greater potential benefits by allowing long-term system wide innovations. Scales of innovation are discussed, where short-term innovations meet an immediate need, such as the inundation of intensive care units (ICUs) in the COVID-19 pandemic. Medium-term innovations see either incremental increase in efficiencies, or an increase in interoperability which enables subsequent innovation. Long-term innovations are disruptive, systemic changes, often enabled through the use of increasing interoperability. The uptake of innovation is often lacking, but through the use of a framework such as Tech-ISM the chance of adoption is increased. This framework sees establishment and fostering of close relationships with a range of end users, decision makers, and industry partners. Diabetes technologies are presented as examples of innovation. Insulin pumps are an effective method of delivering insulin, and see considerable benefit in control. Widespread adoption of insulin pumps is posed through the development of an ultra-low cost (ULC) insulin pump, made possible by the separation of hardware and computation, and costing 12 × −20× less than currently-available devices, both for a traditional-style insulin pump, and also a novel spring-driven design. Initial results show similar accuracy to current commercially-available insulin pumps, with a mean error of 0.64%, the same as the MiniMed™640G (Medtronic, Dublin, Ire- land) for 1 U boluses, and mean error of 0.06% for 10 U boluses. Basal windows of 1 hour are similarly accurate, with 100% within ±15%, 92% within ±10%, and 84% within ±5%, again very similar to the MiniMed™640G. The ULC insulin pump is a solution to the economic infeasibility of insulin pumps for the majority of New Zealanders. System-wide adoption of insulin pumps would see considerable economic benefit for New Zealand, in particular with a patch pump. Several possible adoption scenarios are presented. Annually, direct savings associated with less insulin use and current public investment in insulin pumps is expected to total $6.6M -$25.3M, indirect savings from reduction of expensive complications are expected to save $2.5M -$25.5M, with direct costs of $0.8M -$25.7M. Projections are for a total overall system saving of $8.3M with no additional uptake of insulin pumps, but only replacing current insulin pumps with the ULC alternative, to$25.0M with widespread adoption. These figures do not account for additional savings made possible through future long-term development of smart, automated healthcare systems. A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is a device that estimates blood glucose (BG) every 1-5 minutes, replacing discrete, invasive self-monitored blood glucose (SMBG) measure- ments as required four to ten per day currently for approximately 40,000 - 60,000 New Zealanders with diabetes who administer insulin. Current CGM use is limited, but rel- atively unknown, due to no public funding, with expert estimates at 2-8% prevalence among individuals with type-one diabetes. A low-cost alternative is presented in the form of the blood optical biosensor CGM (BOB CGM) at an annual cost 10 × −20× less expensive than current devices. Initial, un-calibrated results show promise, with 91% of BG results deemed clinically accurate, and a further 8% sufficiently accurate to not cause treatment error. Fundamentally, cost savings arise from allowing access to otherwise inaccessible data, and thus turning the current data monopoly into a data market. Substantial economic benefit is seen from direct savings from current monitoring of diabetes disease progressions with SMBG and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), and also indirect savings from earlier identification of worsening diabetes control. Various adoption scenarios are presented, with overall annual economic savings of $1.9M -$25.1M. Another medical innovation is presented in the form of the actuated, closed-loop, time- series inspiratory valve (ACTIV) dual ventilation system. This innovation is a short- term example, developed under pressure of inundation of the healthcare system due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The basic operating premise is ventilatory effort from a single mechanical ventilator is delivered first to one patient, and subsequent to a valve switching state, to a second patient. The system is a solution that addresses valid concern for multiple ventilation from a consensus of oversight bodies for ICU treatment, in particular personalised therapy and monitoring, especially in the case of changing pathology. The system is designed to be low-cost, robust, portable, and readily manufactured in low-resource environments. Thus, it has an Arduino (Arduino, Massachusetts, USA) controller, and requires a 5.0 V power supply. The system requires a flow and pressure sensor for detection of inspiration, and sub- sequent valve switching. A custom-made 3D-printed Venturi interfaced with simple electronics with an analogue 0.0 − 5.0 V output signal is presented. The sensor is validated against data from mechanical ventilation devices to be accurate over the range of 5 − 75L · min−1, with a Pearson Correlation ≥ 0.95 for flow and pressure, typically ≥ 0.97 in 5 S bins at fs = 50 Hz. Additional components are a 3-D printed pressure drop device in the form of the PANDAPeep Gen2 Inline valve, and off-the-shelf one-way valves, airway filters, and 22 mm⊘ tubing. The switching ACTIV valve is another 3D-printed component, and uses a common HXT12K servo motor, or similar, for interoperability. The Arduino-based control system is a basic finite state machine (FSM) relying on low-pass filtered flow sensor data, implemented through a circular buffer, for state changes. These state changes, in com- bination with various necessary delays for safety, dictate the change of state of the ACTIV valve, and thus to which patient ventilation effort is delivered. An example of two considerably unbalance patients, with compliance C1 = 0.10 L · cmH2O−1and C2 = 0.05 L · cmH2O−1, being safely and efficiently balanced to achieve equal tidal volume is demonstrated to show individualised therapy and monitoring. Without innovations such as the diabetes technologies and ACTIV system, care will become increasingly rationed. Rationing of diabetes devices with high effectiveness, but also high cost, is already seen in the lack of public funding for CGM devices, and funding for only 8-10% of individuals with type-one diabetes to access insulin pumps, despite significant proven benefits of both of these devices. Since 2000, increases in direct out- of-pocket expenditure have grown an average of 4.3% per annum, compared to median wage growth of 3.2%, and inflation of 2.6%. These trends show that the rationing of healthcare is being seen in a reduction of access to publicly-funded services. Given an average annual wage increase of only 1.6% for the lowest 20th centile, individuals who are least well off are less able to afford the required personal expenditure to attain the same access the healthcare. Therefore, access to healthcare is seeing worsening equity of access. With increasing demand for healthcare, and a taxation base stagnant at best, relying only on intrinsic changes, New Zealand faces significant taxation increases, or drastic reductions in healthcare services. The alternative is to increase the efficiency of healthcare delivery methods, using extrinsic, disruptive changes. These changes are only made possible through innovation informed by strong clinical insight, developing mechatronic devices with broad, non-specific interoperability, if not open-source design. This approach provides equitable access to care, and provides the necessary framework for automation of healthcare services, including diagnostics, prognostics, and personalised care models under a one-method-fits all approach. This widespread technological innovation and adoption poses significant increase of access to care, combating current inequities

Behaviour Profiling for Mobile Devices

With more than 5 billion users globally, mobile devices have become ubiquitous in our daily life. The modern mobile handheld device is capable of providing many multimedia services through a wide range of applications over multiple networks as well as on the handheld device itself. These services are predominantly driven by data, which is increasingly associated with sensitive information. Such a trend raises the security requirement for reliable and robust verification techniques of users.This thesis explores the end-user verification requirements of mobile devices and proposes a novel Behaviour Profiling security framework for mobile devices. The research starts with a critical review of existing mobile technologies, security threats and mechanisms, and highlights a broad range of weaknesses. Therefore, attention is given to biometric verification techniques which have the ability to offer better security. Despite a large number of biometric works carried out in the area of transparent authentication systems (TAS) and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), each have a set of weaknesses that fail to provide a comprehensive solution. They are either reliant upon a specific behaviour to enable the system to function or only capable of providing security for network based services. To this end, the behaviour profiling technique is identified as a potential candidate to provide high level security from both authentication and IDS aspects, operating in a continuous and transparent manner within the mobile host environment.This research examines the feasibility of a behaviour profiling technique through mobile users general applications usage, telephone, text message and multi-instance application usage with the best experimental results Equal Error Rates (EER) of 13.5%, 5.4%, 2.2% and 10% respectively. Based upon this information, a novel architecture of Behaviour Profiling on mobile devices is proposed. The framework is able to provide a robust, continuous and non-intrusive verification mechanism in standalone, TAS or IDS modes, regardless of device hardware configuration. The framework is able to utilise user behaviour to continuously evaluate the system security status of the device. With a high system security level, users are granted with instant access to sensitive services and data, while with lower system security levels, users are required to reassure their identity before accessing sensitive services.The core functions of the novel framework are validated through the implementation of a simulation system. A series of security scenarios are designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the novel framework to verify legitimate and imposter activities. By employing the smoothing function of three applications, verification time of 3 minutes and a time period of 60 minutes of the degradation function, the Behaviour Profiling framework achieved the best performance with False Rejection Rate (FRR) rates of 7.57%, 77% and 11.24% for the normal, protected and overall applications respectively and with False Acceptance Rate (FAR) rates of 3.42%, 15.29% and 4.09% for their counterparts

E-INVIGILATION OF E-ASSESSMENTS

E-learning and particularly distance-based learning is becoming an increasingly important mechanism for education. A leading Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) reports a user base of 70 million students and 1.2 million teachers across 7.5 million courses. Whilst e-learning has introduced flexibility and remote/distance-based learning, there are still aspects of course delivery that rely upon traditional approaches. The most significant of these is examinations. The lack of being able to provide invigilation in a remote-mode has restricted the types of assessments, with exams or in-class test assessments proving difficult to validate. Students are still required to attend physical testing centres in order to ensure strict examination conditions are applied. Whilst research has begun to propose solutions in this respect, they fundamentally fail to provide the integrity required. This thesis seeks to research and develop an e-invigilator that will provide continuous and transparent invigilation of the individual undertaking an electronic based exam or test. The analysis of the e-invigilation solutions has shown that the suggested approaches to minimise cheating behaviours during the online test have varied. They have suffered from a wide range of weaknesses and lacked an implementation achieving continuous and transparent authentication with appropriate security restrictions. To this end, the most transparent biometric approaches are identified to be incorporated in an appropriate solution whilst maintaining security beyond the point-of-entry. Given the existing issues of intrusiveness and point-of-entry user authentication, a complete architecture has been developed based upon maintaining student convenience but providing effective identity verification throughout the test, rather than merely at the beginning. It also provides continuous system-level monitoring to prevent cheating, as well as a variety of management-level functionalities for creating and managing assessments including a prioritised and usable interface in order to enable the academics to quickly verify and check cases of possible cheating. The research includes a detailed discussion of the architecture requirements, components, and complete design to be the core of the system which captures, processes, and monitors students in a completely controlled e-test environment. In order to highlight the ease of use and lightweight nature of the system, a prototype was developed. Employing student face recognition as the most transparent multimodal (2D and 3D modes) biometrics, and novel security features through eye tracking, head movements, speech recognition, and multiple faces detection in order to enable a robust and flexible e-invigilation approach. Therefore, an experiment (Experiment 1) has been conducted utilising the developed prototype involving 51 participants. In this experiment, the focus has been mainly upon the usability of the system under normal use. The FRR of those 51 legitimate participants was 0 for every participant in the 2D mode; however, it was 0 for 45 of them and less than 0.096 for the rest 6 in the 3D mode. Consequently, for all the 51 participants of this experiment, on average, the FRR was 0 in 2D facial recognition mode, however, in 3D facial recognition mode, it was 0.048. Furthermore, in order to evaluate the robustness of the approach against targeted misuse 3 participants were tasked with a series of scenarios that map to typical misuse (Experiment 2). The FAR was 0.038 in the 2D mode and 0 in the 3D mode. The results of both experiments support the feasibility, security, and applicability of the suggested system. Finally, a series of scenario-based evaluations, involving the three separate stakeholders namely: Experts, Academics (qualitative-based surveys) and Students (a quantitative-based and qualitative-based survey) have also been utilised to provide a comprehensive evaluation into the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The vast majority of the interview/feedback outcomes can be considered as positive, constructive and valuable. The respondents agree with the idea of continuous and transparent authentication in e-assessments as it is vital for ensuring solid and convenient security beyond the point-of-entry. The outcomes have also supported the feasibility and practicality of the approach, as well as the efficiency of the system management via well-designed and smart interfaces.The Higher Committee for Education Development in Iraq (HCED

Microgravity Science and Applications: Program Tasks and Bibliography for Fiscal Year 1996

NASA's Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD) sponsors a program that expands the use of space as a laboratory for the study of important physical, chemical, and biochemical processes. The primary objective of the program is to broaden the value and capabilities of human presence in space by exploiting the unique characteristics of the space environment for research. However, since flight opportunities are rare and flight research development is expensive, a vigorous ground-based research program, from which only the best experiments evolve, is critical to the continuing strength of the program. The microgravity environment affords unique characteristics that allow the investigation of phenomena and processes that are difficult or impossible to study an Earth. The ability to control gravitational effects such as buoyancy driven convection, sedimentation, and hydrostatic pressures make it possible to isolate phenomena and make measurements that have significantly greater accuracy than can be achieved in normal gravity. Space flight gives scientists the opportunity to study the fundamental states of physical matter-solids, liquids and gasses-and the forces that affect those states. Because the orbital environment allows the treatment of gravity as a variable, research in microgravity leads to a greater fundamental understanding of the influence of gravity on the world around us. With appropriate emphasis, the results of space experiments lead to both knowledge and technological advances that have direct applications on Earth. Microgravity research also provides the practical knowledge essential to the development of future space systems. The Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (OLMSA) is responsible for planning and executing research stimulated by the Agency's broad scientific goals. OLMSA's Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD) is responsible for guiding and focusing a comprehensive program, and currently manages its research and development tasks through five major scientific areas: biotechnology, combustion science, fluid physics, fundamental physics, and materials science. FY 1996 was an important year for MSAD. NASA continued to build a solid research community for the coming space station era. During FY 1996, the NASA Microgravity Research Program continued investigations selected from the 1994 combustion science, fluid physics, and materials science NRAS. MSAD also released a NASA Research Announcement in microgravity biotechnology, with more than 130 proposals received in response. Selection of research for funding is expected in early 1997. The principal investigators chosen from these NRAs will form the core of the MSAD research program at the beginning of the space station era. The third United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-3) and the Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS) missions yielded a wealth of microgravity data in FY 1996. The USMP-3 mission included a fluids facility and three solidification furnaces, each designed to examine a different type of crystal growth