Task sensitivity in EEG biometric recognition

This work explores the sensitivity of electroencephalographic-based biometric recognition to the type of tasks required by subjects to perform while their brain activity is being recorded. A novel wavelet-based feature is used to extract identity information from a database of 109 subjects who performed four different motor movement/imagery tasks while their data was recorded. Training and test of the system was performed using a number of experimental protocols to establish if training with one type of task and tested with another would significantly affect the recognition performance. Also, experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance when a mixture of data from different tasks was used for training. The results suggest that performance is not significantly affected when there is a mismatch between training and test tasks. Furthermore, as the amount of data used for training is increased using a combination of data from several tasks, the performance can be improved. These results indicate that a more flexible approach may be incorporated in data collection for EEG-based biometric systems which could facilitate their deployment and improved performance

Adaptive template reconstruction for effective pattern classification

A novel instance-based algorithm for pattern classification is presented and evaluated in this paper. This new method is motivated by the challenge of pattern classifications where only limited and/or noisy training data are available. For every classification, the proposed system transforms the query data and the training templates based on their distributions in the feature space. One of the major novelties of the proposed method is the concept of template reconstruction enabling improved performance with limited training data. The technique is compared with similar algorithms and evaluated using both the image and time-series modalities to demonstrate its effectiveness and versatility. Two public image databases, FASHION-MNIST and CIFAR-10, were used to test its effectiveness for the classification of images using small amounts of training samples. An average classification improvement of 2~3% was observed while using a small subset of the training database, compared to the performances achieved by state-of-the-art techniques using the full datasets. To further explore its capability in solving more challenging classification problems such as non-stationary time-series electroencephalography (EEG) signals, a clinical grade 64-electrode EEG database, as well as a low-quality (high-noise level) EEG database, obtained using a low-cost system equipped with a single dry sensor, have also been used to test the algorithm. Adaptive reconstruction of the feature instances has been seen to have substantially improved class separation and matching performance for both still images and time-series signals. In particular, the method is found to be effective for the classification of noisy non-stationary data with limited training data volumes, indicating its potential suitability for a wide range of applications

The Use of EEG Signals For Biometric Person Recognition

This work is devoted to investigating EEG-based biometric recognition systems. One potential advantage of using EEG signals for person recognition is the difficulty in generating artificial signals with biometric characteristics, thus making the spoofing of EEG-based biometric systems a challenging task. However, more works needs to be done to overcome certain drawbacks that currently prevent the adoption of EEG biometrics in real-life scenarios: 1) usually large number of employed sensors, 2) still relatively low recognition rates (compared with some other biometric modalities), 3) the template ageing effect. The existing shortcomings of EEG biometrics and their possible solutions are addressed from three main perspectives in the thesis: pre-processing, feature extraction and pattern classification. In pre-processing, task (stimuli) sensitivity and noise removal are investigated and discussed in separated chapters. For feature extraction, four novel features are proposed; for pattern classification, a new quality filtering method, and a novel instance-based learning algorithm are described in respective chapters. A self-collected database (Mobile Sensor Database) is employed to investigate some important biometric specified effects (e.g. the template ageing effect; using low-cost sensor for recognition). In the research for pre-processing, a training data accumulation scheme is developed, which improves the recognition performance by combining the data of different mental tasks for training; a new wavelet-based de-noising method is developed, its effectiveness in person identification is found to be considerable. Two novel features based on Empirical Mode Decomposition and Hilbert Transform are developed, which provided the best biometric performance amongst all the newly proposed features and other state-of-the-art features reported in the thesis; the other two newly developed wavelet-based features, while having slightly lower recognition accuracies, were computationally more efficient. The quality filtering algorithm is designed to employ the most informative EEG signal segments: experimental results indicate using a small subset of the available data for feature training could receive reasonable improvement in identification rate. The proposed instance-based template reconstruction learning algorithm has shown significant effectiveness when tested using both the publicly available and self-collected databases

EEG Biometrics During Sleep and Wakefulness: Performance Optimization and Security Implications

L’internet des objets et les mégadonnées ont un grand choix de domaines d’application. Dans les soins de santé ils ont le potentiel de déclencher les diagnostics à distance et le suivi en temps réel. Les capteurs pour la santé et la télémédecine promettent de fournir un moyen économique et efficace pour décentraliser des hôpitaux en soulageant leur charge. Dans ce type de système, la présence physique n’est pas contrôlée et peut engendrer des fraudes d’identité. Par conséquent, l'identité du patient doit être confirmée avant que n'importe quelle décision médicale ou financière soit prise basée sur les données surveillées. Des méthodes d’identification/authentification traditionnelles, telles que des mots de passe, peuvent être données à quelqu’un d’autre. Et la biométrie basée sur trait, telle que des empreintes digitales, peut ne pas couvrir le traitement entier et mènera à l’utilisation non autorisée post identification/authentification. Un corps naissant de recherche propose l’utilisation d’EEG puisqu’il présente des modèles uniques difficiles à émuler et utiles pour distinguer des sujets. Néanmoins, certains inconvénients doivent être surmontés pour rendre possible son adoption dans la vraie vie : 1) nombre d'électrodes, 2) identification/authentification continue pendant les différentes tâches cognitives et 3) la durée d’entraînement et de test. Pour adresser ces points faibles et leurs solutions possibles ; une perspective d'apprentissage machine a été employée. Premièrement, une base de données brute de 38 sujets aux étapes d'éveil (AWA) et de sommeil (Rem, S1, S2, SWS) a été employée. En effet, l'enregistrement se fait sur chaque sujet à l’aide de 19 électrodes EEG du cuir chevelu et ensuite des techniques de traitement de signal ont été appliquées pour enlever le bruit et faire l’extraction de 20 attribut dans le domaine fréquentiel. Deux ensembles de données supplémentaires ont été créés : SX (tous les stades de sommeil) et ALL (vigilance + tous les stades de sommeil), faisant 7 le nombre d’ensembles de données qui ont été analysés dans cette thèse. En outre, afin de tester les capacités d'identification et d'authentification tous ces ensembles de données ont été divises en les ensembles des Légitimes et des Intrus. Pour déterminer quels sujets devaient appartenir à l’ensemble des Légitimes, un ratio de validation croisée de 90-10% a été évalué avec différentes combinaisons en nombre de sujets. A la fin, un équilibre entre le nombre de sujets et la performance des algorithmes a été trouvé avec 21 sujets avec plus de 44 epochs dans chaque étape. Le reste (16 sujets) appartient à l’ensemble des Intrus.De plus, un ensemble Hold-out (4 epochs enlevées au hasard de chaque sujet dans l’ensemble des Légitimes) a été créé pour évaluer des résultats dans les données qui n'ont été jamais employées pendant l’entraînement.----------ABSTRACT : Internet of Things and Big Data have a variety of application domains. In healthcare they have the potential to give rise to remote health diagnostics and real-time monitoring. Health sensors and telemedicine applications promise to provide and economic and efficient way to ease patients load in hospitals. The lack of physical presence introduces security risks of identity fraud in this type of system. Therefore, patient's identity needs to be confirmed before any medical or financial decision is made based on the monitored data. Traditional identification/authentication methods, such as passwords, can be given to someone else. And trait-based biometrics, such as fingerprints, may not cover the entire treatment and will lead to unauthorized post-identification/authentication use. An emerging body of research proposes the use of EEG as it exhibits unique patterns difficult to emulate and useful to distinguish subjects. However certain drawbacks need to be overcome to make possible the adoption of EEG biometrics in real-life scenarios: 1) number of electrodes, 2) continuous identification/authentication during different brain stimulus and 3) enrollment and identification/authentication duration. To address these shortcomings and their possible solutions; a machine learning perspective has been applied. Firstly, a full night raw database of 38 subjects in wakefulness (AWA) and sleep stages (Rem, S1, S2, SWS) was used. The recording consists of 19 scalp EEG electrodes. Signal pre-processing techniques were applied to remove noise and extract 20 features in the frequency domain. Two additional datasets were created: SX (all sleep stages) and ALL (wakefulness + all sleep stages), making 7 the number of datasets that were analysed in this thesis. Furthermore, in order to test identification/authentication capabilities all these datasets were split in Legitimates and Intruders sets. To determine which subjects were going to belong to the Legitimates set, a 90-10% cross validation ratio was evaluated with different combinations in number of subjects. At the end, a balance between the number of subjects and algorithm performance was found with 21 subjects with over 44 epochs in each stage. The rest (16 subjects) belongs to the Intruders set. Also, a Hold out set (4 randomly removed epochs from each subject in the Legitimate set) was produced to evaluate results in data that has never been used during training

Novel HHT-Based Features for Biometric Identification Using EEG Signals

In this paper we present a novel approach for biometric identification using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals based on features extracted with the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT). The instantaneous amplitude and the instantaneous frequency were computed after the HHT, and these were then used to generate the features for classification. The proposed system was evaluated using two publicly available databases in scenarios where only a single electrode is used to provide biometric information. One database (with 122 subjects) has the users viewing a series of pictures while the other one (with 109 subjects) has the users performing motor/imagery tasks. Average identification accuracies of 96% and 99% were reached for these two databases respectively using only a single electrode. These compare favourably with previously published results employing a variety of other features and classification approaches