Hand Vein Pattern Recognition using Natural Image Statistics

Biometrics is the science of identifying a person using physiological or behavioural characteristics. Hand vein pattern is a recent and unique biometric feature which is used for high secure authentication of individuals. The dorsal hand contains dorsal metacarpal veins, dorsal venous network, cephalic vein and basilic vein.  This paper presents an image descriptor which uses statistical structure of natural images. In this work, stack of natural image patches are used as filters and these transform an image into integer labels describing the small-scale appearance of the image. These labels are converted into histogram and it is used for further image analysis. The feature space contains binarized statistical image features. The proposed work is tested on NCUT dataset with state-of-the-art algorithms. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed work outperforms of the state-of-the-art algorithms with the recognition rate of 99.80 per cent.Defence Science Journal, Vol. 65, No. 2, March 2015, pp.150-158, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.65.731

Biometric Systems

Because of the accelerating progress in biometrics research and the latest nation-state threats to security, this book's publication is not only timely but also much needed. This volume contains seventeen peer-reviewed chapters reporting the state of the art in biometrics research: security issues, signature verification, fingerprint identification, wrist vascular biometrics, ear detection, face detection and identification (including a new survey of face recognition), person re-identification, electrocardiogram (ECT) recognition, and several multi-modal systems. This book will be a valuable resource for graduate students, engineers, and researchers interested in understanding and investigating this important field of study

Fast Dust Sand Image Enhancement Based on Color Correction and New Membership Function

Images captured in dusty environments suffering from poor visibility and quality. Enhancement of these images such as sand dust images plays a critical role in various atmospheric optics applications. In this work, proposed a new model based on Color Correction and new membership function to enhance san dust images. The proposed model consists of three phases: correction of color shift, removal of haze, and enhancement of contrast and brightness. The color shift is corrected using a new membership function to adjust the values of U and V in the YUV color space. The Adaptive Dark Channel Prior (A-DCP) is used for haze removal. The stretching contrast and improving image brightness are based on Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE). The proposed model tests and evaluates through many real sand dust images. The experimental results show that the proposed solution is outperformed the current studies in terms of effectively removing the red and yellow cast and provides high quality and quantity dust images

Observing land-use/land-cover dynamics in semi-arid environment: Evidence from Damaturu Town and its surrounding lands, Yobe State, Nigeria

The fragile Sudano-Sahelian ecological zone of Nigeria has been classified as a hotspot of land cover change (LCC) that has been suffering from serious anthropogenic and biophysical stresses. Damaturu, being the fastest growing town situated in the region happened to be a victim of this negative development. The purpose of this study is to remotely observe and assess the prevailing land-use/land-cover (LULC) dynamics of Damaturu town and its delicate surrounding lands from the year 1987-2017 study periods. To achieve this, a supervised image classification technique with Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) algorithm was used in ERDAS Imagine version 15 software to classify the three epochs multi-temporal and multi-spectral Landsat imageries (TM 1987, ETM+7 2000 and OLI 2017). The classified LULC maps and their resulting statistics were then used to assess the spatio-temporal aspects of the observed changes by placing the results within the wider context of previous related literature and evidences. Findings revealed that the built-up area has been expanding since 1987 with an annual change rate of 4.5% between 1987-2000, and 5.3% during 2000-2017 respectively. The growth of the town is being accompanied by massive farmlands expansion and vegetal cover (trees and shrubs) lost making the surrounding arable lands seriously disturbed. Thus, if the observed trends continue, the entire studied region will be subjected to severe environmental hazard such as desertification. Overall, the study provides valuable information required for sustainable  environmental management

Forensic Analysis

It is my pleasure to place before you the book ''Forensic Analysis - From Death to Justice'' which presents one of the major portions of the broad specialty of Forensic Science comprising mainly of Thanatology and Criminalistics. This book has been designed to incorporate a wide range of new ideas and unique works from all authors from topics like Forensic Engineering, Forensic Entomology and Crime Scene Investigation. I hope that it will be useful to practitioners of forensic medicine, experts, pathologists, law makers, investigating authorities, undergraduate and postgraduate medical school graduates of medicine

Face Liveness Detection under Processed Image Attacks

Face recognition is a mature and reliable technology for identifying people. Due to high-definition cameras and supporting devices, it is considered the fastest and the least intrusive biometric recognition modality. Nevertheless, effective spoofing attempts on face recognition systems were found to be possible. As a result, various anti-spoofing algorithms were developed to counteract these attacks. They are commonly referred in the literature a liveness detection tests. In this research we highlight the effectiveness of some simple, direct spoofing attacks, and test one of the current robust liveness detection algorithms, i.e. the logistic regression based face liveness detection from a single image, proposed by the Tan et al. in 2010, against malicious attacks using processed imposter images. In particular, we study experimentally the effect of common image processing operations such as sharpening and smoothing, as well as corruption with salt and pepper noise, on the face liveness detection algorithm, and we find that it is especially vulnerable against spoofing attempts using processed imposter images. We design and present a new facial database, the Durham Face Database, which is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to have client, imposter as well as processed imposter images. Finally, we evaluate our claim on the effectiveness of proposed imposter image attacks using transfer learning on Convolutional Neural Networks. We verify that such attacks are more difficult to detect even when using high-end, expensive machine learning techniques

The doctoral research abstracts Vol:1 2012 / Institute of Graduate Studies, UiTM

Foreword: Congratulations to Institute of Graduate Studies on the 1st issue of The Doctoral Research Abstracts. This inaugural issue consists of 40 abstracts from our PhD graduands receiving their scrolls in the UiTM’s 76th Convocation. This convocation is very significant especially for UiTM since we are celebrating the success of 40 PhD graduands from 12 of the university’s 25 faculties – the largest number ever conferred at any one time. To the 40 doctorates, I would like it to be known that you have most certainly done UiTM proud by journeying through the scholastic path with its endless challenges and impediments, and by persevering right till the very end. Let it remain in your thoughts and hearts that knowledge is Godgiven, and for those of us who have some to spare, never fear to share with those around us, and never be sparing in serving the community and the country, in the name of the Almighty. Dato’ Prof Ir Dr Sahol Hamid Bin Abu Bakar , FASc Vice Chancellor Universiti Teknologi MAR

Handbook of Vascular Biometrics

This open access handbook provides the first comprehensive overview of biometrics exploiting the shape of human blood vessels for biometric recognition, i.e. vascular biometrics, including finger vein recognition, hand/palm vein recognition, retina recognition, and sclera recognition. After an introductory chapter summarizing the state of the art in and availability of commercial systems and open datasets/open source software, individual chapters focus on specific aspects of one of the biometric modalities, including questions of usability, security, and privacy. The book features contributions from both academia and major industrial manufacturers