A multi-channel soft biometrics framework for seamless border crossings

As the number of passengers at border entry points such as airports and rail stations increases, so does the demand for seamless, secure, and fast biometric technologies for verification purposes. Although fingerprints are currently useful biometric technologies, they are intrusive and slow down the end-to-end verification process, increasing the chances of tampering. Emerging as an alternative technology, soft biometrics have proven successful for non-intrusive and rapid verification. Soft biometrics consists of a large set of features from three different modalities of the human body, including the face, body, and essential & auxiliary attachments. This paper proposes a multi-channel soft biometrics framework that leverages soft biometrics technology over traditional biometrics. The framework encapsulates four distinct components: ApparelNet, which verifies essential and auxiliary attachments; A-Net, which measures anthropometric soft biometrics; OneDetect, which predicts global soft biometrics; and RSFS, which develops a set of highly relevant and supportive soft biometrics for verification. The proposed framework addresses several critical limitations of existing biometrics technologies during the verification process at border entry points, such as intrusive behavior, response time, biometric tampering, and privacy issues. The proposed multi-channel soft biometrics framework has been evaluated using several benchmark datasets in the field, such as Front-view Gait (FVG), Pedestrian Attribute Recognition At Far Distance (PETA), and Multimedia and Vision (MMV) Pedestrian. Using heterogeneous datasets enables the testing of each framework component or channel against numerous constrained and unconstrained scenarios. The outcome of the envisioned multi-channel soft biometrics framework is presented based on distinct outcomes from each channel, but it remains focused on determining a single cumulative verification score for verification at border control. In addition, this multi-channel soft biometrics framework has extended applications in several fields, including crowd surveillance, the fashion industry, and e-learning

Το πρόσωπο ως στοιχείο της ταυτότητας και οι ψηφιακές τεχνολογίες αναγνώρισής του

Ανέκαθεν το πρόσωπο και η ταυτότητα ήταν δύο όροι συγγενείς. Έμελλε να εισβάλλουν στο παρασκήνιο οι τεχνολογίες αναγνώρισης προσώπου για να υπογραμμίσουν ξανά τη στενή τους αυτή σχέση και να ανακαινίσουν προϋπάρχοντες προβληματισμούς που είχαν για πολλά χρόνια ωθηθεί στο περιθώριο. Ερωτήματα ανέκυψαν ως προς τον ορισμό, την έννοια, τη φύση του προσώπου, τη σχέση του με την αναγνώριση του φορέα και την εξεύρεση της ταυτότητάς του, την επιρροή των νέων τεχνολογιών επί όλων αυτών των στοιχείων. Σε περίπτωση αρνητικών επιπτώσεων των τελευταίων αναζητήθηκαν οι τομείς που αυτές εντοπίζονται και πιθανές τους λύσεις, ενώ τονίστηκαν οι ήδη συντελεσθείσες και μελλοντικές χρήσεις τους με θετικό πρόσημο. Αφενός, εκκινώντας από ετυμολογικές παρατηρήσεις, εμβαθύνοντας στη συνέχεια σε φιλοσοφικές και κοινωνιολογικές προσεγγίσεις επιχειρείται μια πολύπλευρη εξέταση του προσώπου, για να φανερωθεί ο διττός του χαρακτήρας: ως διατομικό και καθαρά υποκειμενικό αγαθό. Αφετέρου, καθοριστική είναι η εστίαση στις τεχνολογίες αναγνώρισης προσώπου: ο ορισμός, μια σύντομη επεξήγηση των τεχνικών μεθόδων που μετέρχονται, ο τρόπος λειτουργίας τους και οι τομείς στους οποίους έχουν εισαχθεί, από τους πιο κοινούς όπως αυτούς της επιβολής του νόμου, της αστυνόμευσης, του συνοριακού ελέγχου που περικλείονται υπό τη σκέπη της ασφάλειας, αλλά και σε αυτούς της υγείας, της οικονομίας, της εκπαίδευσης. Η εφαρμογή των τεχνολογιών έχει επιφέρει σίγουρα πολλά πλεονεκτήματα, αλλά δεν μπορεί κανείς να παραβλέψει τα διακυβεύματα που γεννά. Εξάλλου, για να εξασφαλιστεί η ομαλή εφαρμογή τους και η δράση τους υπέρ και όχι εις βάρος του δημιουργού τους, των ανθρώπων δει να ριχθεί φως στις γκρίζες περιοχές των συστημάτων αυτών, να εντοπιστούν κίνδυνοι που ελλοχεύουν και να αντιμετωπιστούν στο μέτρο που είναι δυνατό. Αυτό θα επιτευχθεί μονάχα με ένα πλήρες, ανθρωποκεντρικό πλαίσιο που θα είναι ένα αμάλγαμα δεοντολογίας, πρωτοβουλιών, καλών πρακτικών και νομοθεσίας, θα έχει διακρατική ισχύ και θα είναι καρπός αμοιβαίων υποχωρήσεων και συμβιβασμών. Συνεπώς, η ισχύουσα νομοθεσία, οι ηθικές πρακτικές και οι τεχνολογικές λύσεις που έχουν ήδη τεθεί σε εφαρμογή ή έστω βρίσκονται επί τάπητος και αναμένεται να αποτελέσουν έμπνευση για μελλοντικά βήματα είναι τα αντίβαρα στους κινδύνους.Since time immemorial, face and identity have been closely related terms. Facial recognition technologies underlined once more their relation and raised already-existing concerns that have been left behind for years. Questions arose regarding the definition, the notion and the nature of the face, its relation with the identification of its carrier and the discovery of their identity and the influence of modern technologies to all those elements. In the cases of negative ramifications of the latter the fields in which they are encountered as well as possible solutions were examined, while their positive future usages were underlined. On the one hand, beginning with etymological observation and getting a deeper insight with philosophical and sociological approaches the notion of the face is examined in a wholistic manner, so as to present its dual character; as a catholic and as an individual good. On the other hand, the focus on facial recognition technologies is urgent: their definition, a brief explanation of the technical methods they deploy, their way of operation and the fields to which they have been introduced, from the most regular ones as law enforcement, policing, border control which are summoned under the notion of security, but also in those of health, economy and education. The application of those technologies comes with advantages, but also one should not overlook the possible risks. In any case, in order to guarantee their soft operation and their action in favour and not against their creators, namely humans, it is vital to shed light on their grey areas, to trace the dangers and to confront them to the possible extent. This will be achieved through a wholistic, human-centric framework which will combine deontology, initiatives, good practices, legislation, have transnational force and be the outcome of mutual concessions and compromises. As a result, the legal framework, the ethical practices and the technological solutions that are already in force or under discussion and are anticipated to constitute inspiration for future steps will counterweigh the dangers

Recent advances in facial soft biometrics

Face as a biometric attribute has been extensively studied over the past few decades. Even though, satisfactory results are already achieved in controlled environments, the practicality of face recognition in realistic scenarios is still limited by several challenges, such as, expression, pose, occlusion, etc. Recently, the research direction is concentrating on the prospects of complementing face recognition systems with facial soft biometric traits. The ease of extracting facial soft biometrics under several varying conditions has mainly resulted in the ability of using the traits to, either improve the performance of traditional face recognition systems, or performing recognition solely based on many facial soft biometrics. This paper presents state-of-the-art techniques in facial soft biometrics research by describing the type of traits, feature extraction methods, and the application domains. It indicates the most recent and valuable results attained, while also highlighting some possible future scientific research directions to be investigated