Facial soft biometric features for forensic face recognition

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Forensic Science International. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Forensic Science International, VOL 257, (2015) DOI 10.1016/j.forsciint.2015.09.002This paper proposes a functional feature-based approach useful for real forensic caseworks, based on the shape, orientation and size of facial traits, which can be considered as a soft biometric approach. The motivation of this work is to provide a set of facial features, which can be understood by non-experts such as judges and support the work of forensic examiners who, in practice, carry out a thorough manual comparison of face images paying special attention to the similarities and differences in shape and size of various facial traits. This new approach constitutes a tool that automatically converts a set of facial landmarks to a set of features (shape and size) corresponding to facial regions of forensic value. These features are furthermore evaluated in a population to generate statistics to support forensic examiners. The proposed features can also be used as additional information that can improve the performance of traditional face recognition systems. These features follow the forensic methodology and are obtained in a continuous and discrete manner from raw images. A statistical analysis is also carried out to study the stability, discrimination power and correlation of the proposed facial features on two realistic databases: MORPH and ATVS Forensic DB. Finally, the performance of both continuous and discrete features is analyzed using different similarity measures. Experimental results show high discrimination power and good recognition performance, especially for continuous features. A final fusion of the best systems configurations achieves rank 10 match results of 100% for ATVS database and 75% for MORPH database demonstrating the benefits of using this information in practice.This work has been partially supported by Spanish Guardia Civil, projects Bio-Shield (TEC2012-34881) from Spanish MINECO and BEAT (FP7-SEC-284989) from EU, and Catedra UAM Telefonica

Defining Biometrics: Toward a Transnational Ethic of Personal Information

Innovations in biotechnology, computer science, and engineering throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries dramatically expanded possible modes of data-based surveillance and personal identification. More specifically, new technologies facilitated enormous growth in the biometrics sector. The response to the explosion of biometric technologies was two-fold. While intelligence agencies, militaries, and multinational corporations embraced new opportunities to fortify and expand security measures, many individuals objected to what they perceived as serious threats to privacy and bodily autonomy. These reactions spurred both further technological innovation, and a simultaneous proliferation of hastily drafted policies, laws, and regulations governing the collection, use, and sharing of biometric data. In this paper, I argue that these policies are predicated on a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of biometric information. Definitions of biometrics presume that “biologicalness” is binary. These definitions also imply, for a number of reasons, that biometric information is more dangerous than other kinds of personal information, therefore requiring stricter regulation. I propose an alternative explanation of biometrics, situating biometric information on a larger spectrum of personal information, rather than in a discrete category of its own. This revised definition of biometrics is necessary to effectively regulate personal information, particularly as the trend of rapid technological growth and change continues. I focus, in particular, on the implications of these findings in a transnational context, where transmission of personal information is largely unregulated, and has significant impact on international relations, security, and individual privacy

The role of information systems in the prevention and detection of transnational and international crime

© Cambridge University Press 2014. All around the world criminal activity remains at the forefront of governmental concerns, not only as a problem that distorts the very fabric of society within the confines of national jurisdictions, but also as a problem that cuts across national borders to exhibit a global dimension. The international dimension of criminal activity remains critical and is generally characterized by a complexity that is unique and requires action on many different levels. Criminals set out to mask their illegal activities and deliberately generate complexity as a means of concealment. In doing so, they exploit new developments in technology that assist them in achieving their ends. This criminality exhibits forms of innovation that stretch far beyond traditional criminal activity (e.g., drug and human trafficking) and manages to attach itself within the broader fabric of society by exploiting the very latest developments. This evolution is necessary as criminals seek not only to escape arrest, prosecution and conviction, but also to enjoy the fruits of their criminality (mostly financial gains). Thus, they seek to develop ways of exploiting the various diffuse norms of social interaction (e.g., trust), financial modes of conduct (e.g., cash-based economies), technological and communication developments (e.g., Internet), and thereby minimize the possibility for detection. By limiting the resources that can be made available for prevention (or making them obsolete when developing new criminal behaviour), they participate in this co-evolution actively; and this they achieve by generating complexity