Biometrics: Accessibility challenge or opportunity?

Biometric recognition is currently implemented in several authentication contexts, most recently in mobile devices where it is expected to complement or even replace traditional authentication modalities such as PIN (Personal Identification Number) or passwords. The assumed convenience characteristics of biometrics are transparency, reliability and ease of use, however, the question of whether biometric recognition is as intuitive and straightforward to use is open to debate. Can biometric systems make some tasks easier for people with accessibility concerns? To investigate this question, an accessibility evaluation of a mobile app was conducted where test subjects withdraw money from a fictitious ATM (Automated Teller Machine) scenario. The biometric authentication mechanisms used include face, voice, and fingerprint. Furthermore, we employed traditional modalities of PIN and pattern in order to check if biometric recognition is indeed a real improvement. The trial test subjects within this work were people with real-life accessibility concerns. A group of people without accessibility concerns also participated, providing a baseline performance. Experimental results are presented concerning performance, HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) and accessibility, grouped according to category of accessibility concern. Our results reveal links between individual modalities and user category establishing guidelines for future accessible biometric products

Attacking a smartphone biometric fingerprint system:a novice’s approach

Biometric systems on mobile devices are an increasingly ubiquitous method for identity verification. The majority of contemporary devices have an embedded fingerprint sensor which may be used for a variety of transactions including unlock a device or sanction a payment. In this study we explore how easy it is to successfully attack a fingerprint system using a fake finger manufactured from commonly available materials. Importantly our attackers were novices to producing the fingers and were also constrained by time. Our study shows the relative ease that modern devices can be attacked and the material combinations that lead to these attacks

Time evolution of face recognition in accessible scenarios

© 2015, Blanco-Gonzalo et al.Up to now, biometric recognition has shown significant advantages as to be considered a reliable solution for security systems in mobile environments. Nevertheless, due to the short lifetime of biometrics in mobile devices, a handful of concerns regarding usability and accessibility need to be covered in order to meet users’ requirements. This work is focused on analysing the usability and accessibility of a face recognition system used by visually impaired people, focusing on the time spent in the process, which is a critical aspect. Specifically, we cover different key questions including which kind of feedback is more useful for visually impaired users and beneficial for performance and how is the performance evolution in contrast with the time spent in the recognition. Our findings suggest that several parameters improve along with the time spent in the process, including performance. The audio feedback provided in real time involves also better performance and user experience than instructions given previously

Blind subjects faces database

Using your face to unlock a mobile device is not only an appealing security solution, but also a desirable or entertaining feature, such as taking selfies. It is convenient, fast, and does not require much effort, but only if you have no vision problems. For users with visual impairments, taking selfies could potentially be a challenging task. In order to study the usability and ensure the inclusion of mobile-based identity authentication technology, we have collected the Blind-Subjects Faces Data Base (BSFDB). Ensuring that technology is accessible to disabled people is important because they account for about 15% of the world population. The BSFDB database contains several individuals with visual disabilities who took selfies with a mock-up mobile device. The experimental settings vary in the image acquisition process or experimental protocol. Four experimental protocols are defined by a dichotomy of two controlled covariates, namely, whether or not a subject is guided by audio feedback and whether or not he/she has received explicit instructions to take the selfie. Our findings suggest that the importance of appropriate design of human computer interaction as well as alternative feedback design. The BSFDB database can be used to investigate topics such as usability, accessibility of the face recognition technology, or its algorithmic performance. All the gathered data is publicly available online including videos of the experiments with more than 70,000 face images of blind and partially blind subjects