An Overview on Privacy Preserving Biometrics

The Internet has consolidated itself as a very powerful platform that has changed the communication and business way. Nowadays, the number of users navigating through Internet is about 1,552 millions according to Internet World Stats. This large audience demands online commerce, e-government, knowledge sharing, social networks, online gaming . . . which grew exponentially over the past few years. The security of these transactions is very important considering the number of information that could be intercepted by an attacker. Within this context, authentication is one of the most important challenges in computer security. Indeed, the authentication step is often considered as the weakest link in the security of electronic transactions. In general, the protection of the message content is achieved by using cryptographic protocols that are well known and established. The well-known ID/password is far the most used authentication method, it is widely spread despite its obvious lack of security. This is mainly due to its implementation ease and to its ergonomic feature: the users are used to this system, which enhances its acceptance and deployment. Many more sophisticated solutions exist in the state of the art to secure logical access control (one time passwords tokens, certificates . . . ) but none of them are used by a large community of users for a lack of simplicity usage (O'Gorman, 2003)..

FRAMEWORK FOR CRISIS-RESISTANT ENGINEERING PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT COURSES

This paper proposes a framework for the systematic adaptation and digitalisation of engineering product development courses in the event of a crisis. Applicants can use resources of the framework to identify crisis-related boundary conditions that impact the delivery of education and are assisted in determining the necessary level of course digitalisation to respond to the crisis. Furthermore, the framework comprehends a review of modern educational teaching objectives, as well as a table containing tools and methodologies linked to educational targets. These can be used to enhance course design to keep students independently of their learning profiles engaged in study activities and to uphold an excellent knowledge acquisition in a volatile environment. An exemplary application of the framework on a CAD course in a higher education context guides the educator through the processes

Object-Independent Human-to-Robot Handovers using Real Time Robotic Vision

We present an approach for safe and object-independent human-to-robot handovers using real time robotic vision and manipulation. We aim for general applicability with a generic object detector, a fast grasp selection algorithm and by using a single gripper-mounted RGB-D camera, hence not relying on external sensors. The robot is controlled via visual servoing towards the object of interest. Putting a high emphasis on safety, we use two perception modules: human body part segmentation and hand/finger segmentation. Pixels that are deemed to belong to the human are filtered out from candidate grasp poses, hence ensuring that the robot safely picks the object without colliding with the human partner. The grasp selection and perception modules run concurrently in real-time, which allows monitoring of the progress. In experiments with 13 objects, the robot was able to successfully take the object from the human in 81.9% of the trials.Comment: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L). Preprint Version. Accepted September, 2020. The code and videos can be found at https://patrosat.github.io/h2r_handovers

Spatial consequences of bridging the saccadic gap

We report six experiments suggesting that conscious perception is actively redrafted to take account of events both before and after the event that is reported. When observers saccade to a stationary object they overestimate its duration, as if the brain were filling in the saccadic gap with the post-saccadic image. We first demonstrate that this illusion holds for moving objects, implying that the perception of time, velocity, and distance traveled become discrepant. We then show that this discrepancy is partially resolved up to 500 ms after a saccade: the perceived offset position of a post-saccadic moving stimulus shows a greater forward mislocalization when pursued after a saccade than during pursuit alone. These data are consistent with the idea that the temporal bias is resolved by the subsequent spatial adjustment to provide a percept that is coherent in its gist but inconsistent in its detail

Inner ear dysfunction in caspase-3 deficient mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Caspase-3 is one of the most downstream enzymes activated in the apoptotic pathway. In caspase-3 deficient mice, loss of cochlear hair cells and spiral ganglion cells coincide closely with hearing loss. In contrast with the auditory system, details of the vestibular phenotype have not been characterized. Here we report the vestibular phenotype and inner ear anatomy in the caspase-3 deficient (<it>Casp3</it>^<it>-/-</it>) mouse strain.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Average ABR thresholds of <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>-/- </it>}mice were significantly elevated (<it>P </it>< 0.05) compared to <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>+/- </it>}mice and <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>+/+ </it>}mice at 3 months of age. In DPOAE testing, distortion product 2F1-F2 was significantly decreased (<it>P </it>< 0.05) in <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>-/- </it>}mice, whereas <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>+/- </it>}and <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>+/+ </it>}mice showed normal and comparable values to each other. <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>-/- </it>}mice were hyperactive and exhibited circling behavior when excited. In lateral canal VOR testing, <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>-/- </it>}mice had minimal response to any of the stimuli tested, whereas <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>+/- </it>}mice had an intermediate response compared to <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>+/+ </it>}mice. Inner ear anatomical and histological analysis revealed gross hypomorphism of the vestibular organs, in which the main site was the anterior semicircular canal. Hair cell numbers in the anterior- and lateral crista, and utricle were significantly smaller in <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>-/- </it>}mice whereas the <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>+/- </it>}and <it>Casp3</it>^{<it>+/+ </it>}mice had normal hair cell numbers.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results indicate that caspase-3 is essential for correct functioning of the cochlea as well as normal development and function of the vestibule.</p

Memory Carving in Embedded Devices: Separate the Wheat from the Chaff

International audienceThis paper investigates memory carving techniques for embedded devices. Given that cryptographic material in memory dumps makes carving techniques inefficient, we introduce a methodology to distinguish meaningful information from cryptographic material in smallsized memory dumps. The proposed methodology uses an adaptive boosting technique with statistical tests. Experimented on EMV cards, the methodology recognized 92% of meaningful information and 98% of cryptographic material

Resistive exercise with or without super-imposed whole-body vibration acutely effects bone turnover

[Background] Exercise is one of the well-known constituents to improve bone mass and to retain bone strength. Only few studies have reached the effects of resistive exercise on sclerostin levels, a protein that is thought to play a key role in orchestrating bone’s mechanical adaptation. Sclerostin is produced and released by osteocytes and acts as an inhibitor of bone formation through inhibition of the Wnt/β-catenin-signaling pathway. The objective of this study was to evaluate acute and long-term effects of exercise on bone biochemical marker expression. More specifically, we aimed to understand differences in the responses to resistance exercise with or without whole-body vibration. [Methods] A six week training intervention was performed including 26 healthy males (26 years, SD=4) in in a randomized parallel design. Performing either resistive exercise (RE, n=13) or resistive vibration exercise (RVE, n=13) training, with weekly increasing vibration frequencies 20-40 Hz. Serum samples were collected both at the initial and final exercise session. Changes in carboxy-terminal cross-linked telopeptide of type I collagen (sCTX-I), as a marker of bone resorption, and of procollagen type I amino terminal propeptide (P1NP) as a specific marker of bone formation as well as serum sclerostin concentrations were measured via ELISA (sCTX-I and sclerostin) or RIA (P1NP) measurements. [Results] Serum markers of sCTX-I decreased by 15% within the first minutes following either training intervention, both regarding the initial and final training session. Subsequently, levels of sCTX-I returned back to pre-bout baseline after RE (time effect: P<0.001), and they depicted an overshoot by 18% after 75min. Serum levels of P1NP depicted an acute increase by 15% to exercise (P<0.001). P1NP levels were non-substantially increased in RE at the end of the 6 week intervention (P<0.001), but decreased by 10% in RVE, as compared to baseline (P< 0.001). Pre-bout levels of sclerostin were marginally lowered at the end of the 6 week training phase. After the exercise bouts, sclerostin levels increased within the first minutes both RE and RVE (time effect: P<0.001). Notably, sclerostin responses to the initial exercise bouts differed significantly between RE and RVE P=0.029. [Conclusion] The present findings suggest that in young healthy adults both conditions RE and RVE elicited an acute exercise-induced bone resorption without any acute change in bone formation. Results are compatible with the idea that this response was mediated by sclerosti