Multi-modal authentication using score fusion of ECG and fingerprints

Abstract

Biometric technologies have become widely available in many different fields. However, biometric technologies using existing physical features such as fingerprints, facial features, irises, and veins must consider forgery and alterations targeting them through fraudulent physical characteristics such as fake fingerprints. Thus, a trend toward next-generation biometric technologies using behavioral biometrics of a living person, such as bio-signals and walking characteristics, has emerged. Accordingly, in this study, we developed a bio-signal authentication algorithm using electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, which are the most uniquely identifiable form of bio-signal available. When using ECG signals with our system, the personal identification and authentication accuracy are approximately 90% during a state of rest. When using fingerprints alone, the equal error rate (EER) is 0.243%; however, when fusing the scores of both the ECG signal and fingerprints, the EER decreases to 0.113% on average. In addition, as a function of detecting a presentation attack on a mobile phone, a method for rejecting a transaction when a fake fingerprint is applied was successfully implemented. © The Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering.