Introduction to Biometrics

TLDR: This tutorial is to introduce the fundamentals of biometric technology from a pattern recognition and signal processing perspective by discussing some of the prominent techniques used in the field and to convey the recent advances made in this field especially in the context of security, privacy and forensics.

Abstract: Biometric recognition, or simply biometrics, is the science of establishing the identity of a person based on physical or behavioral attributes. It is a rapidly evolving field with applications ranging from securely accessing ones computer to gaining entry into a country. While the deployment of large-scale biometric systems in both commercial and government applications has increased the public awareness of this technology, "Introduction to Biometrics" is the first textbook to introduce the fundamentals of Biometrics to undergraduate/graduate students. The three commonly used modalities in the biometrics field, namely, fingerprint, face, and iris are covered in detail in this book. Few other modalities like hand geometry, ear, and gait are also discussed briefly along with advanced topics such as multibiometric systems and security of biometric systems. Exercises for each chapter will be available on the book website to help students gain a better understanding of the topics and obtain practical experience in designing computer programs for biometric applications. These can be found at: http://www.csee.wvu.edu/~ross/BiometricsTextBook/.Designed for undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and electrical engineering, "Introduction to Biometrics" is also suitable for researchers and biometric and computer security professionals.