JISC

This report presents an evaluation of new technologies for person identification using joint audio and video models of individuals for greater robustness and resistance to unauthorised access.

The combined and simultaneous use of audio and video information provides a greater degree of security as tampering any one of these sources would not be enough for false access and authentication. Joint audio-visual models for individuals may be encrypted and placed on smart cards and used for authentication and controlled access to buildings and resources.

With the increasing availability of desktop video-conferencing and the decline in the price and availability of multimedia video capture and processing equipment the use of joint audio-visual processing for authentication and access control is becoming feasible and cost-effective. It is important to assess the state of the art and potential applicability of these technologies in the Higher Education context.

The report introduces the current techniques being explored for the extraction of biometrically significant audio and visual features. Next the various approaches for combining the information from the two sources is described. These include layered systems where the different modalities are considered in turn and fused systems where either the features or the decisions based on them are used simultaneously to come to a final decision on identity.

The report contains a section on potential application of such biometric authentication and recognition systems in a Higher Education setting. The report also contains a description of current commercial biometric systems that provide both audio and video modalities. Their ability to provide joint audio-visual functionality as well as issues relating to their cost and feasibility of deployment in a Higher Education setting  is explored.

Report available electronically only. Read the final report below.