DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMPUTERIZED BIOMETRIC (FACE AND FINGER PRINT) DETECTION AND RECOGNITION SYSTEM

Description

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

As the necessity for higher levels of security rises, technology is bound as well to fulfill these needs. Any new creation, enterprise, or development should be uncomplicated and acceptable for end users in order to spread worldwide. This strong demand for user-friendly systems which can secure our assets and protect our privacy without losing our identity has grabbed the attention of computer scientists toward what is called biometrics.

Biometrics is the emerging area of bioengineering; it is the automated method of recognizing a person based on a physiology. There exist several biometric systems such as finger prints, voice, iris, retina, hand geometry, ear geometry, and face. Among these systems, face and fingerprint recognition appears to be the most universal, collectable, and accessible systems (Jeff, 2006).

Authentication systems for computerized Biometric in face and finger prints recognition is being studied as a method to be used in recognition and detection of criminals in the society when data are being collected from crime scenes or from the actual criminals. This study targets at producing a reliable, efficient and maintainable software that can carter the expanding needs of law enforcement agencies like the Nigerian police force, Nigerian army force and related agencies who explore crime scenes for evidence during investigations. The system would identify a user, based on specified parameters needed for the authentication process to be successful. This research work will also focus on criminal database management system because it will ensure thorough security control of the system by accepting face recognition together with finger print technology.

• Background of the Study

Automated face and fingerprint biometric recognition has relatively been in play for some years now. Developed in the 1960s, the first semi-automated system for face recognition required the administrator to locate features ( such as eyes, ears, nose, and mouth) on the photographs before it calculated distances and ratios to a common reference point, which were then compared to reference data. In the 1970s, Goldstein, Harmon, and Lesk used 21 specific subjective markers such as hair color and lip thickness to automate the recognition.

In 1988, Kirby and Sirovich applied principle component analysis, a standard linear algebra technique, to the face recognition problem. This was considered somewhat of a milestone as it showed that less than one hundred values were required to accurately code a suitably aligned and normalized face image.

Today, face recognition and fingerprint technology is being used to combat passport fraud, support law enforcement, identify missing children, and minimize benefit/identity fraud. In the digital age, both systems use the computer software application that can identify individual analyzing the features of facial shape and fingerprint ridges (contours).

A lot of biometrics are used today and each biometrics has its strength and weaknesses. No single biometrics is expected to meet the requirement for all the applications. In determining what sort of authentication to use, one should weigh factors such as what the system is trying to identify.  Another consideration is which sort of techniques are to be applied such as; voice recognition, fingerprinting, iris recognition or hand geometry recognition,  will also work for identifications and verification processes to succeed. Also, using more than one template, such as the use of a suspect/criminal ring finger and index finger for identification purposes, username and password authentication. Face and fingerprint authentications are an application of the defense in depth principle. This is also called levels of security or levels of protection.

In this research work, an identification system such as face and fingerprint biometrics will be used for identification by searching the database for a match.

A database management system (DBMS) of this nature, would aim at working with the help of a designed software that can control the creation, maintenance and the use of the database. Restrictions to unauthorized users of the system will be given utmost concern.

• Statement of the Problem

System authorization and authentication to grant access to only legitimate users have proven to be difficult using the conventional username and password approach. This is as a result of stolen username and password, phishing, social engineering, inadequate durability of record storage, manipulation of authorization data, etc.

A biometric approach of authentication is postulated in advance method of authentication as it may be nearly impossible or extremely difficult to falsify a human biometric information to grant access into a system. This will reduce and nearly eliminate unauthorized access into computerized systems.

The problems associated with this Research, are as follows:

1. Lack of adequate biometric authentication system.
2. Poor information maintenance.
3. Inadequate durability of record storing.

• Aim and Objectives of the study

The main aim of the study is to design and develop an authentication and recognition system, using biometric. Specifically, the objectives are:

1. To design a system with authentication using biometric technology such as face recognition and finger print device.
2. To determine the effectiveness of records using database management system.

• To implement a search module for easy searching of records in the database.

1.4 Scope of Study                                 

This research study is focused on the Nigerian Police force and other related agencies data management section that is saddled with poor record keeping of information’s of criminals.

1.5 Significance of Study

This research is of great importance because it will provide adequate security for records stored, as they pertain to the new system, and accept the day-to-day data gotten and also those modified during investigations and other relevant activities of the law enforcement outfit.

 1.6   Limitation of the Study

The study is limited by the following;

1. Finance: During the research process, the researcher lacked enough finance to effectively collect life data to be used and tested from real criminals.
2. Time: Due to other educational activities, the researcher had limited time to extensively research about this research work.

• Hoarding of Information: Vital information’s were kept away from the researcher by the Nigerian police force, because of their sensitive nature.

1.7   Definition of Terms

Face Recognition: is a computer application capable of identifying or verifying a person from a digital image or a video frame from a video source.

Fingerprint: The unique natural pattern of ridges or contours on the tips of the fingers.

Biometric Verification: is any means by which a person can be uniquely identified by evaluating one or more distinguishing biological traits.

Management: This is the act of handling or controlling something successfully.

Records: A record is a collection of fields. It is also a unit of grouped data within a file that contains information of a specific kind or type.