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Biometrics Security and Privacy

Biometrics refers to the automatic recognition of individuals based on their physiological and/or behavioral characteristics.

The Biometrics Security and Privacy (BSP) group at Idiap focuses on three main areas of research:

Biometric recognition: We investigate and develop new biometrics based recognition algorithms, notably for face, voice, and vein biometric modalities.
Presentation attack detection: We look for new and better ways of detecting presentation attacks on face, voice, and vein biometric recognition systems.
Biometric template protection: We research effective methods of preserving both the security of biometric recognition systems and the privacy of their users by protecting the biometric models ("templates") that are employed by the system for recognition purposes.

The BSP group prioritizes reproducibility in research. This is important for ensuring that our work can be both verified and built upon by the wider research community. To enable reproducibility, we mainly make use of our Python-based signal-processing and machine-learning toolbox, Bob, which we make freely available for academic purposes. The group also develops and maintains the BEAT platform -- a MLaaS platform compliant with Swiss and European data-security norms.

The group participates in several large-scale biometrics projects at Swiss (SNSF), European (H2020) or world-wide levels (eg. IARPA/DARPA) but also conducts projects directly with companies.

The BSP group provides also expertise to the Swiss Center for Biometrics Research and Testing, which, among other things, carries out tests and evaluations on commercial products related to biometrics.

Group News

Sanitary and cyber precautions, a key challenge for hospitals

tech — Apr 06, 2020

With one million Swiss francs budget and supported by the Innosuisse agency, the CANDY project will develop and patent a contact-less scanner allowing to identify people using the venous patterns of their hands. The project is a collaboration between the Global ID start-up and Idiap Research Institute.

A biometrics workshop on presentation attack detection

tech — Mar 04, 2020

The European Association for Biometrics organized its workshop at Idiap. European researchers and representatives from various companies gathered to discuss presentation attack detection.

The European Biometrics Research Award goes to Tiago de Freitas Pereira, PostDoc researcher at Idiap

research — Sep 25, 2019

In the face recognition research field, new challenges are going harder as the field limits are expanding. Tiago de Freitas Pereira award from the European Association for Biometrics is a significant recognition for his work during his thesis.

Idiap becomes the world’s third biometrics certification center

institute — May 14, 2019

The reference in authentication standards, the FIDO Alliance has confirmed the accreditation of Idiap’s Biometrics Center as only the third member of a what remains a very exclusive club, placing it at the heart of those security issues that make up the sensitive and fast-growing domain of biometric certification.

Research on silicone face mask attacks rewarded by the IAPR Best Paper Award

research — May 08, 2019

The prestigious International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) bestowed it Best Paper Award during its International Workshop on Biometrics and Forensics. Idiap Biometrics security and privacy research group was among the authors of the awarded paper.

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