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Biometrics Security & 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

« My career at Idiap allowed me to establish a standard »

research — Mar 09, 2021

Since his arrival at Idiap 20 years ago, Sébastien Marcel is shaking up the research community in biometry. After several major projects and a long term hard work, the researcher established the bases for a new biometrics standard.

Android accredits Idiap's biometrics center

tech — Oct 21, 2020

To face the increasing use of biometrics systems, Android set up its own certification standard. The biometrics center of Idiap became accredited to deliver certificates meeting these standards. This competence builds up on the FIDO accreditation obtained in 2019.

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.

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Group Job Openings

Several Openings for Cross-Disciplinary Senior Researcher positions — by admin — last modified Mar 01, 2021: With the growth of the institute, in addition to increased Federal funding to further support its activities, Idiap is opening several additional permanent senior research scientist positions.

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