FNIRS: A new modality for brain activity-based biometric authentication

Abdul Serwadda, Vir V. Phoha, Sujit Poudel, Leanne M. Hirshfield, Danushka Bandara, Sarah E. Bratt, Mark R. Costa

Research output: Chapter in Book/Entry/PoemConference contribution

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

There is a rapidly increasing amount of research on the use of brain activity patterns as a basis for biometric user verification. The vast majority of this research is based on Electroencephalogram (EEG), a technology which measures the electrical activity along the scalp. In this paper, we evaluate Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) as an alternative approach to brain activity-based user authentication. fNIRS is centered around the measurement of light absorbed by blood and, compared to EEG, has a higher signal-to-noise ratio, is more suited for use during normal working conditions, and has a much higher spatial resolution which enables targeted measurements of specific brain regions. Based on a dataset of 50 users that was analysed using an SVM and a Naïve Bayes classifier, we show fNIRS to respectively give EERs of 0.036 and 0.046 when using our best channel configuration. Further, we present some results on the areas of the brain which demonstrated highest discriminative power. Our findings indicate that fNIRS has significant promise as a biometric authentication modality.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2015 IEEE 7th International Conference on Biometrics Theory, Applications and Systems, BTAS 2015
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9781479987764
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 16 2015
Event7th IEEE International Conference on Biometrics Theory, Applications and Systems, BTAS 2015 - Arlington, United States
Duration: Sep 8 2015Sep 11 2015

Publication series

Name2015 IEEE 7th International Conference on Biometrics Theory, Applications and Systems, BTAS 2015

Other

Other7th IEEE International Conference on Biometrics Theory, Applications and Systems, BTAS 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityArlington
Period9/8/159/11/15

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Statistics and Probability
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Biomedical Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'FNIRS: A new modality for brain activity-based biometric authentication'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this