Hand Geometry:
This approach uses the geometric shape of the hand for authenticating a user's identity. Authentication of identity using hand geometry is an interesting problem. Individual hand features are not descriptive enough for identification. However, it is possible to devise a method by combining various individual features to attain robust verification.
Hand Geometry vs Fingerprints:
Unlike fingerprints, the human hand isn't unique. One can use finger length, thickness, and curvature for the purposes of verification but not for identification. For some kinds of access control like immigration and border control, invasive biometrics (eg., fingerprints) may not be desirable as they infringe on privacy. In such situations it is desirable to have a biometric system that is sufficient for verification. As hand geometry is not distinctive, it is the ideal choice. Furthermore, hand geometry data is easier to collect. With fingerprint collection good frictional skin is required by imaging systems, and with retina-based recognition systems, special lighting is necessary. Additionally, hand geometry can be easily combined with other biometrics, namely fingerprint. One can envision a system where fingerprints are used for (infrequent) identification and hand geometry is used for (frequent) verification.
Past Projects:
This project explores the use of hand geometry as a measure of a person's identity. The system consists of an acquisition device that captures the top view and side view of a user's right hand as he places it on the flat surface of the device. A snapshot of the user's hand is taken for processing. A set of features have been identified that could be used to represent a person's hand. These features include the lengths and widths of the fingers at various locations.
This project involves designing a mechanism that would align hand shapes prior to verifying a person's identity. Such an approach would enhance the integrity of the feature set made available during the verification stage.
This work involves securing a website using biometrics. Users are granted access to a set of files in a web-site after their identity has been verified using Biometrics - Hand Geometry in particular. We believe biometrics based web-access will add a new layer of security over existing web-security systems.