Researchers awarded grant to continue investigations into brain biometrics technology

Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York (SUNY) have received a $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue investigations into the next-generation of brain biometric technology.

The project, “Brain Hacking: Assessing Psychological and Computational Vulnerabilities in Brain-based Biometrics,” will research the security vulnerabilities of brainprint biometrics and, more specifically, assess the strengths and weaknesses of brain biometrics, principal investigator Zhanpeng Jin said.

Jin is the assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science at Binghamton University.

Other researchers participating in the cross-disciplinary, cross-institution collaborative project is co-principal investigator Sarah Laszlo, an associate professor of psychology at Binghamton University, and Wenyao Xu from the University at Buffalo’s Computer Science and Engineering Department.

“Content of the work will allow us to strengthen our understanding of the unique cognitive and psychological secret of the human brain, and apply this new knowledge into increasingly vulnerable cyberspace,” Jin said.

The four-year grant, which began in September, totals approximately $1.2 million, but is divided between Binghamton and Buffalo, a fellow SUNY institution.

The funding follows up on a 2014 NSF grant of approximately $500,000 that the team also shared with Buffalo for a project titled “Brain Password: Exploring A Psychophysiological Approach for Secure User Authentication.”

The project investigated a new psychophysiological approach for identifying individuals by measuring their brain’s response to different stimuli, which is called a “brainprint.”

Article Topics

Binghamton University  |  biometrics  |  biometrics research  |  brainprint  |  identity verification  |  University at Buffalo