Shiny skin ruining face biometric data? DHS researchers develop fix

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have developed a way to correct for how much lights reflects off of the skin of a person in a photograph used for face biometrics.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published the patent filing for the technique under the title ‘Skin reflectance image correction in biometric image capture’. The document describes the use of a scoring system on a captured image, quantifying the suitability of the image quality for biometric identification. If the image scores below a threshold, the system calculates the changes the camera must make to capture a good enough image.

Those camera setting changes are sent to the camera, which takes another photo and assesses its quality. The filing also describes the use of post-capture reflectance correction.

Changes made by the system to the camera’s “capture parameters” could include reduced gain, reduced spectral sensitivity, and adjustments to the flash. Outputs are also included, such as identification messages and access control actions.

The named inventors are Arun R. Vemury, Yevgeniy B. Sirotin, Cynthia M. Cook, John J. Howard and Jerry L. Tipton; a veritable who’s-who of DHS biometrics.

The EAB is holding a workshop on the latest developments in Face Image Quality in collaboration with DHS-OBIM and other organizations in November.

Article Topics

accuracy  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  biometrics research  |  DHS  |  facial recognition  |  patents  |  research and development  |  U.S. Government