International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)

ISSN: 2321-0869, Volume-2, Issue-11, November 2014

Emphasizing On Multimodal Biometric System :

Survey
Achal Sancheti, Paridhi Nahar

The strongest security can be possessed by recognizing a

Abstract Authentication is a key requirement of security. person based on his/her own physiological or behavioral
Authentication can be performed by highly complex and secured properties. This can be done by inherence factors like face,
method or by simpler one. The factors of authentication fall into signature, finger print, hand geometry, iris, retinal, voice etc.
three categories: something the user knows, something the user This is referred as biometric system.
has, and something the user is. This paper focuses on the Biometric technologies are becoming the foundation of an
authentication schemes that are still to be overcome even after extensive array of highly secure identification and a personal
the use of any of these existing passwords, smart card schemes verification technology is becoming apparent. [1]
or single biometric system considering the solutions prevailing
to adopt the multimodal biometric system.
II. PROBLEM DOMAIN
Index Terms Authentication, identification, monomodal,
multimodal biometric.
Traditional password authentication scheme is not secure. It
can easily be hacked and is at the verse of increasing target for
hackers via spyware and key loggers.
I. INTRODUCTION
The process of identifying an individual usually based on
In fact, a study of 272 large corporations by Intrusion.com
username and password is authentication.
found that 13% of users did not need passwords, 82% weren't
Authentication ensures that illegal users do not obtain
required to change their password and 44% weren't required
systems resources fraudulently. It also provides the legal
to use sufficiently long passwords. Furthermore, 16% of user
users to use the resources of the system.
accounts were inactive, allowing undetected entry.
For effective results, the following factors should be
considered: Smart cards are generally used with the user specified
1. Knowledge Factors are the factors that are known to passwords for authentication as a two-factor authentication.
users such as password, pattern, PIN, and so on. The point is about not to discuss what the smart card is, but
2. Ownership Factors are the factors that the user has rather to talk about what to do for a specific problem
such as wristband, ID card, and so on. involving smartcard. Smart cards have also been the targets of
3. Inherence Factors are the factors that user is or does security attacks.
such as finger print, signature, face, voice, and so on.
The knowledge factors authentication is the simplest and most Study ensures that, another problem with the smart cards is
commonly used method. Another scheme that provides the the lack of standards for functionality and security. To address
identification and authentication is ownership factors. But as this problem, The Berlin Group launched the ERIDANE
the security is becoming more important as technology is Project to propose "a new functional and security framework
increasing, authentication becomes a key requirement for for smart-card based Point of Interaction (POI) equipment".
security. In the fraud cases, the passwords can be hacked or changed
and the new smart cards can be requested against security.
However, the finger print impression, iris, voice cannot be
changed, even though biometric system is not secured. The
users always left their impression wherever he/she touched.
The artist can modulate their voice, which may occur a serious
issue against the authentication as well as security.

Biometric products provide improved security over

traditional methods of authentication. The combination of
biometric data systems and biometrics recognition
identification technologies creates the biometric security
Figure 1.1: Factors of Authentication
systems. Since biometric identifiers are unique to individuals,
they are more reliable in verifying an individual. With
reference of study, the biometric industry revenues in the past
Manuscript received November 13, 2014. few years is shown in the following graph: [2]
Achal Sancheti, Student of Swami Vivekanand College of
Engineering, Indore, Rajiv Gandhi Technical University, Bhopal, India
Paridhi Nahar, Student of Swami Vivekanand College of Engineering,
Indore, Rajiv Gandhi Technical University, Bhopal, India

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 Emphasizing On Multimodal Biometric System : Survey

Reliability of the sensor used

Limited discriminability
Lack of permanence
Spoofing. [5]

III. RELATED WORK

To address the limitations of monomodal biometric system,
the multimodal biometric system was proposed. To make the
biometric system more efficient, a multimodal biometric
system is preferred because there are some drawbacks with
each of the feature of biometric system.
Consider the example that user cant give proper finger prints
due to cut, dryness of finger, etc. In case of noisy surrounding,
Figure 1.2: Biometric Industry Revenues
voice cant be preferred as suitable biometric indicator.
In multimodal biometric systems, different biometric sources
A biometric system is a technology that uses physiological or
of evidence are used to overcome the limitations of
behavioral information to identify the person. For effective
monomodal systems.
results, it relies on specific data about unique biological traits. Multimodal biometric systems may be: -
- Multi-sensor system for the same biometric (e.g. optical,
capacitive, based on chip fingerprint sensor etc.)
- Multi-method system this uses multiple methods to
compare the test arrays with the references (e.g. multiple
fingerprint matchers based on minutiae or filtering, multiple
face matchers like PCA and LDA).
- Multi-characteristic system (e.g., it uses the fingerprints
from several fingers, left and right iris images).
- Multi-capture/instance system it acquires samples from
the same biometric characteristic (e.g. the same fingerprint
will be sampled for more than one time).
- Multi-verifier system it uses more than one biometric
verifier (fingerprint, face, hand, voice etc. [6]

Figure 1.3: Biometric Characteristics

Widespread adoptions of biometrics have given rise to a new
generation of authentication. However, there are also several
drawbacks with monomodal biometric systems.
Fingerprint authentication is not possible for people who have
had a limb or limbs amputated. Biometric systems can only
operate when backed by huge databases. The cost of
developing biometric authentication systems and operating
their databases is considerably higher than the cost of Figure 1.4: Multimodal biometric system
currently used systems. [3]
Multimodal biometric systems utilize more than one
Another issue with the single biometric system is that physiological or behavioral characteristic for identification or
everyone cannot use it. Disabled people, people having verification.
congenital defects cannot use this system. In many situations, the user might find one form of biometric
The another issue is that in the case of frauds, users can identification is not good enough for authentication. This can
change passwords or can request new smart card but the be the case with fingerprints, where at least 10% of the
biometric system features like finger print, iris, DNA, hand population have worn, cut or unrecognizable prints.
geometry, and so on cannot be changed by user. [4] Multimodal biometric technology uses more then one
Limitations of Monomodal Biometric System: biometric identifier to compare the identity of the person.
Non-universality Therefore in the case of a system using say three technologies
Noise in sensed data i.e. iris, fingerprints and hand geometry. If one of the

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 International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869, Volume-2, Issue-11, November 2014
technologies is unable to identify, the system can still use the credit card, physical access control, cellular phone, PDA,
other two to accurately identify the person. Since 1998, medical records management, and so on.
multimodal technologies have been in use commercially. [7] Government applications: such as national ID card,
The multimodal biometric verification systems are more correctional facility, drivers license, social security,
reliable than monomodal biometric system. Multimodal welfare-disbursement, border control, passport control, etc.
biometric system performs person recognition based on a
Figure 1.6: Application area of biometrics
multiple source of biometric information. The following
block diagram illustrates the general process of multimodal Forensic applications: such as corpse identification,
biometric system: criminal
investigation, terrorist, identification, parenthood
determination, missing children, etc. [10]
The other application of multi-biometric system includes door
lock security systems that are based on finger print and iris
recognition, for attendance purpose in the collages as well as
multi-national companies. The use of multimodal biometric
system eliminates the risk of losing keys, hijacking of
passwords, stealing of smart cards, etc.
Therefore, these systems may provide high secured and
authentication access. [11]

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we illustrated the study of the need of
multimodal biometric system over the traditional schemes and
Figure 1.5: Working Module monomodal biometric systems in order to make the efficient
authentication in the favour of security. The multimodal
Some work on the multimodal biometric system has already biometric systems can ensure the working of large
been proposed. organisations more securely in coming era. These systems can
The NIST report recommends a system employing multiple be effectively use at the server side also along with the client
biometrics in a layered approach. [8] The reason to combine side. With rapid growth of technology, its security must be
different modalities is to improve recognition rate. grown with it. And, for the security, authentication is first and
In literature it has been discussed a multimodal biometric foremost necessity. It can be provided by the multimodal
system using face and fingerprint and proposed various levels biometric systems.
of combinations of the fusion. [9]

All the proposed suited fusion of biometric features has some REFERENCES
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