Derawi Biometrics

Derawi Biometrics and Heiko Witte with in cooperation with the Electrical Department of Gjøvik University College, have developed a first prototype that opens a door with your smart-phone by taking a picture of your finger (fingerprint-recognition) or even by walking to the door (gait-recognition).

The technology used is Near-Field Communication and the devices used are a Samsung Nexus S phone and an NFC (ACR-122) reader.  Implementation details of both the client and the phone can be found in Heiko Witte´s Blog.

The project has been broadcasted in media and news:

The Norwegian Broadcasting News, TV2 (In Norwegian)

Al-Arabiya (In arabic)

Computerworld (In Norwegian)

Derawi Biometrics and NISLAB recently received the prize for best academic paper on Authentication and Authorisation, with the use of fingerprint and smart phone camera. This took place at an international conference in Denmark.

Mohammad Derawi attended the internationally acclaimed MobiSec Conference with his paper “Fingerprint Recognition with Embedded Cameras on Mobile Phones”. This is a conference on security and privacy in mobile information and communication systems. -There were several great papers, so we are very pleased with the award, Derawi comments, research fellow at NISLab, Faculty of Computer Science and Media Technology at GUC.

Authentication and information security are key concepts in the award-winning paper. –Our research shows that it is possible to use the smart phone camera for the purpose to identify fingerprints, and thus the correct user of mobile phones, Derawi explains. -For example, the image of your fingerprint ensures that only you can access the information on your phone. If you lose your phone, no other user can access the information, due to the difference in fingerprint. The technology can also be used for authentication in internet banking, and it should be possible with many other applications as well, Derawi ends.

Read more about the conference here

Derawi Biometrics has been doing research on how to authenticate people from their mobile phone by taking a picture of the finger. Mobile phones with a camera function are capable of capturing image and processing tasks. Fingerprint recognition has been used in many different applications where high security is required. A first step towards a novel biometric authentication approach applying cell phone cameras capturing fingerprint images as biometric traits is proposed.  The proposed method is evaluated using 1320 fingerprint images from each embedded capturing device. Fingerprints are collected by a Nokia N95 and a HTC Desire and performs very promising.  The research is going to be present in the MobiSec 2011 conference, May 17-19, 2011. The full research paper is to be found here.

Derawi Biometrics and Norwegian researchers have developed an app that uses gait signals to unlock the phone instead of a PIN-code. Gjøvik University College (HIG) has researched in gait recognition since 2005. Today, this research is becoming a reality.  The Norwegian Information Security Lab (NISLab) environment is launching an app that uses the phone’s accelerometer to detect the owner by its walk.

Read the whole article here (In Norwegian): or here (Computerworld, in Norwegian).

Biometric Laboratory at Gjøvik University College (Norway) seeks to develop constantly new and better ways of identifying persons without using passwords and pin-codes. The opening of the laboratory was combined with a professional seminar where, amongst others, the German Saving Bank Association, the German Commercial Bank Association, Fuijtsu, Hitachi and the National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) was present.

Professor Christoph Busch is head of the Biometric Laboratory; he has among other things been contributing in developing a new protocol for using biometric information in bank transactions. -With the help of our research we want to reduce the risk for identity thefts. Identity thefts affects both on individual level and on the society, Busch emphasis.

During opening of the laboratory four PhD Candidates presented their research within recognition of gait, teeth, fingerprints and veins in the fingers. -Our challenge at the biometric lab is to continuously develop new and better ways in identifying persons without using passwords and pin-codes, says Busch.

Minister Aasland was impressed over what the academic environment has achieved. –The society needs this research; you have really understood the importance of cooperating interdisciplinary and internationally.

TV 2 Nyhetene  which is one of Norway’s biggest public TV with regular news have made an interview with us  showing how a mobile phone can  recognize people on the way they walk.

The interview and video can be viewed here

Technology Review which is published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T) has published an article about our gait research on smart phones.  Link to full article is found here

Welcome to Derawi Biometrics. This site is owned and maintained by the author Mohammad Omar Derawi, which is Me. I will be giving an Introduction to biometric systems and especially in my topics of interest. The topics include Fingerprint Recognition, Gait Recogntion and Keystroke Dynamics which I have been specializing in. However, I will also be focusing at different modalities later on and give out news within Biometrics.

If you have anything in mind, please do not hesitate to contact me. My information can be found under page “About me”

Best Wishes,

Mohammad