INGRESS Biometrics Project at NASA Tech Briefs

The innovative technologies developed in FP7 INGRESS project, which was conducted by TÜBİTAK BİLGEM UEKAE e-ID Technologies Department as a partner of the “FP7 INGRESS” project in European Union 7th Framework Program (FP7) Security call, took place in NASA’s periodical Tech Briefs.

A new technology based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) which was developed with the project partner CNRS (France) enables subsurface imaging of the finger. The very first prototype of the OCT fingerprint reader was included in the “FP7 INGRESS First Data Collection” campaign which was carried out by TÜBİTAK BİLGEM UEKAE e-ID Technologies Department between October-November of 2015. In this campaign, fingerprint images of 176 volunteers were captured and analyzed. The valuable feedback of this study is planned to be used for further development of OCT technology.

Experience shows that two main kinds of fingerprint alterations can be observed: voluntary (intentional) and involuntary (unintentional). In the first case, surgical or physical alterations are intentionally created to modify the friction ridge skin and prevent its recognition by automatic systems. In the case of involuntary alterations, it appears that some types of disease or medical treatments can cause severe injuries of the dermis and of the epidermis, sufficient enough to prevent the capture of the fingerprints for some time. Moreover, some professional activities (especially manual workers, housewives, farmers, etc.) can cause a temporary or permanent absence of fingerprint patterns due to physical abrasions of the fingertip skin. The market for this kind of technology is wide, but the most obvious applications areas would be border control, law enforcement, or other sectors where large numbers of passersby need to be identified. The “internal fingerprint” could provide cheaper, more secure authentication than traditional scanners.

“FP7 INGRESS Data Collection” campaign will be conducted in three separate sessions. The second data collection session is going to be held between May-June of 2016 at TÜBİTAK BİLGEM UEKAE e-ID Technologies Department.

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