CITeR Celebrates 20 Years of Biometrics Research

The Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR), based at Clarkson University, is celebrating its 20th year.

CITeR — a National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center — specializes in studying the growing areas of identity science and biometric recognition. Biometrics is the automated recognition of individuals based on their biological and behavioral traits. Centers like CITeR focus on industry and government needs through collaborations among these groups and universities.

STEPHANIE SCHUCKERS, Clarkson’s Paynter-Krigman Endowed Professor in Engineering Science, serves as the director of CITeR.

“At points, we wondered whether this research would become a ‘solved’ problem, and then new challenges would emerge: spoof detection, biometric cryptography, altered finger detection, biometrics at a distance, biometric permanence and more,” she says. “And now, here we are in 2023, with additional challenges, such as face morphing, deepfakes, bias, template security, biometrics in children and many others.”

Since awarding its first research grants in 2002, CITeR has performed cutting-edge research as new problems evolve each year.

Some fundamental scientific studies funded by CITeR examine permanence — how a trait remains essentially unchanged throughout one’s lifetime — in aging adults and children. The research found that accurate identification by fingerprint in adults remained high over a 12-15 year period. CITeR researchers have also studied biometric recognition in children, which has applications in areas including immigration, refugee efforts and distribution of benefits. The findings show that identification by irises was stable for the three years they studied children aged 4 to 11, and face recognition algorithms failed over a three-year period.

In the last three years, CITeR researchers have also developed several single and differential morph detectors to circumvent the problem of morph attacks. Face morphing is the process of combining two or more subjects in an image to create a new identity that contains features of both individuals. Morphed images can fool facial recognition systems into falsely accepting multiple people, leading to failures in national security and border control applications.

Single morph detectors are used during passport applications to authenticate if the submitted passport photo is a real or morphed image. Differential detectors can validate if the passport holder’s photo is the same as the photo in the passport.

Other current and past CITeR research highlights include crossspectral face recognition, noncontact fingerprint recognition, template security and privacy, bias in face recognition, presentation attack detection (liveness detection) and soft and novel biometrics.

The 20th-anniversary celebration was part of CITeR’s semiannual program review for industry and government affiliates and guests. The event, hosted at the Buffalo Museum of Science and University at Buffalo, included a keynote by University Distinguished Professor Anil K. Jain of Michigan State University and technical presentations on CITeR’s ongoing research projects.

For more information on CITeR and its robust research portfolio, go to citer.clarkson.edu. .

CITeR

FOUNDED: 2001

FOUNDING DIRECTOR AND SITE: Lawrence Hornak, West Virginia University

FOUNDING FACULTY: Anil Jain, Michigan State University, and Jim Wayman, San José State University

CURRENT DIRECTOR AND SITE: Stephanie Schuckers, Clarkson University

CURRENT SITES AND ACADEMIC PARTNERS: Clarkson University (lead site since 2011), West Virginia University, University at Buffalo, Michigan State University and Idiap Research Institute

CURRENT ACTIVE FACULTY: 40+

CURRENT AFFILIATES: ACV Auctions, Army Futures Command – Combat Capabilities Development, Command Armaments Center (CCDC Armaments Center), Athena Sciences, Aware Inc., Cyber Street Solutions, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), Defense Forensic Science Center (DFSC), Department of Defense – Defense Forensics and Biometrics Agency (DFBA), Department of Homeland Security – Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM), Department of Homeland Security – Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, IDEMIA, National Security Agency, Precise Biometrics, Public Safety Canada, Qualcomm Incorporated, SICPA, Synolo Biometrics Inc., TECH5, Veridium and Xator Corporation