The real world is a big place, full of billions of people with unique characteristics. And while the field of biometrics is built on the concept of an individual’s uniqueness, a diverse user population can negatively affect biometric system performance if the fingerprint sensor is not robust to the range of user characteristics, both physiological and behavioral.
Multispectral imaging from Lumidigm is up to the challenge. But what is the challenge? How can a diverse user population affect fingerprint image quality and system performance?
Fingerprint images taken from an elderly woman. The Lumidigm sensor was able to collect a usable image.
There are several physiological differences that can affect performance. Many people, both young and adult, have small or fine fingerprint features that can be difficult to image. If the sensor cannot differentiate between these fine characteristics, system performance will suffer. Age is another physiological characteristic that can affect the ability of a sensor to collect a usable fingerprint image. One effect of aging is the loss of collagen in the skin; elderly fingers have soft fingerprint ridges that collapse into each other when the finger touches a surface. Because many sensor technologies depend on the quality of contact between the finger and the sensor to collect a good image, soft fingerprint ridges can be difficult to image.
Multispectral imaging from Lumidigm is relatively immune to these physiological differences because of its ability to collect unique fingerprint information from both the surface and the subsurface of the skin. If surface information is scarce for whatever reason, Lumidigm sensors can still gather enough relevant fingerprint information to produce a usable image.
There are behavioral differences across user populations that can also affect performance. People have different levels of experience with technology and biometrics and this affects how they approach the fingerprint sensor. For example, some people may tend to press hard and others, being more tentative, may barely touch the sensor at all. For technologies that depend on the quality of that touch, this can be a big problem. For a direct imaging system such as the Lumidigm sensor, this is no problem at all!
Lumidigm’s multispectral imaging technology has been proven in the field with large and diverse user populations. People of all ages and backgrounds use our sensors every day.
