Lecture 14 - Soft Biometrics

Soft biometrics

Physical, behavioral, or material attributes associated with an individual that aid in recognition, often derived from primary biometric data.

Attributes that can be inferred from soft biometric data

Age, gender, ethnicity, height, hair color, and eye color.

Human understandable categories

Attributes classified into recognizable groups that people can comprehend.

Consent-free acquisition

The ability to collect biometric data from individuals without requiring their permission.

Robustness to low data quality

The ability of soft biometric attributes to be deduced from poor quality biometric input.

Semantic interpretation

The process of deriving meaning from data or attributes in a manner understandable to humans.

Body measurements

Quantitative data on an individual's physical dimensions, useful in recognition systems.

Applications of soft biometrics

Utilization of soft biometric traits in various fields, such as security, law enforcement, and marketing.

Privacy enhancement

soft biometric traits give the improvement of personal privacy through the use of non-distinctive traits

Age inference

The process of estimating an individual's age based on visible attributes.

Automated extraction

The ability to gather biometric data without human intervention.

Light biometrics

Another term for soft biometrics, emphasizing non-distinctive characteristics.

Distance discernment

The ability to identify soft biometric traits from afar without direct interaction.

Benefits of Soft Bio

Consent-free acquisition:

Human understandable interpretation:

Privacy

Robustness to low data quality:

Soft biometrics from various modalities could include:•

Face

Iris

Fingerprint

• Face • Gender, age, ethnicity, hair color, facial hair, ...

• Iris • Gender, age, ethnicity, eye color

Fingerprint • Gender

Soft biometrics from various modalities could include:•

Gait

Body

Hand

Voice

Gait • Gender, age

• Body • Gender, age, body measurements, clothes/accessories

• Hand • Gender •

Voice • Gender, age, ethnicity