Babies: Biometric authentication of newborn identities by means of ear signatures

Many research studies demonstrated that recognition based on ear biometrics offers an accuracy which is comparable to face trait, especially in controlled settings. Our proposal is to exploit it to avoid the problem of newborn swap, which is possible and actually happens, most of all in crowded maternity wards of big hospitals. We tested the viability of this solution using a dataset of ear images of newborns, and the obtained results testify that it is possible to decrease the probability of an error using this technique.