Transient biometrics using finger nails

Transient biometrics, a new concept for biometric recognition, is introduced in this paper. A traditional perspective of biometric recognition systems concentrates on biometric characteristics that are as constant as possible (such as the eye retina), giving accuracy over time but at the same time resulting in resistance to their use for non-critical applications due to the possibility of misuse. In contrast, transient biometrics is based on biometric characteristics that do change over time aiming at increased acceptance in non-critical applications. We show that the fingernail is a transient biometric with a lifetime of approximately two months. Our evaluation datasets are available to the research community.