Biosignals for User Authentication - Towards Cognitive Biometrics?

Cognitive biometrics refers to a novel approach for user authentication/identification utilising biosignals which reflect the mental and emotional states of an individual. Specifically, current implementations rely on the use of the electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG), and the electro dermal response (EDR) as inputs into a traditional authentication scheme. The motivation for the deployment of biosignals resides in their potential uniqueness, universality, and their resistance to spoofing. The challenge with respect to cognitive biometrics based on biosignals is to enhance the information content of the acquired data. This paper presents a brief survey of the use of such biosignals to produce cognitive biometric systems for person recognition. The types of signals used and their claimed effectiveness is presented and compared. The paper concludes with a description of the challenges facing the deployment of cognitive biometrics, including sensor design issues and the need to extract information-rich and robust features.