Security enhancement of biometrics, cryptography and data hiding by their combinations

The security of multimedia information in general and the security of visual information in particular have increasingly become an issue of great concern in our networked society. Biometrics, cryptography and data hiding provide effective and often complementary solutions to information security from different perspectives. In this paper, we present a brief overview on the state-of-the-art of research on the security enhancement of biometrics, cryptography and data hiding by their combinations, with focus on the problems of cryptographic key management and biometric template protection. This paper is intended to provide a reference point for newcomers and to promote more activities in these important security issues.