Investigating the feasibility of image-based nose biometrics

The search for new biometrics is never ending. In this work, we investigate the use of image based nasal features as a biometric. In many real-world recognition scenarios, partial occlusions on the face leave the nose region visible (e.g. sunglasses). Face recognition systems often fail or perform poorly in such settings. Furthermore, the nose region naturally contain more invariance to expression than features extracted from other parts of the face. In this study, we extract discriminative nasal features using Kernel Class-Dependence Feature Analysis (KCFA) based on Optimal Trade-off Synthetic Discriminant Function (OTSDF) filters. We evaluate this technique on the FRGC ver2.0 database and the AR Face database, training and testing exclusively on nasal features and have compared the results to the full face recognition using KCFA features. We find that the between-subject discriminability in nasal features is comparable to that found in facial features. This shows that nose biometrics have a potential to support and boost biometric identification, that has largely been under utilized. Moreover, our extracted KCFA nose features have significantly outperformed the PittPatt face matcher which works with the original JPEG images on the AR facial occlusion database. This shows that nose biometrics can be used as a stand-alone biometric trait when the subjects are under occlusions.