•New

The mention was made for the research work on a new opto-electrical identification system. It is able to identify people through a combination of multiple biometric identification signals. One such signal would include the images of blood vessel distribution on the retina of the human eye. This system is able to automatically verify the identification of individuals by checking the blood vessel (veins and arteries) distribution on the retina of their eyes. The system is also able to use other signals that are randomly generated.

An internationally recognised journal in the field of optics, Optics Letters, published a research paper of the work, which was carried out by two members from UPC’s GOAPI research group, Elisabet Pérez and María Sagrario Millán.

The new optical security system’s greatest novelty lies in the combination of a number of identification factors or signals that an optical processor is able to recognise simultaneously and automatically. Millán and Pérez’s system is thus able to guarantee a high success rate in the identification of people. To date, existing identification systems have relied on a single feature for identification, which may be an object, signal or biometric signal (iris, finger print, voice, etc.). The Millán and Pérez system fulfils the four limitations that all optical security systems must overcome: the difficulty in seeing and recognising signals encrypted in the naked eye or with conventional cameras; the difficulty in reproducing labels; the possibility of mass producing them; and, finally, their ability to make rapid identifications.

The new system has clear applications: security at all types of restricted access points or in places where high levels of security must be maintained. Such places may include airports, banks, laboratories, shopping malls, offices and convention centres.

The combination of signals or images that the two UPC researchers have put forward consists of a set of binary codes of random points. This random set could be said to be made up of a random key, which may be updated whenever necessary, and identification signals of individuals, such as images of their signatures or retinas, amongst others. The biometric information taken from the retina of the eye is unique to every individual and is impossible to forge.

As a first step, an optical label must be made using all of the encrypted information belonging to the person to be identified. These labels contain the information in the form of images of the binary codes and retinas.

The binary code information must be stored on the automatic opto-electrical system’s database. When the processor recognises a label, it decodes the encrypted information and compares the label’s binary codes with those on the database. It then compares the biometric signals recorded on the label with those that the user presents in person. If all of the information coincides, the person’s identity will be accepted as valid.

A professor from the University of Connecticut, Bahram Javidi, made contributions to this project. His collaboration was the result of the interest he had shown in the work that the two researchers were carrying out on optic security and identification label applications. The collaboration between the GOAPI and EUOOT’s University Vision Centre (CUV) made it possible to purchase a new retinal scanner. This brought about the idea to make the retina a key security component in the combination of encrypted signals for the identification of people.

The GOAPI is a multidisciplinary research group that is made up of 11 researchers from various departments at UPC. It is located on UPC’s Terrassa campus and is led by researchers from its Department of Optics and Optometry. The group is working on lines of research related to visible optic applications for near infrared and ultraviolet spectral bands. It is researching fields that are related to image, vision, colour and laser processing. It covers a variety of applications in the fields of artificial vision, automatic inspection, image processing and analysis, the recognition of shapes, optic and visual quality, medical imaging, the development of measuring instruments and techniques, photometry, colourmetry, digital colour, material processing by laser irradiation, laser marking and wavelength markers. The GOAPI has three patents and it has published over five hundred papers in the most prestigious journals in the field. The group has likewise worked on a dozen or so national and international research projects.