Extracting fingerprint features using textures

Personal identification of individuals is becoming increasingly adopted in society today. Due to the large number of electronic systems that require human identification, faster and more secure identification systems are pursued. Biometrics is based upon the physical characteristics of individuals; of these the fingerprint is the most common as used within law enforcement. Fingerprint-based systems have been introduced into the society but have not been well received due to relatively high rejection rates and false acceptance rates. This limited acceptance of fingerprint identification systems requires new techniques to be investigated to improve this identification method and the acceptance of the technology within society. Electronic fingerprint identification provides a method of identifying an individual within seconds quickly and easily. The fingerprint must be captured instantly to allow the system to identify the individual without any technical user interaction to simplify system operation. The performance of the entire system relies heavily on the quality of the original fingerprint image that is captured digitally. A single fingerprint scan for verification makes it easier for users accessing the system as it replaces the need to remember passwords or authorisation codes. The identification system comprises of several components to perform this function, which includes a fingerprint sensor, processor, feature extraction and verification algorithms. A compact texture feature extraction method will be implemented within an embedded microprocessor-based system for security, performance and cost effective production over currently available commercial fingerprint identification systems. To perform these functions various software packages are available for developing programs for windows-based operating systems but must not constrain to a graphical user interface alone. MATLAB was the software package chosen for this thesis due to its strong mathematical library, data analysis and image analysis libraries and capability. MATLAB enables the complete fingerprint identification system to be developed and implemented within a PC environment and also to be exported at a later date directly to an embedded processing environment. The nucleus of the fingerprint identification system is the feature extraction approach presented in this thesis that uses global texture information unlike traditional local information in minutiae-based identification methods. Commercial solid-state sensors such as the type selected for use in this thesis have a limited contact area with the fingertip and therefore only sample a limited portion of the fingerprint. This limits the number of minutiae that can be extracted from the fingerprint and as such limits the number of common singular points between two impressions of the same fingerprint. The application of texture feature extraction will be tested using variety of fingerprint images to determine the most appropriate format for use within the embedded system. This thesis has focused on designing a fingerprint-based identification system that is highly expandable using the MATLAB environment. The main components that are defined within this thesis are the hardware design, image capture, image processing and feature extraction methods. Selection of the final system components for this electronic fingerprint identification system was determined by using specific criteria to yield the highest performance from an embedded processing environment. These platforms are very cost effective and will allow fingerprint-based identification technology to be implemented in more commercial products that can benefit from the security and simplicity of a fingerprint identification system.

User participation in the performance assessment of school buildings : a study of six primary schools in the Bellarine Peninsula region

Young children spend a significant portion of their lives at primary school. This research traces the development of school facilities in Victoria and examines the performance of six primary schools from the users' perspective. Performance assessments were carried out using participatory evaluation methods that included Touring Interviews with small groups of students aged from six to twelve years. The study found that participatory evaluation methods with both student and staff users generate significant information to improve school facilities. User comments were analysed with respect to 14 aspects of building quality and serviceability including character, thermal environment, privacy and flexibility. The study concludes that school buildings do not meet a number of key user requirements. Children expressed dissatisfaction with furniture and equipment in their classrooms and the playground, and to a lesser extent with student toilets, security of their school bags and personal privacy. Staff were dissatisfied with the provision of withdrawal areas and specialist spaces. Department of School Education facilities guidelines do not address the concerns of school users or meet user needs.

They talk the talk, but do they walk the walk? sustainability acceptance is low in German and New Zealand firms

Through the International Sustainability Acceptance Measurement (ISAM), we intend to better understand the level of acceptance of sustainability as a practical management tool in business around the world (www.worldreply.com). It was observed by others that sustainability concepts often stay on a rather general level where it is hard to identify specific indicators and the potential for future development.i In an effort to contrast the level of sustainability in the ISAM countries, the participating universities analyze their respective country data and then co-operate to benchmark and compare this information around the globe. This makes the ISAM work one of the few world-spanning efforts to look at the practical implementation of sustainability.

Evaluating user involvement in primary healthcare

Current health policies, both in the UK and internationally, call for a shift from secondary to primary healthcare, and for increased involvement of service users and communities in decisions about their own care and about the way in which health services are provided. This study investigated the way in which users were involved in two London-based primary healthcare projects. Two projects were selected from a broader sample. A case study approach was adopted and a range of methods used to identify the types of user involvement, users' views of the process and, in one case study, users' preferences for participation. Arnstein's conceptual framework for participation was used in the analysis. In this paper, the findings of the study are discussed in relation to Cohen's notions of breadth, depth and range of participation. The paper illustrates how these notions may provide a mechanism for providers and commissioners of health services to assess their strategies in relation to user or community involvement, and the degree of success they achieve in implementation.

Towards managing user resistance in large ICT projects

The thesis examines activities undertaken in project environments to minimise subsequent user resistance to new ICT systems. A model and practitioner guidelines, integrating concepts/practices from project management; organisational/product innovation; and change management, have been developed and partially validated. These supplement the existing, widely used Project Management Body of Knowledge documentation.

Evaluation of user perceptions of an application of activity-based costing

This study examined the extent to which preparers and end-users of Activity-Based Costing information are satisfied with this technique and the factors forming the basis of that belief.

Renal and gastrointestinal amyloidosis in an HIV-infected injection drug user

A 30-year-old HIV-infected intravenous drug user presented with sepsis, acute renal failure, oedema, proteinuria and iron deficiency anaemia. After extensive investigation, a diagnosis of reactive systemic AA (amyloid, serum amyloid A protein) amyloidosis was made on the basis of renal, gastric and duodenal biopsies.

User-centered evaluation of a virtual environment training system : utility of user perception measures

This study assessed the utility of measures of Self-efficacy (SelfEfficacy) and Perceived VE efficacy (PVEefficacy) for quantifying how effective VEs are in procedural task training. SelfEfficacy and PVEefficacy have been identified as affective construct potentially underlying VE efficacy that is not evident from user task performance. The motivation for this study is to establish subjective measures of VE efficacy and investigate the relationship between PVEefficacy, SelfEfficacy and User task performance. Results demonstrated different levels of prior experience in manipulating 3D objects in gaming or computer environment (LOE3D) effects on task performance and user perception of VE efficacy. Regression analysis revealed LOE3D, SelfEfficacy,
PVEefficacy explain significant portions of the variance in VE efficacy. Results of the study provide further evidence that task performance may share relationships with PVEefficacy and SelfEfficacy, and that affective constructs, such as PVEefficacy, and SelfEfficacy may serve as alternative, subjective measures of task performance that account for VE efficacy.

Evaluation of thermal and visual comfort in offices considering realistic input data and user behaviour in building simulation

Thermal and visual comfort play a very important role regarding the satisfaction of occupants with their working environments. The most effective method to achieve thermal comfort in offices is to reduce cooling loads in order to avoid additional energy-consuming devices for cooling. Building simulation software can be a helpful tool for optimisation, and typically standard values for the influencing parameters are used in order to ensure compliance to norms and regulations.

In practice many of those parameters turn out to be different compared to the simulation assumptions and the reasons may be the chosen room or building related properties as well as the user behaviour influenced by the task and the corporate culture of the company.

This paper investigates exemplary for the climate of Hamburg, Germany and a naturally ventilated typical office room, the optimisation potential of the building- and user-related parameters for thermal comfort, daylighting and view when using realistic input data for building simulation. The study has been conducted with the EnergyPlus based simulation software “Primero-Komfort” [1].

Further observations on optimistic fair exchange protocols in the multi-user setting

Recent research has shown that the single-user security of optimistic fair exchange cannot guarantee the multi-user security. This paper investigates the conditions under which the security of optimistic fair exchange in the single-user setting is preserved in the multi-user setting. We first introduce and define a property called “Strong Resolution-Ambiguity”. Then we prove that in the certified-key model, an optimistic fair exchange protocol is secure in the multi-user setting if it is secure in the single-user setting and has the property of strong resolution-ambiguity. Finally we provide a new construction of optimistic fair exchange with strong resolution-ambiguity. The new protocol is setup-free, stand-alone and multi-user secure without random oracles.