The activities related to biometric recognition and authentication at the Computer Vision Laboratory at University of Sassari (formerly at the Department of Computer Science, University of Genova), Italy cover the following aspects related to the Biosecure NoE:

• Authentication and recognition using iconic face images. Techniques have been developed using multiple fixations and visual, active face tracking with uniform and non-uniform sampling of the image plane. The advantages of using non-uniform image structures have been fully described in several research papers.
• Development of applications such as for improving security of banking systems and access control in restricted areas. We have developed a prototype ATM with face authentication capabilities in cooperation with University of Halmstad and other european partners. We are also involved in a local project promoted by Elsag-Bailey for the application of face biometrics in access control.
• Assessment of face-based authentication/recognition techniques based on statistical analysis. A methodology has been developed for the assessment of face authentication/recognition techniques based on iconic data processing. The method is based on several statistical tests to be performed on the raw output of the recognition algorithms. This method is currently being extended to cover also other face-based recognition algorithms as well as other biometric modalities.
• Fusion and integration of multiple algorithms for face-based aithentication. A multi-algorithmic fusion method has been developed in the past in cooperation with University of Halmstad and University of Genova, based on a SVM classifier. Other methods have been studied and implemented based on Bayesian classifiers. We are now working on the extension of these methods to multi-modal biometrics including face and fingerprint data.
  

• National project contract for technology deployment in industrial environments.
• Industrial funding for the development of systems for access control.
  

• VIRSBS (Visual Intelligent Recognition for Secure Banking Services) European project for the development of a face authentication system for ATMs.
• VIMINI (a VIsual Mouse for INtelligent Interfaces) European project exploiting face and facial features tracking for human-computer interfaces.
• COST 275 network for multi-modal biometrics in networking applications.
• Organization of two thematic workshops on biometric authentication: 1998 Workshop on Advances on Facial Image Analysis and Recognition Technology; 2002 Workshop on Biometric Authentication.
• Publication of special issue for Image and Vision Computing on Facial Image Analysis.
• Organization of the first International Summer School on Biometrics to be held in Alghero, Italy 2-6 June 2003.
  

1. Tistarelli, M. and Grosso, E. (1997) "Active face recognition with an hybrid approach" Journal of Pattern Recognition Letters: Special issue on audio-visual person authentication, Vol. 18, pp 933-946, 1997.
2. Tistarelli, M. and Grosso, E. (2000) "Active vision-based face authentication" Image and Vision Computing: Special issue on Facial Image Analysis, M. Tistarelli ed., Vol. 18, no. 4, pp 299-314, 2000.
3. Tistarelli, M. and Grosso, E. (1998) "Active Vision-Based Face Recognition: Issues, Applications and Techniques", NATO ASI Series F, Vol. 163, "Face Recognition. From Theory to Applications", pp. 262-286, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg.
4. Tistarelli, M., Lagorio, A. and Grosso, E. (2002) "Understanding Iconic Image-Based Face Biometrics", Proc. of "Int.l Workshop on Biometric Authentication 2002", Copenaghen, Denmark, pp. 19-29, 1 July 2002, Springer Verlag, Lecture Notes in Computer Science n. 2359.
5. Tistarelli, M., Lagorio, A. and Grosso, E. (2002) "Assessment of Face Recognition Systems", Proc. of "6th World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2002)", Orlando, Florida (USA), 14-18 July 2002.