You can capture fingerprints with a mobile camera?! Accuracy comparable to signature and monogram, expert: you are aggravating discrimination

Big data digest

author ：Caleb

lately 《 Menghua record 》 hot , Liu Yifei's beauty has once again become a hot topic .

Besides Liuyifei, who attracts Abstract bacteria , And the background setting of the Northern Song Dynasty .

I believe that when watching costume dramas, everyone will remember oneortwo scenes of signing and signing , such as 《 Menghua record 》 Li Zhao Pan'er was taken to the Imperial City Department by Yu Zhongquan and forced to sign and pledge .

Back in the Song Dynasty , Fingerprinting It has become an important clue and technique .《 To clean up a grievance 》 There are several examples of cases solved by fingerprints , It also records a kind of A technician who specializes in identifying fingerprints .

A book in the Southern Song Dynasty 《 Skip book 》 It not only records the names of the people 、 Age and home address , Everyone left their fingerprints under the corresponding entries . Because 《 Skip book 》 The existence of , As long as the prisoner is on the run , Yamen will find his fingerprints , Rubbing on the wanted notice , Distributed to all regions , Quickly locate the prisoner's whereabouts .

With the development of science and technology , The use of fingerprints has gradually become enriched , From signature and painting to fingerprint to unlock the mobile phone , People can't help but wonder , Will the next stage of fingerprint development not need to touch anything at all .

That's true .

Non contact fingerprint identification technology Is to use the camera and image processing algorithm of the mobile phone to capture people's fingerprints . Just put your hand in front of the camera , The software can recognize and record the lines and eddies on the fingertips . Fingerprint technology company Telos Vice president of technology Chace Hatcher Express , Non contact fingerprint recognition requires multiple processes ,“ Its basic component is a kind of Image processing algorithm , Together with the principles of computer vision , Convert the photo of the finger into a fingerprint that the machine can match ”.

“ No pain ” Fingerprint technology

To collect someone's fingerprints accurately , A person's hand should be about... Away from the mobile camera 5 centimeter , Then the machine learning algorithm will start to recognize the fingertips , And start processing the image .

Generally speaking , The system can detect the ridge defining the fingerprint by identifying the shadow and bright area .“ Need a camera that can focus automatically ”, A mobile camera with a resolution as low as 2 megapixels doesn't matter , Finally, we can get a traditional fingerprint image , The image can be matched with an existing database .

so to speak , The research on non-contact fingerprint has existed for many years , Many companies are also developing new technologies in this field . lately , German researchers found that , The accuracy of non-contact fingerprint recognition is almost the same as that of traditional fingerprint recognition ,“ Usability studies show that , For health reasons , Most users prefer non-contact recognition systems ”, Besides ,“ The availability of non-contact capture devices is also better ”.

If we put non-contact fingerprint recognition in a larger context , This is a branch of biometric industry . Biometric industry is mainly in collect 、 Processing and selling body data , This includes facial recognition 、 Walking style 、 Vein patterns, sounds, etc . These technologies are generally considered high fidelity , Used to replace passwords , Verify identity when opening a new bank account, etc .

The prospect of this business is also generally favored by the industry , To 2030 year ,Allied Market Research It is estimated that the market value may reach 1270 Billion dollars .

Who can understand the privacy of fingerprints ？

Although non-contact fingerprint identification technology is ready to show its strength in the real world , But civil liberties and privacy groups have some different views .

Privacy lawyer at the nonprofit Internet and society center in India Shweta Mohandas Express , Any new technology should be subject to privacy and hazard impact assessment before it is widely used .“ More worrying , When will these technologies be introduced into developing economies , These economies have neither standards nor sound data protection legislation to protect individuals from possible harm ”.

Some European lawmakers are also pushing for a ban on the use of biometrics to identify people in public places , This monitoring technique may be “ The end of anonymity ”, It will also lead to more fraud and identity theft .

European NGOs Access Now Senior policy analyst at Daniel Leufer Express ,“ With the development of technology , People are recognized remotely without their knowledge ‘ The fingerprint ’ More and more likely ”,“ When such technologies become more accessible and usable , The risk will also increase ”. There have been examples of police identifying suspects by extracting fingerprint data from photos they share online .

This will also make More people's body data are recorded . for example , since 2018 Since then , British police have been using fingerprint scanning devices clamped to smartphones , For example, scan a finger through a device plugged into the charging port of a smart phone , The results will be available in a minute , And match with the database .

2020 end of the year ,《 attachment 》 Investigation found , These devices are disproportionately used to target ethnic minorities, such as in some areas where blacks are more likely to be intercepted and scanned than whites 3 To 18 times .

“ There is a lot of evidence , Countries such as Greece and Italy intend to use ‘ hold ’ Biometric devices to identify immigrants ,” Policy adviser to the civil rights NGO digital rights Europe Ella Jakubowska Worried to , These technologies have “ The ability to exacerbate discrimination ”.

The FBI database has more than 1.6 The fingerprints of 100 million people .2017 In the year ,FBI Conducted a biometric review with other U.S. government staff , Results show , Contactless fingerprint recognition may be faster than existing methods 、 Collect people's fingerprints more effectively . Via smartphone camera , The police don't need to move the fingerprint reader , There is no need to take people to the police station .

And FBI The review also highlighted some risks , For example, people may not understand correctly that their fingerprints are being collected .“ Non personal collection methods do not necessarily trigger the owner's approval of biometric record creation ”.

at present , The whole biometric industry is promoting “ seamless ” Biometrics , More and more applications are also supporting this trend , Artificial manual steps are being deleted . however , When we talk about meaningful informed consent , When people are no longer conscious and responsible for the data they provide , It's getting more difficult .

Between convenience and privacy , How would you choose ？ Welcome to comment and discuss ~

Relevant reports ：

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/police-contactless-fingerprints-photos

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