Clifton L. Smith

Thermographic imaging of the subcutaneous vascular network of the back of the hand for biometric identification

Access control systems require positive identification of authorised persons for entry to restricted facilities. Possession of a card by an authorised person has been the traditional approach to high security access control. These cards range from simple magnetic swipe cards through to proximity smart cards for identification. More recently, serious attempts have been made to identify appropriate biometric characteristics of individuals to provide positive identification. The more popular biometric access control techniques have included facial images, hand geometry, fingerprints and retina patterns. Also, the dynamics of keyboard input, handwritten signature and voice patterns have been reasonably successful in identifying authorised persons. This paper describes research that has been undertaken by the authors to use the subcutaneous vascular network (vein pattern) of the back of the hand as a unique personal biometric for identification. An outline will be given of a prototype low cost automatic thermographic imaging system which has been developed by the authors to obtain vein patterns for positive identification. The paper includes consideration of the image acquisition, image processing and vein pattern matching strategies. A summary of experimental results concerning the acceptance and rejection rates for the system is also provided.

The understanding of security technology and its applications

The foundation for the continued development of security technology and its applications for the protection of assets at the national and industrial levels of security will depend upon understanding of the principles and concepts of the technologies. Because security technology has a vital role in a countrys security, economy and growth, then technological advances will depend upon the quality of understanding of security systems and their applications. The technological advances in security technology will produce a new generation of applications of technology for the protection of assets. The understanding of current security technology and its applications has been pursued by Edith Cowan University (ECU), Australia where programmes of study undergraduate and post-graduate levels are being presented, and recently by ECU in collaboration with the Nottingham Trent University (NTU), United Kingdom where post-graduate courses will be offered. These courses have the characteristic of emphasizing security technology and the management of the technology, and as a consequence provide an understanding of the principles and concepts necessary for effective asset protection. This paper will describe the understanding of security technology and its application through knowledge structures in the domain of security technology in the Bachelor of Science (Security) degree at ECU, and the collaborative Master of Science in Security Technology course to be jointly offered by ECU and NTU.

Automatic car registration plate recognition using fast Hough transform

The development of automatic car registration plate recognition will provide greater efficiency for vehicle monitoring in automatic zone access control. Plate recognition will avoid the need to equip vehicles with special RF tags, since all vehicles possess a unique registration number plate. Also the proposed recognition system can be used in conjunction with a tag system for higher security. There are a number of techniques which have been used for car registration plate characters recognition. These systems include BAM (Bi-directional Associative Memories) neural network character recognition and pattern matching of characters as two character recognition techniques which will be discussed in this paper. The object of this paper is to explore the potential of using Fast Hough Transform (FHT) in vehicle registration plate recognition. Image processing techniques have been used to extract plate characters, then FHT algorithm is applied to every character in the image for recognition and identification. The FHT used in the paper is an efficient, fast and simple algorithm to identify characters, without requiring a relatively large memory.

Line-scan imaging for the positive identification of ballistics specimens

The identification of firearms from forensic ballistics specimens is an exacting and intensive activity performed by specialists with extensive experience. The introduction of imaging technology to assist the identification process of firearms has enhanced the ability of forensic ballisticians to analyse the specimens. This paper describes a development in the application of imaging technology for the identification of forensic ballistics specimens. Both the line-scan technique and the surface profiling technique have been applied to cylindrical ballistics projectiles to provide additional optical information for analyses. The combination of these two techniques will allow correlational data to validate the analysis of class characteristics and unique markings on forensic ballistics specimens.

The development of a Security Systems Research and Test Laboratory at a university

This paper describes the development of the Security Systems Research and Test Laboratory at Edith Cowan University (ECU), and outline the approaches the collaborating partners will follow in testing and evaluating the security systems. The paper discusses the benefits that the Laboratory brings to the security industry through the its testing and evaluation function. Also, the benefits of the Laboratory to ECU Security Science undergraduate and postgraduate students are discussed, as a commitment of the relevance of academic courses to the security industry.

A new global optimization algorithm based on Latin Square theory

The paper presents a new method, DGL-Optimization, for global minimization of functions of continuous variables based on Latin Square sampling. It is also a candidate for the real function test bed of the First International Contest on Evolutionary Optimization. This innovative algorithm of DGL-Optimization has two significant features: the ability to find true global minima and its extreme ease of use.

Cylindrical quasi-cavity waveguide for static wide angle pattern projection

Beam deflection methods such as rotary mirrors and motorized turning optical heads suffer from a variety of electro-mechanical related problems which affect laser scanning performance. These include wobble, jitter, wear, windage and synchronization issues. A novel optical structure consisting of two concentric and cylindrical interfaces with unique optical coating properties for the static projection of a laser spot array over a wide angle is demonstrated. The resulting ray trajectory through the waveguide is modeled using linear equations. Spot size growth is modeled using previously defined ray transfer matrices for tilted optical elements. The model is validated by comparison with experimental spot size measurements for 20 transmitted beams. This novel form of spot projection can be used as the projection unit in optical sensing devices which range to multiple laser footprints.

Linescan imaging of ballistics projectile markings for identification

The identification of firearms from forensic ballistics specimens is an exacting and intensive activity performed by specialists with extensive experience. The introduction of imaging technology to assist the identification process of firearms has enhanced the ability of forensic ballisticians to conduct analyses of these specimens for identification. The characteristic markings on the cartridge and projectile of a bullet fired from a gun can be recognised as a fingerprint for identification of the firearm. Forensic ballistics imaging has the capacity to produce high-resolution digital images of cartridge cases and projectiles for matching of crime scene specimens to test specimens. Projectile bullets fired through the barrel of a gun will exhibit extremely fine striation markings, some of which are derived from minute irregularities in the barrel produced during the manufacturing process. The examination of these striations on the land marks and groove marks of the projectile is difficult using conventional optical microscopy. However, digital imaging techniques have the potential to detect the presence of striations on ballistics specimens for identification matching. This paper describes a linescan imaging technique to examine the striation markings on the land marks and groove marks of projectiles for positive identification. The paper discusses the application of the technique to cylindrical forensic ballistics specimens, and the potential of the technique for image matching. Digital images of land marks and groove marks of projectiles produced by the line scan technique are presented, and analyses of the images are conducted.

Intelligent Imaging of Forensic Ballistics Specimens for ID

The paper describes some of important technologies in the firearm identification using forensic ballistics specimens. The mapping of micro-surfaces on regions on the specimens for comparison to establish identification according to the precision of measurement of the features has been proposed. The physical techniques of linescan, laser depth proofing, and photonic 3D topography can be developed into future tools for forensic ballisticians for identification of cartridge cases and projectiles.

The Future of Security

The future of security will be considered as desired outcomes in the near-, mid-, and long-term durations for the protection of assets in the community. The discussion on the future of security will be presented as postulates in such topics as security science as a developing discipline, increasing legislation and state control, greater professionalism, amalgamation of domains of security such as information technology and physical security, security management security intelligence, and security technology.