Final year project

Finger vein authentication system

Student name: Trung Huynh

Student no: 393808

BSc Electronic Communication System

E-mail: trung.huynh@students.plymouth.ac.uk/TrungHLT@Gmail.com

Supervisor: Prof Larissa Panina

UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH

Faculty of Technology

School of Computing, Communications & Electronics

Smeaton building

Drake Circus

Plymouth

United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

Biometrics systems for individual identification have been developed for decades. Many

methods have been proposed such as fingerprint, facial, iris, voice recognitions. However each

method has its own disadvantages. Fingerprint identifying systems usually have low security.

Fingerprint patterns are easy to be counterfeited because they are left everywhere whenever we

touch a surface. Similarly facial and voice patterns can also be cloned

easily. Iris scanning is uncomfortable because of producing a strong

light to shine into subjects‘ eyes. A relatively new method that has

been recommended by Hitachi Ltd can solve above problems and then

can be applied in a wide area. It is to use finger veins for identifying

individuals.

Vein images are taken by shining a near-infrared light through fingers.

Hence finger vein scanning procedures do not require physical

contact. Consequently it can be used in hospitals to identify patients

with its hygiene. In addition, vein patterns are very hard to be cloned

because the veins are inside our fingers. Finger vein recognition

systems can obtain very high security and accuracy if the algorithm in

use is good enough. Therefore they are suitable to be integrated in

ATMs (automatic teller machines) and other applications which require

high security.

Obviously finger vein security systems can be applied in many applications. As an

undergraduate student project, this is limited in a small scale which enables personal computer

authentication. The product has been tested with a small group of people and worked properly.

It still requires a deep test before commercialised in practice.

Veins (Howstuffwork.com)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................. 1

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1

OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................... 2

FINGER VEIN SCANNER .......................................................................................................... 3

Near-Infrared source .............................................................................................................. 3

CCD Camera .......................................................................................................................... 4

Improvements ......................................................................................................................... 5

Other designs from Hitachi ..................................................................................................... 5

IMAGE PROCESSING ............................................................................................................... 7

Crop ....................................................................................................................................... 7

Auto-contrast .......................................................................................................................... 7

Smoothing .............................................................................................................................. 8

VEIN EXTRACTION..................................................................................................................10

Analysis .................................................................................................................................10

Algorithm ...............................................................................................................................12

Test and result .......................................................................................................................15

Flowchart and coding ............................................................................................................15

PATTERN MATCHING .............................................................................................................20

ENROLMENT SOFTWARE ......................................................................................................23

Matlab and VB.NET ...............................................................................................................23

Camera in VB.NET ................................................................................................................24

MS Access Database ............................................................................................................25

User interface ........................................................................................................................27

MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE ...................................................................................................29

Lock/unlock keyboard/mouse in Windows XP........................................................................29

Software UI ...........................................................................................................................30

CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................................................32

BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................33

APPENDICES ...........................................................................................................................35

INTRODUCTION

1

INTRODUCTION

The possibility of achieving personal identification based on the vein pattern is referred years

ago (13). A person‘s veins are completely unique. Twins do not have identical veins, and veins in

left hands of a person differ from those in his right hands. Their shapes also change very little as

a person ages. A finger vein authentication system is relatively simpler than systems using

fingerprint. The whole process has main procedures i.e. vein capturing, vein extracting, and

pattern matching.

When we shine near-infrared light through fingers, human tissues pass through most of the

infrared light while haemoglobin in our blood blocks them. Hence veins appear darker in the

picture. A normal digital camera needs to be filtered from visible light so that it can pass only the

infrared light. The vein image of each finger has different brightness and contrast. Consequently

we need some enhancement for the image so that the image quality is good enough for next

process.

After the image is enhanced, we extract veins out by detecting centre line using maximum

curvature points in image profiles (10). Vein width may vary when blood pressure or temperature

changes. However the centre line of the vein always stays stably. Extracted lines will be stored

in a database in enrolment procedure. While testing, the current extracted pattern will be

compared to those in the database using two dimensional filters (1) (2) to decide whether the

pattern is matched or not.

The project includes two software packages which use same database i.e. enrolment and

management. Enrolment software is used to enrol users to the database. Management is used

for users to lock and unlock computers. When a user is going to leave his computer, he uses

the management software to lock the computer. When he returns, he puts his finger which was

used for enrolment into the vein scanner. The management software will check if the vein

pattern which is captured from the scanner is matched to the one in the database. If the pattern

is matched, the computer will be unlocked.

The project has been built completely and worked properly in Windows XP Service Pack 2 OS.

It has been tested by Acer TravelMate 2201LC (Intel Celeron 2.6GHz) with a small number of

people and worked with most of them. Due to a cheap camera and infrared source in use, vein

images of few people are not clear enough. However this can be improved easily by using a

better camera and infrared sources.

OVERVIEW

2

OVERVIEW

The product is used for personal computer authentication. This includes one vein scanner and

two software packages which use the same database (figure 2). The vein scanner

communicates with the computer by a USB 2.0 interface (figure 1).

Figure 1 Hardware package

Figure 2 Software packages

The first software package is Enrolment. This program gets images which come from the vein

scanner, then extracts out centre lines of the vein images. This data and information of users

(first name, last name, etc.) will be stored in the database (figure 3).

The second software package is Management. This program enables the user to lock his

computer. Then it always checks if the user puts his finger in. The software will extract the veins

out and compare it to the one in the database. If they are matched to each other, the computer

will be unlocked.

Figure 3 Enrolment software

Figure 4 Management software

Both software packages are written by Visual Basic 2005 linking with Matlab. Matlab is used to

handle image processing functions such as vein extraction and pattern matching. Two packages

―talks‖ to each other through a Microsoft Access database. The database includes user

information i.e. user first name, user last name and user vein pattern.

FINGER VEIN SCANNER

3

FINGER VEIN SCANNER

The principle is that the infrared light with wavelength 700nm ~ 1000nm can pass through most

of human tissues while the haemoglobin in the blood can absorb the infrared light fully (3).

Therefore we need a near-infrared source with proper wavelength to shine through the finger.

An infrared-sensitive digital camera is placed underneath the finger to catch light which passed

through the finger. The scanner is sketched in figure 5.

Figure 5 Finger vein scanner sketch

Near-Infrared source

Infrared LEDs with 875nm, 850nm and 810nm wavelengths have been tested. The jumbos (high

power infrared source) with 810nm wavelength gave the best images of veins in most of cases.

The ELJ810-248B-EPIGAP-IR EMITTER, JUMBO 40DEG can be found on uk.farnell.com.

Some important technical specifications are listed below:

Wavelength, typ: 810nm

Power dissipation: 3W

Current, forward If: 260mA

Voltage, Vf max: 13V

Angle, viewing : 40o

Price: £14.20 (04/2008)

More technical information can be found in Appendix.

Because a jumbo is quite big, two jumbos are arranged in a series. The board is connected to a

16V power supply. The circuit arrangement is shown below:

Figure 6 810nm jumbo (14)

Figure 7 Jumbo board

16V

R R

if

Vf

VR

FINGER VEIN SCANNER

4

As described above, if is equal to 260mA and Vf is equal to 13V. Therefore:

VR = 16V – Vf = 16V – 13V = 3V

So 𝑅 =𝑉𝑓

𝑖𝑓=

3

0.26= 11.5Ω

In the real design, 12Ω resistors are chosen.

CCD Camera

The tested camera is 5.2M pixel infrared PC Camera (figure 8). The CCD camera responses to

both visible and infrared light. Technical information is shown below:

Interface: USB 2.0

Picture size: 640x480, 1280x960, 1600x1200, 2560x2048

Window capture size: 2304x1728

Video format: 24-bit RGB/I420

Transmission rate: (640x480) 30f/s (1280x960)

Signal-to-noise ratio: >48dB

Image focus: 3mm (macro lens) to infinity

Auto exposing, auto light control, auto colour

correction, auto white balance

As infrared photography, an infrared filter is used. The filter has to be able to block light with

wavelength less than 810nm. An Instrument Plastic Limited Optolite Infrared Filter was used.

The transmittance rate of the filter is shown in the figure below:

As shown in the figure 9, the transmittance rate with 810nm wavelength is about 85% while it

blocks most of light with wavelengths less than 750nm.

In addition, there is also a finger holder which is used to stabilise the finger. The distances

between the jumbo board and the holder, the holder and camera are adjusted for best image

quality.

Figure 8 CCD camera with infrared filter

Infrared

filter

Figure 9 Filter response (15)

FINGER VEIN SCANNER

5

Figure 10 Scanner device

Figure 11 A sample taken by the designed scanner

Improvements

Different 810nm wavelength infrared sources (e.g. L810-PD010-D51) which might give

better vein images can be found on http://www.techmark.nl from Japan or http://tech-

led.com from US. These are small LEDs which can be arranged in a series and then the

light will be scattered much better. Their price is also much cheaper.

The CCD camera in use is just a normal camera which is better replaced by an infrared-

sensitive camera. These cameras are designed specially to response better with infrared

light. There might not many such digital cameras, so we can use an analogue one with a

capture board. This requires more space and seems to be more suitable to big size

applications.

Other designs from Hitachi

Hitachi has developed many different scanner designs. Each design is manufactured for

different applications. Some of them are shown in the below figure:

FINGER VEIN SCANNER

6

Door entrance system

Wheel Vein Scanner

ATMs systems

Grip-type finger vein authentication system

PC authentication system

PC authentication system

Figure 12 Finger vein scanners (Hitachi Ltd.)

IMAGE PROCESSING

7

IMAGE PROCESSING

Input vein images from the scanner are dull and include much noise. Therefore they need to be

improved by two enhancement functions i.e. auto-contrast and smoothing. However before

enhanced, they have to be cropped to eliminate redundant parts:

Crop

Input images from the scanner have size 240x1801 and include unwanted areas which need to

be cut out. We will take only the central part which has the vertical position from 50 to 145. This

is easy to do in Matlab by a simple line:

Cropped_f = f(50:145,:,1) %f is the input image

The below figure shows an input image before and after cropped:

(a)

(b)

Figure 13(a) Input image before cropped (b) After cropped

Auto-contrast

This function finds out the optimal contrast for each image and then increases the difference

between veins and the background. The mechanic of auto-contrast is pretty simple. We just

need to rescale the colours of the image so that its minimum brightness becomes 0 and

maximum brightness becomes 255 (in our case). We now consider a cropped sample image

taken from the scanner and its histogram2:

(b)

Figure 14(a) Cropped sample (b) its histogram

Let say 𝑣𝑚𝑖𝑛 is the minimum brightness and 𝑣𝑚𝑎𝑥 is the maximum brightness in the image.

After auto-contrasted, a point with the brightness 𝑣 will become:

1 This will be set up in Enrolment and Management software which are written by Visual Basic 2005

2 The histogram of an image plots the number of pixels in that image (vertical axis) with a particular

brightness value (horizontal axis) (16).

Maximum

brightness

Minimum

brightness

IMAGE PROCESSING

8

𝑣 ′ = 255 ∗𝑣 − 𝑣𝑚𝑖𝑛

𝑣𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑣𝑚𝑖𝑛

The image after auto-contrasted and its histogram are shown below:

(a)

(b)

Figure 15 (a) The image before auto-contrasted (b) Its histogram

An available Matlab code of auto-contrasting can be found on Matlab File Exchange (4).

Smoothing

Auto-contrasting enhances the contrast in the image but also creates more noise in the image.

The principle is that there is noise in the image already because of low quality camera. Auto-

contrasting just makes noise become clearer. Much noise will affect the vein extraction process.

Therefore a procedure which helps to reduce noise needs to be done before later processes.

Smoothing image is used in this case.

The mechanic of smoothing is also pretty simple. Considering a pixel in the image, we just need

to calculate the average value of pixels in its neighborhood and update the old value with the

calculated average value. This can be done easily in Matlab by creating a filter mask 𝑤 with size

5x5 and its all elements are 1

5∗5= 0.04. This mask is then convoluted (or correlated) with the

image by the Matlab function:

𝑔 = 𝑖𝑚𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟(𝑓,𝑤, ′𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑒′) (5) %f is the image after auto-contrasted

We now see the image before and after smoothed:

(a) Image before smoothed

(b) Its surface plot

New

maximum

brightness

New

minimum

brightness

IMAGE PROCESSING

9

(c) Image after smoothed

(d) Its surface plot

Figure 16 Image before and after smoothed

VEIN EXTRACTION

10

VEIN EXTRACTION

It can be said that the vein scanner design and vein extraction module mainly decide the

accuracy of the whole system. The pattern matching is just a two dimensional filter. Therefore a

good algorithm for extraction module helps not only to achieve high accuracy but also to have

different vein scanner designs with the same accuracy.

Many methods have been proposed such as line-shaped features from images include using a

matched filter (2), mathematical morphology (6), connection of emphasized edge lines (7), ridge

line following for minutiae detection in grayscale fingerprint images (8), and repeating the line

tracking (1) (9). The project uses Maximum curvature points in image profiles method of N. Miura,

A. Nagasaka, and T. Miyatake (10) to extract veins.

The method can extract the centrelines of veins consistently without affection by fluctuations in

vein width and brightness. Hence it can gain a very high accuracy. Experimental result shows

that the equal error rate for personal identification was 0.0009% (10) which is much better than

other methods.

Analysis

The factors that affect to the accuracy of vein extraction include:

Veins with various widths and brightness are distributed in an image.

The widths and brightness of the veins may vary each trial.

The figure 17 shows an example of the finger-vein image. A cross-sectional profile of the image

at the position of the white vertical line is shown.

Figure 17 Cross-sectional profile of finger-vein image (10)

The dents in the profiles are veins. They have different brightness and widths. A width of a vein

at the position ‗A‘ is narrower than that of ‗B‘, and brightness of a vein at position ‗C‘ is brighter

than that of ‗A‘ and ‗B‘.

VEIN EXTRACTION

11

In addition, brightness and widths of veins slightly vary in each trial because of fluctuations in

volume of blood flow in a finger caused by a physical condition, change in temperature, and so

on. The figure 18 shows an example like that:

Figure 18 Difference of width and brightness of veins in an image

The figure 18(a) shows a finger with sufficient blood and narrow veins. The figure 18(b) shows

another trial with less volume of blood and wider veins. By extracting the centre lines only, we

can achieve the same vein patterns for each trial.

To obtain centre lines in the image, we have to check profiles in four directions i.e. vertical,

horizontal primary oblique and secondary oblique (figure 19).

Figure 19 Direction of profile (10)

VEIN EXTRACTION

12

The cross-sectional profile around a vein appears like a dent. Therefore curvatures of profiles

are calculated to detect dents from profile. Finally each point is connected to adjacent points

over the whole finger image. This can help emphasize the veins and eliminate noises.

Algorithm

There are 3 steps in the algorithm:

Extraction of centre positions of veins

Connection of vein centres

Labelling the image

Let say 𝐹(𝑥,𝑦) is the intensity of a pixel (𝑥,𝑦).

[Step 1] Extraction of centre positions of veins

Assume 𝑃𝑓(𝑧) is a cross-sectional profile acquired from 𝐹(𝑥,𝑦) at vertical direction:

𝑃𝑓 𝑧 = 𝐹(𝑥, 𝑧)

where z is a position in a profile. A mapping function 𝑇𝑟𝑠 is defined as:

𝐹 𝑥, 𝑧 = 𝑇𝑟𝑠(𝑃𝑓 𝑧 )

In order to calculate the curvatures at position 𝑥, we calculate 𝐾𝑓(𝑥):

𝐾𝑓 𝑥 =

𝑑2𝑓 𝑥 𝑑𝑥2

1 + 𝑑𝑓 𝑥 𝑑𝑥

2

32

In computing, 𝑘(𝑧) can be calculated as (11):

𝑑− =1

𝑤

𝑦𝑖−1 − 𝑦𝑖𝑥𝑖−1 − 𝑥𝑖

0

𝑖=−𝑤+1

𝑑+ =1

𝑤

𝑦𝑖 − 𝑦𝑖+1

𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥𝑖+1

𝑤−1

𝑖=0

𝑑± =1

𝑤

𝑦𝑖 − 𝑦𝑖+1

𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥𝑖+1

𝑤/2

𝑖=−𝑤/2

𝑑2𝑦

𝑑2𝑧= 𝑑+ − 𝑑−

𝑑𝑦

𝑑𝑧= 𝑑±

VEIN EXTRACTION

13

𝑘 𝑧 =𝑑+ − 𝑑−

{1 + 𝑑±2}3/2

where w is used for calculation of the average of the profile. In the project w is assumed as 8.

Obviously if 𝑘 𝑧 is positive, the profile 𝑃𝑓 𝑧 is a dent. Now the local maximums of 𝑘 𝑧 in each

concave area are calculated. The positions indicate the centre points of the veins. These points

are defined as 𝑧𝑖′ , where 𝑖 = 0, 1,… ,𝑁 − 1 and N is the number of local maximum points in the

profile.

Figure 20 Calculation of the curvature of the profile

Figure 21 Relationship amongthe profile, curvature and score of probability of veins

A score 𝑆𝑐𝑟 (𝑧), is defined as:

𝑆𝑐𝑟 𝑧𝑖′ = 𝑘 𝑧𝑖

′ 𝑥𝑊𝑟(𝑖)

Where 𝑊𝑟(𝑖) is the width f the region where the curvature is positive and include 𝑧𝑖′ (figure 21).

The score indicates the probability that the centre position are on the vein are assigned to each

centre position.

VEIN EXTRACTION

14

Scores are assigned to a plane 𝑉𝑑1(𝑥𝑖′ ,𝑦𝑖

′), where 𝑉𝑑1(𝑥,𝑦) is a result of the emphasis of the

vein using the vertical profile of the image:

𝑉𝑑1 𝑥𝑖′ ,𝑦𝑖

′ = 𝐹 𝑥𝑖′ ,𝑦𝑖

′ + 𝑆𝑐𝑟 (𝑧𝑖′)

where 𝑥𝑖′ ,𝑦𝑖

′ represents the points defined by 𝐹 𝑥𝑖′ ,𝑦𝑖

′ = 𝑇𝑟𝑠(𝑧𝑖′).

Now all the profiles in four directions are analysed (figure 22).

Figure 22 Obtain the vein pattern by combining four directional vein images

[Step 2] Connection of vein centres

First, a pixel (𝑥,𝑦) in 𝑉𝑑1 and two pixels in its neighbourhood pixels (𝑥 − 1,𝑦) and (𝑥 + 1,𝑦) are

checked. If (𝑥,𝑦) has a small value while its neighbouring pixels have large values then the

value of (𝑥,𝑦) should be increased. If (𝑥,𝑦) has a large value while its neighbouring pixels have

small values then the value of (𝑥,𝑦) should be decreased to eliminate noise. This can be

represented as follow:

𝐶(𝑥,𝑦)𝑑1 = 𝑚𝑒𝑑{𝑉𝑑1 𝑥 − 1,𝑦 ,𝑉𝑑1 𝑥, 𝑦 ,𝑉𝑑1(𝑥 + 1,𝑦)}

where 𝑚𝑒𝑑{… } is a function of obtaining a median value.

Similarly 𝐶𝑑1,𝐶𝑑2,𝐶𝑑3 are applied with this calculation. Finally the extracted vein pattern G is

obtained with 𝐺(𝑥,𝑦) = max{𝐶𝑑1 ,𝐶𝑑2,𝐶𝑑3 ,𝐶𝑑4}.

[Step 3] Labelling the image

The vein pattern 𝐺(𝑥,𝑦) is now binarised by Otsu‘s method (11). To examine the formulation of

this histogram-based method, we start by treating the normalised histogram as discrete

probability density function, as in:

𝑝𝑟 𝑟𝑞 =𝑛𝑞

𝑛 𝑞 = 0,1,2,… , 𝐿 − 1 (5)

where 𝑛 is the total number of pixels in the image, 𝑛𝑞 is the number of pixels that have intensity

level 𝑟𝑞 , and 𝐿 is the total number of possible intensity levels in the image. Suppose a threshold

𝑘 is chosen and 𝐶𝑜 is the set of pixels with level [0,1,… ,𝑘 − 1] and 𝐶1 is the set of pixels with

levels [𝑘,𝑘 + 1,… , 𝐿 − 1]. Otsu‘s method chooses the threshold value 𝑘 that maximises the

between-class variance 𝜎2𝐵, which is defined as:

VEIN EXTRACTION

15

𝜎2𝐵 = 𝜔𝑜(𝜇𝑜 − 𝜇𝑟)2 + 𝜔1(𝜇1 − 𝜇𝑟)2

where:

𝑤0 = 𝑝𝑞 𝑟𝑞

𝑘−1

𝑞=0

𝑤1 = 𝑝𝑞(𝑟𝑞)

𝐿−1

𝑞=𝑘

𝜇0 = 𝑞𝑝𝑞(𝑟𝑞)/𝜔0

𝑘−1

𝑞=0

𝜇1 = 𝑞𝑝𝑞(𝑟𝑞)/𝜔1

𝐿−1

𝑞=𝑘

𝜇𝑇 = 𝑞𝑝𝑞(𝑟𝑞)

𝐿−1

𝑞=0

Fortunately Matlab gives us a function called graythresh to calculate 𝑘. The calling syntax is:

T = graythresh(f)

where f is the input image.

Test and result

Experiment showed that the EER (equal error rate, where a false accept rate (FAR) equals a

false reject rate (FRR)) is 0.0009% (10) which is much better than other methods. Detail about

how the test was taken and the result can be found at (10).

Flowchart and coding

The flowchart for the whole vein extraction module is shown below:

VEIN EXTRACTION

16

Two function autocontrast and smooth have been referred above. The functions vextraction,

hextraction, o1extraction and o2extraction are respectively to extract vein pattern in vertical,

horizontal, primary oblique and secondary oblique directions. Combime function is used to

calculate max{𝐶𝑑1 ,𝐶𝑑2,𝐶𝑑3,𝐶𝑑4} and binarise function is to binarise the pattern by Otsu‘s

method.

The flowchart of vextraction function is show in below figure. Flowcharts for functions

hextraction, o1extraction and o2extraction are similar to this.

f = input image

f1 = crop(f)

f2 = autocontrast(f1)

f3 = smooth(f2)

c1 = vextraction(f3)

c2 = hextraction(f3)

c3 = o1extraction(f3)

c4 = o2extraction(f3)

v=combine(c1,c2,c3,c4

)

o = binarise(v)

Figure 23 Vein extraction flowchart

VEIN EXTRACTION

17

Curvature function is to find local maximum point in a cross-sectional profile. Then syntax for the

function is:

[K, P, Scr] = curvature(y)

where y is a cross-sectional profile. The function returns three variables [K, P, Scr] where K, P,

Scr are respectively 𝑘 𝑧 , 𝑧𝑖′ , Score which are referred above. Filter function is applied to

emphasise centre lines of the veins and reduce noise.

Flowchart of curvature function is shown below:

[M, N] = size(f)

e(1:M, 1:N) = 0

i = 0

i < N

i = i + 1

True

y = f(:, i)

[K, P, Scr]=curvature(y)

e(P(j), i) = Scr(j)

False

o = filter(e)

Figure 24 Extraction function

VEIN EXTRACTION

18

w = 8, n = length(y), pn = 0,

in_a_dent = false, i = w

i < n - w

i = i + 1

True

False

dm = (1/w)*(y(i) – y(i-w))

dp = (1/w)*(y(i+w) – y(i))

d = (1/w)*(y(i+w/2) – y(i-w/2))

K(i) = (dp – dm)/sqrt((1 + d^2)^3)

in_a_dent && k(i-1)<=0

&& k(i) > 0

in_a_dent = true, pn = pn + 1,

ds(pn) = i – 1, max = 0

True

False

in_a_dent = true

True

K(i) > max

False

max = K(i), p(pn) =i

False

True

K(i-1) > max &&

K(i) <= 0

In_a_dent = false, de(pn) = i,

Scr(pn) = (de(pn) – ds(pn)) * y(p(pn))

False

True

Figure 25 Curvature function flowchart

VEIN EXTRACTION

19

Codes in Mablab for all these functions are attached in the Appendices part.

ENROLMENT

20

PATTERN MATCHING

The pattern matching method that is used in the project is two-dimensional correlation.

Correlation is quite simple in principle. Given an image 𝑓(𝑥,𝑦), the correlation is to find all

places in the image that match a given mask 𝑤(𝑥,𝑦). The process consists simply of moving the

centre of mask 𝑤 from point to point in the image 𝑓. At each point (x,y) correlation gives the sum

of products of the mask pixels and corresponding neighbourhood pixels in the area spanned by

the mask. For example, given an image 𝑓(𝑥,𝑦) and a mask 𝑤(3,3) (figure 26), at pixel (𝑥,𝑦) the

correlation calculate products of elements in the rectangle [𝑓(𝑥 − 1,𝑦 − 1) – 𝑓(𝑥 + 1,𝑦 + 1)] with

elements in the rectangle [𝑤(1,1) – 𝑤(3,3)] respectively and then sum them up.

Figure 26 The mechanics of linear spatial filtering. The magnified drawing show a 3x3 mask and the corresponding image neighbourhood directly under it.The neighbourhood is shown displaced out from under the mask for ease of

readability (5)

ENROLMENT

21

Assume the size of 𝑓 is 𝑀𝑥𝑁 and 𝑤 is also 𝑀𝑥𝑁. Normally the computational cost is 𝛩(𝑀2𝑥𝑁2)

which is quite high and will slow down the whole process. Another approach is to implement

correlation in frequency domain. Thank to Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), we can obtain a

correlation with only Θ(𝑀𝑥𝑁𝑥𝑙𝑜𝑔 𝑀𝑥𝑁 ). The principle is that the correlation in time domain can

be achieved by the product of the image and complex conjugate of the mask in frequency

domain. Letting ―∘‖ denotes correlation and ―*‖ denote complex conjugate, the correlation

theorem say:

𝑓(𝑥,𝑦) ∘ 𝑤 𝑥,𝑦 ⟺ 𝐹 𝑢, 𝑣 𝐻 ∗ (𝑢, 𝑣) (5)

Firstly FFT is used to convert 𝑓, 𝑤 into frequency domain as 𝐹, 𝑊. This step takes

𝛩(2𝑀𝑁 log 𝑀𝑁 ). Then the complex conjugate of W is calculated with 𝛩(𝑀𝑁). Afterwards the

product of 𝐹 and 𝑊∗ is calculated. This take a computational cost of 𝛩(4𝑀𝑁) (because of

complex numbers). Finally an IFFT is used to convert 𝐹𝑊∗ into time domain with a

computational cost of 𝛩(𝑀𝑁 log 𝑀𝑁 . The overall computational cost for the whole process is

𝛩(2𝑀𝑁 log 𝑀𝑁 ) which is much better to compare to 𝛩(𝑀2𝑥𝑁2) in the normal way. The

flowchart of correlation calculation in frequency domain is shown as follows:

Fortunately all those functions are available in Matlab. Therefore the correlation function can be

done in 5 lines:

function g= dftcorr(f, w)

[M, N] = size(f);

f = fft2(f); %convert to frequency domain

w = conj(fft2(w, M, N)); %calculate complex conjugate

g = real(ifft2(w.*f)); %convert to time domain

The above function returns an image 𝑐(𝑥,𝑦) of 𝑀𝑥𝑁. The maximum value of 𝑐(𝑥, 𝑦) is the

maximum number of matched pixels of two images 𝑓 and 𝑤. A function which returns the

number of dots (white pixels) in an image 𝑓 is defined as 𝜎(𝑓). In order to check if two patterns

are matched, we calculate two ratios:

𝐶

𝐹=

max(𝑐)

𝜎(𝑓)𝑥100%

𝐷

𝐹=

𝜎 𝑤 − 𝜎(𝑓)

𝜎 𝑓 𝑥100%

𝑊 ∗ 𝑊

𝐹

𝑤

𝑓

𝐹𝐹𝑇

𝐹𝐹𝑇

𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

𝑓𝑤 𝐹𝑊

∗

𝑀𝑈𝐿𝑇𝐼𝑃𝐿𝑌

𝐹 𝑥 𝑊 ∗

𝐼𝐹𝐹𝑇

𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑥 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑗𝑢𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒

Figure 27 Calculating correlation in frequency domain (17)

ENROLMENT

22

The ratio 𝐶

𝐹 indicates how much two pattern are alike and

𝐷

𝐹 indicates how difference between

number of pixels in 𝑓 and that in 𝑤. In the project, if two patterns have 𝐶

𝐹> 50% and

𝐷

𝐹< 20%

then they are considered to be matched.

Figure 28 A correlation result and a preset threshold

Threshold

ENROLMENT

23

ENROLMENT SOFTWARE

The enrolment package is to enrol users to the system. Because the software is used for

demonstration of vein recognition mainly, security for the database is not focused in this project.

Firstly it takes images from the camera. Vein patterns are extracted and then stored in a

database. The flowchart of the software is shown as below:

Figure 29 Enrolment flowchart

The software has to be able to deal with Matlab (for vein extraction module), camera and

database.

Matlab and VB.NET

All we have to do, is to create a Matlab project in Visual Basic and call their respective methods.

In order to create a Matlab object we need to define:

Dim MatLab As Object

Set MatLab = CreateObject(“Matlab.Application”)

To execute a command in Matlab we use Matlab.execute function. For example:

MatLab.Execute("cdD:\MATLABR12\work\alltest")

MatLab.Execute("myfile")

o retrieve a value from Matlab variable, the function MatLab.GetVariable is used. An example is

shown as follows:

Dim result As Integer

ENROLMENT

24

MatLab.Execute("x = 1 + 2;")

result = MatLab.GetVariable("x", "base")

A notice is that Matlab is required on the running machine.

Camera in VB.NET

In order to handle webcam in VB.NET the AVICap class is used. Firstly we define constants:

Public Const WM_CAP_START = &H400S

Public Const ws_child As Integer = &H40000000

Public Const ws_visible As Integer = &H10000000

Public Const WM_USER As Short = 1024

Public Const wm_cap_driver_connect As Integer = WM_USER + 10

Public Const wm_cap_set_preview As Integer = WM_USER + 50

Public Const WM_CAP_EDIT_COPY = WM_CAP_START + 30

Public Const WM_CAP_SET_PREVIEWRATE As Integer = WM_USER + 52

Public Const WM_CAP_DRIVER_DISCONNECT As Integer = WM_USER + 11

Public Const WM_CAP_DLG_VIDEOFORMAT As Integer = WM_USER + 41

Public Const WM_CAP As Short = &H400S

Public Const WM_CAP_SET_SCALE As Integer = WM_CAP + 53

Public Const SWP_NOMOVE As Short = &H2S

Public Const SWP_NOSIZE As Short = 1

Public Const SWP_NOZORDER As Short = &H4S

Public Const HWND_BOTTOM As Short = 1

―Detail about the use of each of the constants listed above can be found in the Windows

Multimedia SDK Help Reference at: ms-

help://MS.VSCC.v80/MS.MSDN.v80/MS.WIN32COM.v10.en/multimed/htm/_win32_video_capture_re

ference.htm. We can also view the help files using the Help system that comes installed with

Visual Studio 2005‖. (12)

We now define functions which handle the webcam:

'Send specific messages to a window

Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal

hWnd As Integer, ByVal wMsg As Integer, ByVal wParam As Integer, ByVal

lParam As Integer) As Integer

'Creates a capture window

Declare Function capCreateCaptureWindow Lib "avicap32.dll" Alias

"capCreateCaptureWindowA" (ByVal a As String, ByVal b As Integer, ByVal

c As Short, ByVal d As Short, ByVal e As Short, ByVal f As Short, ByVal

g As Integer, ByVal h As Short) As Integer

'Destroy a specific window

Declare Function DestroyWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hndw As Integer) As

Boolean

'Set the position of the window relative to the screen buffer

Declare Function SetWindowPos Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowPos" (ByVal

hwnd As Integer, ByVal hWndInsertAfter As Integer, ByVal x As Integer,

ByVal y As Integer, ByVal cx As Integer, ByVal cy As Integer, ByVal

wFlags As Integer) As Integer

ENROLMENT

25

Now assume we have a PictureBox named Vein in Form2. The follow function enables the

webcam represents in the Picturebox:

Public Sub StartPreviewWindow()

Dim temp As Integer

hwdc = capCreateCaptureWindow("University of Plymouth", ws_child Or

ws_visible, 0, 0, 320, 200, Form2.Vein.Handle.ToInt32, 0)

If (hwdc <> 0) Then

'Connect to the driver

temp = SendMessage(hwdc, wm_cap_driver_connect, 1, 0)

'Set priview rate

temp = SendMessage(hwdc, WM_CAP_SET_PREVIEWRATE, 66, 0)

'Set preview scale

temp = SendMessage(hwdc, WM_CAP_SET_SCALE, True, 0)

'Start previewing the image from the camera

temp = SendMessage(hwdc, wm_cap_set_preview, 1, 0)

SetWindowPos(hwdc, HWND_BOTTOM, 0, 0, Form2.Vein.Width,

Form2.Vein.Height, SWP_NOMOVE Or SWP_NOZORDER)

startcap = True

Else

MsgBox("No Webcam found")

End If

End Sub

To capture the current image in the PictureBox we copy it to the clipboard:

'---copy the image to the clipboard---

SendMessage(hwdc, WM_CAP_EDIT_COPY, 0, 0)

Data from the clipboard may be saved into a file for further process. The follow function is used

to stop the webcam:

Public Sub StopPreviewWindow()

SendMessage(hwdc, WM_CAP_DRIVER_DISCONNECT, 0, 0)

DestroyWindow(hwdc)

End Sub

MS Access Database

The database is a MS Access file including 4 fields:

ID (primary key): user identification number

first_name (string): user first name

last_name (string): user last name

vein (long binary data): vein patterns

A data sample is shown in the below figure:

ENROLMENT

26

Figure 30 User database

To add a data source to the project, we use Data > Add New Data Source menu (figure 31).

Figure 31 Adding a source: Use the simple menu command shown to launch the Data Source Configuration Wizard and add a new data source to the project

(12)

When the wizard appears, we choose Database and click Next > New Connection. A popup

appears for us to configure the database:

Figure 32 Add connection popup

The data source is changed to Microsoft Access Database File. Database file name is indicated

where the MS Access file is created.

ENROLMENT

27

User interface

The software includes two forms. The main form lists information of all users in the database. A

button Add/Remove user is added for the administrator to modify the database (figure 33).

Figure 33 Enrolment's main form

When the admin clicks Add/Remove user button, the second form appears. The form includes a

Database Binding Navigator that we can use to navigate the database. Information of users

such as first name, last name, vein pattern are also shown in the form.

Figure 34 Database navigator

ENROLMENT

28

The form enables admins to modify, add or remove the user information. All changes will be

saved into the database file when save button is clicked.

MANAGEMENT

29

MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

The management software enables the current user to lock/unlock his/her personal computer.

When a user leaves his/her computer, he/she may want to use the software to lock his/her

computer. When he/she comes back and wants to unlock the computer, he/she needs to put

his/her finger which was used in enrolment into the vein scanner. The software will check if the

vein of that finger is matched to the current user or not. If the vein is matched, the computer is

unlocked. Like enrolment software, the management software has to deal with MatLab, camera,

database and locking/unlocking the system. The below figure shows the flow chart of the

software:

Figure 35 Management software flowchart

Modules for dealing with Matlab, camera and database have been referred in the Enrolment

software part. In order to lock/unlock the system in Windows XP, the below code is applied.

Lock/unlock keyboard/mouse in Windows XP

The below code illustrates how to disable input from keyboard/mouse in Windows XP (13):

Imports System.Windows.Forms

Public Class WinControl

' This is the function used in order to block the keyboard and mouse:

Declare Function BlockInput Lib "User32" _

(ByVal fBlockIt As Boolean) As Boolean

Private Sub WaitThread(Byval _seconds as integer)

BlockInput(True)

MANAGEMENT

30

While (success = False And _

(DataTime.Now.Substract(now).Seconds _

< seconds Or seconds = 0 ))

Try

success = true

Catch

' Assuming window was not found

' and sleep for 100 miliseconds

System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100)

End Try

End While

BlockInput(False)

End Sub

End Class

Software UI

When management software is run, an icon will appear in the system tray (figure 36). If we right-

click on the icon a menu will show up with five options:

Lock computer: computer will be locked if this is opted.

Show control panel: if this one is chosen, a popup window will appear for user to

observe what are happening.

Launch Enrollment: used to launch the enrolment software

Exit

Figure 36 Management software

When the computer is locked, a black screen will appear with a blink message (figure 37a). In

this state, inputs from keyboard/mouse are disabled. In order to unlock the computer, the user

put his/her finger which was used in enrolment into the scanner device. The software will extract

the vein pattern and compare to patterns in the database. If the pattern is matched, keyboard

and mouse are re-enabled.

MANAGEMENT

31

(a) Computer is locked

(b)Vein matched, the computer is unlocked

Figure 37

The control panel shows extracted vein pattern, ratios 𝐶

𝐹 and

𝐷

𝐹.

Figure 38 Management control panel

CONCLUSION

32

CONCLUSION

The final product has worked and satisfied individual identification by finger veins applied in

personal computer as proposed. The product has been tested with 10 people and worked

properly with 8 people. This accuracy is not high mainly due to poor quality of vein images

coming in from the camera. This can be improved by using a better near-infrared source and a

more sensitive camera. The arrangement of infrared LEDs can also be changed so that we can

have different designs of the vein scanner.

The project has demonstrated and proved the capability of personal identification based on vein

patterns. Although the scale is small, other applications can be extended by solutions which are

used in this project. For large applications, some modules should be done in hardware in order

to improve the speed of the whole system. If problems of accuracy and speed are solved there

is a huge market waiting for the system such as ATMs, cars, houses, cell phones, entrance

doors, etc.

33

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35

APPENDICES