A method for selecting and ranking quality metrics for optimization of biometric recognition systems

In the field of biometrics evaluation of quality of biometric samples has a number of important applications. The main applications include (1) to reject poor quality images during acquisition, (2) to use as enhancement metric, and (3) to apply as a weighting factor in fusion schemes. Since a biometric-based recognition system relies on measures of performance such as matching scores and recognition probability of error, it becomes intuitive that the metrics evaluating biometric sample quality have to be linked to the recognition performance of the system. The goal of this work is to design a method for evaluating and ranking various quality metrics applied to biometric images or signals based on their ability to predict recognition performance of a biometric recognition system. The proposed method involves: (1) Preprocessing algorithm operating on pairs of quality scores and generating relative scores, (2) Adaptive multivariate mapping relating quality scores and measures of recognition performance and (3) Ranking algorithm that selects the best combinations of quality measures. The performance of the method is demonstrated on face and iris biometric data.