Biometrics has emerged from relatively specialized use in the criminal forensics domain to more mainstream use for computer authentication, identification document security, and surveillance for public safety. This emergence has been accompanied by an expansion in biometric modality from mainly fingerprints to face, iris, hand, voice, and other novel biometrics.

This course concentrates on the unique advantages that biometrics brings to computer security, but also addresses challenging issues such as security strength, recognition rates, and privacy, as well as alternatives of passwords and smart cards. Students will gain knowledge in the building blocks of this field: signal processing, pattern recognition, security and privacy, and secure computation techniques for privacy preserving biometric data retrieval. By the end of the course students will be able to evaluate and design security systems that include biometrics and their usability and privacy implications. If time permits and there is sufficient interest, we will also discuss a real world project on applying biometrics to emergency health data management.