A Survey of Synthetic Biometrics: Capabilities and Benefits
Nicholas M. Orlans, Douglas J. Buettner, Joe Marques · International Conference on Artificial Intelligence · 2004
Within the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH) community, a long-standing goal has been held for photo-realism in the generation of synthetic images—a goal that some feel has been achieved [7]. This body of work, spanning over three decades, documents achievements in modeling, animation, and rendering human subjects. The visual products range from feature films, commercial art, to video games. Computer generated “synthetic” biometrics are not widely used within the biometrics community beyond their current use as a research tool. Yet they offer a number of potential advantages that can be developed further to support the science and practical use of biometrics. They can be used to improve the understanding of a biometric system’s robustness and as an engineering tool to predict system performance. This paper surveys the state of synthetic biometrics generation, provides a glimpse at some benefits that can be obtained from their use, and discusses the issues retarding their adoption by the biometrics community. The most advanced synthetic images come from the movie industry and have yet to be fully adapted to suit biometric needs. A synthetically rendered face is illustrated in Figure 1.