Norwegian Biometrics Laboratory at NTNU has been awarded International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) Best Paper at IEEE International Workshop on Biometrics and Forensics (IWBF-2019) held in Cancun, Mexico. IWBF is the premier international forum for research in the design and application of advanced biometric technologies for forensic science. IWBF is specifically devoted to facilitating synergies in research and development in the areas of multimedia forensics, forensic biometrics, and forensic science. The research article authored by NBL members - Prof. Raghavendra Ramachandra, Sushma Venkatesh, Dr. Kiran Raja, Dr. Pankaj Wasnik and Prof. Christoph Busch together with Dr. Sushil Bhattacharjee and Dr. Sebastien Marcel from IDIAP, Switzerland. The article was titled “Custom Silicon Face Masks: Vulnerability on Commercial Face Recognition Systems & Presentation Attack Detection" and demonstrates the vulnerability of existing commercial Face Recognition Software for silicone mask attacks. Further it also indicates the challenges in detecting presentation attacks using silicone masks in the existing biometric systems. NBL and IDIAP are committed to reproducible research and therefore provide the code and data freely to academic researchers.

This research article is a result of fruitful collaboration between NTNU and IDIAP under the research grant obtained for project “Secure Access Control over Wide Area Network (SWAN)” from Research Council of Norway. More details on SWAN project can be obtained at: https://www.ntnu.edu/web/iik/swan