Multi-Channel Biometrics for eHealth Combining Acoustic and Machine Vision Analysis of Speech, Lip Movement and Face: a Case Study

The purpose of this work is to present a solution combining user-friendliness and cost-effectiveness use of audio (speech) & visual (video/image) biometrics, for eHealth, able to achieve better accuracy and increase the ability to avoid counterfeiting. This work shows the evaluation results for an eHealth pilot study that tested the security, privacy, usability and cost-effective features of a user authentication platform for the management of sensitive heterogeneous multi-scale medical data (i.e. medical imaging such as MRI/CT scans, physical reports, and laboratory results), through easy acquisition of biometric data via laptops, and tablets equipped with cameras and microphones. Regarding the user enrollment and verification, audio-visual biometric information from an individual is captured, processed and stored as a biometric template. In subsequent uses, biometric information is captured and compared with the biometric templates. If the comparison is successful the verified user could be allowed to sign in to a medical collaboration platform of the hospitals infrastructure. In this work we present the biometric platform developed, the testing methodology and the administrative framework and legal processes, related to GDPR, for the eHealth pilot study and the results from our quantitative and qualitative analysis that was performed.

I. Introduction

Biometric data refer to unique measurable characteristics and information that can be used to authenticate or verify a person's identity and can be sorted in two classes, physiological and behavioral. Despite the issues rising for the sensitive nature of the biometric data, biometric technology is used for a number of different types of applications ranging from modest up to expansive [1]. Depending on the applications, the benefits of deploying biometric tools may lead to increased security, increased convenience and increased accountability compared to other authentication methods, especially in the case of healthcare [2], [3]. There are several biometric modalities that may be used for access control purposes. The selection of a particular biometric modality for use in a specific application involves a weighting of several factors since any biometric characteristic can be used as long as it satisfies several requirement: Universality, Uniqueness, Permanence, Measurability, Performance, Acceptability, and Circumvention [4].