In recent times, there has been an increase in national security awareness with a focus on improving current practices relating to the identification and verification of individuals and the reduction of identity fraud. One tool that has been found to assist in these areas is biometrics. This thesis examines some biometric technologies that may be potentially suitable for surveillance and access control applications, and shows why facial recognition technology has been the focus of this study. Despite the testing reported in the literature discussing attempts to solve the problems with facial recognition operational performance, facial recognition has not been widely implemented in security applications to date. The reported testing regimes vary in terms of the date of testing, methodology used for the study, evaluation type, test size and the extent to which possible variations of each variable were examined. To summarise what is known about the effect each variable has on performance, a baseline model of variables together with a ranking scheme is defined and utilised to create a starting point for the research. The research described in this thesis focuses on how to improve the operational performance of two dimensional facial recognition systems by building upon the baseline model of variables and by better understanding how the variables affect facial recognition performance. To improve on the baseline model, systems engineering techniques are used to identify the functional components of a generic facial recognition system, the relationships between them, and the variables that affect those relationships. This identifies other variables that may affect performance. In order to determine which variables affect performance, and how, a series of technical, scenario and operational experiments are conducted to test a selection of the variables. It is shown that this results in a greater understanding of how facial recognition systems react to different variables in operational environments. A revised model of ranked variables is produced that can then be used by current and prospective stakeholders of biometric systems, system designers, integrators and testers to ensure that the majority of the variables are considered when designing, installing, commissioning, or testing facial recognition systems. The findings of this research can also be used to critically analyse existing facial recognition system implementations in order to identify areas where performance increases are possible. This is confirmed in part throughout the two year testing phase of this research where data collected from initial experiments were used as a starting point to improve the performance of later operational experiments. Finally, this thesis identifies that the revised model of variables is sufficiently generic to be used as a starting point for analysing a system using any biometric technology. This is supported by using iris recognition technology as a test case. It is anticipated that with an increased knowledge of how some systems are affected by certain variables, and by better controlling those variables, an increase in performance is possible for access control and surveillance security applications that utilise biometric technologies. / thesis (PhDElectronicSystemsEngineering)--University of South Australia, 2005.

Automated facial metrology is the science of objective and automatic measurement of the human face. There are many reasons for measuring the human face. Psychologists are interested in determining how humans perceive beauty, and how this is related to facial symmetry [158]. Biologists are interested in the relationship between symmetry and biological fitness [124]. Anthropologists, surgeons, forensic experts, and security professionals can also benefit from automated facial metrology [32, 101, 114]. This thesis investigates the concept of automated facial metrology, presenting original techniques for segmenting 3D range and colour images of the human head, measuring the bilateral symmetry of n-dimensional point data (with particular emphasis on measuring the human head), and extracting the 2D profile of the face from 3D data representing the head. Two facial profile analysis techniques are also presented that are incremental improvements over existing techniques. Extensive literature reviews of skin colour modelling, symmetry detection, symmetry measurement, and facial profile analysis are also included in this thesis. It was discovered during this research that bilateral symmetry detection using principal axes is not appropriate for detecting the mid-line of the human face. An original mid-line detection technique that does not use symmetry, and is superior to the symmetry-based technique, was developed as a direct result of this discovery. There is disagreement among researchers about the effect of ethnicity on skin colour. Some researchers claim that people from different ethnic groups have the same skin chromaticity (hue, saturation) [87, 129, 206], while other researchers claim that different ethnic groups have different skin colours [208, 209]. It is shown in this thesis that people from apparently different ethnic groups can have skin chromaticity that is within the same Gaussian distribution. The chromaticity-based skin colour model used in this thesis has been chosen from the many models previously used by other researchers, and its applicability to skin colour modelling has been justified. It is proven in this thesis that the Mahalanobis distance to the skin colour distribution is Gaussian in both the chromatic and normalised rg colour spaces. Most facial profile analysis techniques use either tangency or curvature to locate anthropometric features along the profile. Techniques based on both approaches have been implemented and compared. Neither approach is clearly superior to the other, but the results indicate that a hybrid technique, combining both approaches, could provide significant improvements. The areas of research most relevant to facial metrology are reviewed in this thesis and original contributions are made to the body of knowledge in each area. The techniques, results, literature reviews, and suggestions presented in this thesis provide a solid foundation for further research and hopefully bring the goal of automated facial metrology a little closer to being achieved.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 2000. / "A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy". Bibliography : leaves 188-199.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, November, 2002. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-48).

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-73).

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Computer Science, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.App.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-115). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1990. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [91]-99).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1975.

Thèse (Agrégation de l'enseignement superieure)--Université de Liège, 1960. / Includes bibliographical references and index.