The LASEC lab and Idiap beat to the rhythm of a new common project

The BEAT project coordinated by Dr Sébastien Marcel at the IDIAP research institute is the result of a truly collaboration between EPFL and the Biometric group from IDIAP, hence demonstrating the success of the 2008-2011 Idiap-EPFL joint development plan (http://www.sbf.admin.ch/htm/dokumentation/publikationen/forschung/leistungsvereinbarungen/Artikel_16_2008-11/IDIAP.pdf) whose goal was to develop scientific collaborations between EPFL and IDIAP.

About BEAT

The goal of BEAT is to propose a framework of standard operational evaluations for biometric technologies. This will be achieved by (1) developing an online and open platform to transparently and independently evaluate biometric systems against validated benchmarks, (2) designing protocols and tools for vulnerability analysis, and (3) developing standardization documents for Common Criteria evaluations. Additionally, legal aspects will be considered to address the issues of both privacy data protection and Intellectual Property and so ensure that the BEAT framework can be used by the research community and companies.

The role of EPFL is to survey privacy protection means for biometric systems, under the leadership of Dr Katerina Mitrokotsa. 

There will be three outcomes of this project. The first is that the reliability of biometric systems will be measurable and thus should lead to a meaningful increase in performance. The second is that technology transfer from research to companies will be much easier as there will be an interoperable framework. Finally, decision-makers and authorities will be informed about the progress that is made in biometrics as the results will have an impact on standards. Given these outcomes we expect that BEAT will significantly contribute to the development of a European Identification Certification System.

Project website: http://www.beat-eu.org/

(IDIAP press release).