Fed Cam

Project objectives

The scientific motivation behind the use of the ECG in biometrics lies in having demonstrated the uniqueness of the ECG for each individual, while on the contrary many aspects related to its variability are still to be analysed.

For example, it is still to be investigated how the presence of pathologies or physical/mental stress conditions can influence the ECG tracing and the possibility of carrying out verification and identification tasks.

Verification consists of a "one-to-one" comparison of samples and occurs when a user, ofchiarata an identity, it must be confirmed by the system. It is therefore used for positive recognition, the purpose of which is to prevent and prevent multiple people from using the same identity.

The identification, on the other hand, is given by a comparison of the input sample with all the templates present in the system database. It is a one-to-many comparison and therefore requires more processing time, more memory, and is more expensive than the verification process. However, it allows, in addition to positive acknowledgment, negative acknowledgment which prevents a person from using multiple identities.

The objectives of the project are:

• State of the art analysis of existing ECG acquisition systems. The purpose of this study is to understand the technical specifications to be introduced in the system design phase to create an acquisition system with high acquisition frequency and low construction costs;
• The development of an embedded system for ECG signal acquisition with Off-the-person approach. The latter is a method in which the acquisition of the ECG signal occurs through objects or surfaces with which the subjects interact (for example a computer keyboard). It does not require any particular preparation of the subject, and is different from other approaches, known as On-the-person, in which the assembly of the electrodes on the subjects is necessary for signal acquisition. For this development, the project focuses on both the hardware and software as follows:
  • Hardware: design and implementation of the acquisition hardware using the Arduino One platform, an SD memory for data storage, an ad hoc circuit for the pre-processing of the ECG signal that reduces noise and eliminates the 50 Hz component, metal plates for acquiring the signal from the fingers, and a casing of the overall device in wood and plexiglass;
  • Software: the software for acquiring the ECG signal has been written in a language compliant with that used for the Arduino platform. The acquisition user interface was created in the same language.
• Going beyond the state of the art by creating an exhaustive ECG-dataset for biometric purposes at the Federico II University of Naples and UCBM.

Start and end date

01/01/2014 - 31/01/2017

Project Manager

Prof. Paolo Soda

Coordinating institution of the project

Federico II University of Naples, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies

Other Institutions involved

Funding source(s).

Internally funded by the participating institutions