(Press-News.org) Each year in August, the aptly named town of Twinsburg, Ohio, is the site of the largest official gathering of twins in the world. Open to all multiples — identical and fraternal twins, triplets and quads from newborns to octogenarians — the weekend's events include food, live entertainment, a golf tournament, and a twins' parade.
The event also has become an important site for field research by Kevin Bowyer and Patrick Flynn of the University of Notre Dame's Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Flynn has a twin sister, making this research especially relevant to him.
Flynn and Bowyer have been developing and assessing image-based biometrics and multi-biometrics technologies since 2001, including first-of-kind comparisons of face photographs, face thermograms, 3-D face images, iris images, video of human gait, and even ear and hand shapes.
A biometric is a stable and distinctive physiological feature of a person that can be measured and used to identify that person; the fingerprint is the most familiar example.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, federal agencies have become increasingly interested in the feasibility of facial and iris recognition technologies.
Bowyer and Flynn have received two grants from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for research into the discrimination of identical twins. Even identical twins have unique irises. They are examining how iris biometrics performs in twins to confirm prior claims that biometrics is capable of differentiating between twins and to explore if human observers can make distinctions that current iris biometrics technologies cannot.
At the Twinsburg event, Bowyer and Flynn recruited volunteers to capture biometrical samples of identical twins. The volunteers sat at the center of a half-circle arc surrounded by five cameras which took high resolution color photographs from different angles. Volunteers also posed for iris and 3-D face imaging cameras.
After acquisition and assembly of these field-collected data, the researchers then presented unlabeled twin and non-twin image pairs in equal numbers to another group of human volunteers on campus. These volunteers were told to record their opinion of whether the image pairs came from a pair of twins or from unrelated individuals.
Bowyer's and Flynn's research indicates that the participants can correctly classify pairs of twins with 80 percent accuracy using only the appearance of the iris, a level that rules out the possibility of random guessing.
Their research suggests that iris images may be able to be used for purposes beyond those that are currently envisioned by the biometrics research community. The researchers plan on continuing to analyze data from the Twinsburg event to look closer at the feasibility of new types of automated iris image analysis. Initial results of their work appear in the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Biometrics Workshop and the International Carnahan Conference on Security Technology.
INFORMATION:
Contacts: Kevin Bowyer, Schubmehl-Prein Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, 574-631-9978, kwb@cse.nd.edu; Patrick Flynn, professor of computer science and engineering, 574-631-8803, flynn@nd.edu
Twins are intriguing research subjects for Notre Dame biometircs researchers
2010-09-09
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
New model to measure disease burden of postmenopausal osteoporosis
2010-09-09
An article just published in the scientific journal 'Osteoporosis International' introduces a validated new model that can be used to describe the current and future burden of postmenopausal osteoporosis in different national settings.
The model, published by researchers from the UK on behalf of the International Osteoporosis Foundation's Committee of Scientific Advisors, was developed and validated using Swedish data. It can be used to forecast the incidence and prevalence of fractures not only by age and calendar year, but also by BMD category. It provides a high degree ...
Report issued today examines improving long-term climate forecasts
2010-09-09
MIAMI — September 8, 2010 -- Operational forecasting centers produce climate predictions that provide input for important decisions regarding water management, agriculture, and energy. "Assessment of Intraseasonal to Interannual Climate Prediction and Predictability", a new report from the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, examines current capabilities for making climate predictions -- such as seasonal hurricane or longer-term drought forecasts -- and identifies opportunities for improvement.
The report finds that operational forecast centers could ...
Parents report a widely prescribed antibiotic is effective for fragile X treatment
2010-09-09
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — One of the antibiotics most commonly prescribed to treat adolescent acne can increase attention spans and communication and decrease anxiety in patients with fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of mental impairment, according to a new survey study that is the first published on parents' reports of their children's responses to treatment with the medication.
Led by researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute, the study examined parents' observations of their children's responses to minocycline — not the efficacy of treating patients ...
Insulin may reduce several inflammatory factors induced by bacterial infection
2010-09-09
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Treating intensive care patients who develop life-threatening bacterial infections, or septicemia, with insulin potentially could reduce their chances of succumbing to the infection, if results of a new preliminary study can be replicated in a larger study.
A paper published online ahead of print in Diabetes Care reports that insulin lowered the amount of inflammation and oxidative stress in study participants who had been injected with a common bacteria, or endotoxin, known as LPS (lipopolysaccharide).
The study was conducted by University at Buffalo ...
First discovery of bilirubin in a flower announced
2010-09-09
MIAMI, FL—A research team led by Cary Pirone from the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida International University has identified bilirubin in the popular Bird of Paradise plant. The breakthrough study, published in the September 2010 issue of the American Society for Horticultural Science's journal HortScience, provides new insights into color production in this iconic tropical plant.
Previously thought to be an "animal-only" pigment, bilirubin is best known as the yellowish hue associated with bruises and jaundice sufferers. In 2009 the FIU researchers found ...
Consumers will pay more for goods they can touch, Caltech researchers say
2010-09-09
PASADENA, Calif.—We've all heard the predictions: e-commerce is going to be the death of traditional commerce; online shopping spells the end of the neighborhood brick-and-mortar store.
While it's true that online commerce has had an impact on all types of retail stores, it's not time to bring out the wrecking ball quite yet, says a team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Their investigations into how subjects assign value to consumer goods—and how those values depend on the way in which those goods are presented—are being published ...
Forcing mismatched elements together could yield better solar cells
2010-09-09
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---In what could be a step toward higher efficiency solar cells, an international team including University of Michigan professors has invalidated the most commonly used model to explain the behavior of a unique class of materials called highly mismatched alloys.
Highly mismatched alloys, which are still in the experimental stages of development, are combinations of elements that won't naturally mix together using conventional crystal growth techniques. Professor Rachel Goldman compares them to some extent to homogenized milk, in which the high-fat cream ...
ADA supports national restaurant menu labeling legislation
2010-09-09
St. Louis, MO, September, 8, 2010 – The government's role in improving the nation's nutrition is now firmly established with nutritional labeling for restaurant meals now mandated across the United States as part of HR 3590 Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act. An article in the September issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association explains how state and municipal labeling laws developed and how the new national law will supersede these and replace them with a uniform standard. It also addresses the American Dietetic Association's (ADA's) involvement ...
LSU's WAVCIS director says oil remains below surface, will come ashore in pulses
2010-09-09
BATON ROUGE – Gregory Stone, director of LSU's WAVCIS Program and also of the Coastal Studies Institute in the university's School of the Coast & Environment, disagrees with published estimates that more than 75 percent of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon incident has disappeared.
Stone recently participated in a three-hour flyover of the affected area in the Gulf, where he said that subsurface oil was easily visible from overhead.
"It's most definitely there," said Stone. "It's just a matter of time before it makes itself known again."
Readings from WAVCIS indicate ...
Study may help predict extinction tipping point for species
2010-09-09
Athens, Ga. – What if there were a way to predict when a species was about to become extinct—in time to do something about it?
Findings from a study by John M. Drake, associate professor in the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology, and Blaine D. Griffen, assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, may eventually lead to such an outcome—and that is only the start. Their study also has implications for understanding drastic, even catastrophic, changes in many other kinds of complex systems, from the human brain to entire ecosystems.
The paper, "Early ...