Biometric Identification using Song-Based Blink Patterns

In this paper we describe a system that uses patterns of eye blinks as a biometric. Each user chooses a personal blink pattern based on a song (for example “Jingle Bells”). To establish their identity, the user looks at the system’s camera and blinks to the cadence of their chosen song. Computer vision is used to detect the blinks and to compare the blinked cadence to a database of stored blinked patterns to determine which song is being blinked, and therefore which user is performing the blinking. To make the system more secure, the system compares the characteristics of the blinking itself, the “blinkprint”, to the user’s stored blinkprint. This provides a verification check to help protect against the theft and subsequent use of a user’s blink pattern. We discuss the possible use of an enrollment process that alerts new users when their new blink code is similar to other codes already in the database, and report on the results of a preliminary experiment using this new enrollment procedure.