On the Deployment of Artificial Immune Systems for Biometrics

Artificial immune systems (AIS) are a computational metaphor based on biological implementations of immune systems. Natural immune systems are capable of performing computation based on several properties that they possess. Immune systems are capable of adapting to new stimuli – they respond appropriately to novel stimuli, and they can remember previous encounters with stimuli. The processes which natural immune systems utilise are a combination of cellular and humoral responses – which act independently and in concert to perform stimulus identification and eradication, with minimal impact on the host. This provides an overview of artificial immune systems – which attempt to implement the basic functionality of natural systems. The basic properties and their interrelations are described in this paper – which is a prelude to their application in the context of biometrics. It will be demonstrated that the AIS approach is both a natural and potentially very effective approach to providing biometric security within a range of modalities.