Ear recognition: More than a survey

Abstract Automatic identity recognition from ear images represents an active field of research within the biometric community. The ability to capture ear images from a distance and in a covert manner makes the technology an appealing choice for surveillance and security applications as well as other application domains. Significant contributions have been made in the field over recent years, but open research problems still remain and hinder a wider (commercial) deployment of the technology. This paper presents an overview of the field of automatic ear recognition (from 2D images) and focuses specifically on the most recent, descriptor-based methods proposed in this area. Open challenges are discussed and potential research directions are outlined with the goal of providing the reader with a point of reference for issues worth examining in the future. In addition to a comprehensive review on ear recognition technology, the paper also introduces a new, fully unconstrained dataset of ear images gathered from the web and a toolbox implementing several state-of-the-art techniques for ear recognition. The dataset and toolbox are meant to address some of the open issues in the field and are made publicly available to the research community.

[1]  Yuan Weiqi,et al.  Human ear recognition based on block segmentation , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Cyber-Enabled Distributed Computing and Knowledge Discovery.

[2]  Zhengguang Xu,et al.  Shape and Structural Feature Based Ear Recognition , 2004, SINOBIOMETRICS.

[3]  Phalguni Gupta,et al.  An efficient ear recognition technique invariant to illumination and pose , 2013, Telecommun. Syst..

[4]  Abdelhani Boukrouche,et al.  Identity recognition based on the external shape of the human ear , 2015, 2015 International Conference on Applied Research in Computer Science and Engineering (ICAR).

[5]  Mohamed Abdel-Mottaleb,et al.  Human Ear Recognition from Face Profile Images , 2006, ICB.

[6]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[7]  Anil K. Jain,et al.  Open source biometric recognition , 2013, 2013 IEEE Sixth International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems (BTAS).

[8]  G LoweDavid,et al.  Distinctive Image Features from Scale-Invariant Keypoints , 2004 .

[9]  Abdelhani Boukrouche,et al.  Ear description and recognition using ELBP and wavelets , 2015, 2015 International Conference on Applied Research in Computer Science and Engineering (ICAR).

[10]  Arun Ross,et al.  A survey on ear biometrics , 2013, CSUR.

[11]  Takashi Yahagi,et al.  Ear photo recognition using scale invariant keypoints , 2006, Computational Intelligence.

[12]  Berk Gökberk,et al.  Facial Landmark Localization in Depth Images Using Supervised Ridge Descent , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision Workshop (ICCVW).

[13]  Yu Zhang,et al.  Ear Recognition using Improved Non-Negative Matrix Factorization , 2006, 18th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR'06).

[14]  Sudeep Sarkar,et al.  Comparison and Combination of Ear and Face Images in Appearance-Based Biometrics , 2003, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[15]  Marwan Mattar,et al.  Labeled Faces in the Wild: A Database forStudying Face Recognition in Unconstrained Environments , 2008 .

[16]  Shengcai Liao,et al.  Learning Face Representation from Scratch , 2014, ArXiv.

[17]  W BowyerKevin,et al.  Biometric Recognition Using 3D Ear Shape , 2007 .

[18]  Arun Ross,et al.  2D ear classification based on unsupervised clustering , 2014, IEEE International Joint Conference on Biometrics.

[19]  Mohammed Bennamoun,et al.  Biometric Approaches of 2D-3D Ear and Face: A Survey , 2007, SCSS.

[20]  Christoph Busch,et al.  A comparative study on texture and surface descriptors for ear biometrics , 2014, 2014 International Carnahan Conference on Security Technology (ICCST).

[21]  Abdenour Hadid,et al.  Ear biometric recognition using local texture descriptors , 2014, J. Electronic Imaging.

[22]  Ville Ojansivu,et al.  Blur Insensitive Texture Classification Using Local Phase Quantization , 2008, ICISP.

[23]  Hui Zeng,et al.  Block-based and multi-resolution methods for ear recognition using wavelet transform and uniform local binary patterns , 2008, 2008 19th International Conference on Pattern Recognition.

[24]  Zhi-Chun Mu,et al.  A novel approach for ear recognition based on ICA and RBF network , 2005, 2005 International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics.

[25]  Ph.D. Ruma Purkait M.Sc.,et al.  Anthropometry of the Normal Human Auricle: A Study of Adult Indian Men , 2006, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

[26]  Arun Ross,et al.  Towards understanding the symmetry of human ears: A biometric perspective , 2010, 2010 Fourth IEEE International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems (BTAS).

[27]  Sharath Pankanti,et al.  Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society , 2013 .

[28]  Jing Li,et al.  A comprehensive review of current local features for computer vision , 2008, Neurocomputing.

[29]  Zhi-chun Mu,et al.  Ear Recognition based on 2D Images , 2007, 2007 First IEEE International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications, and Systems.

[30]  Zhichun Mu,et al.  Ear recognition using LLE and IDLLE algorithm , 2008, 2008 19th International Conference on Pattern Recognition.

[31]  Zhengguang Xu,et al.  Ear recognition using a new local matching approach , 2008, 2008 15th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing.

[32]  Hyeonjoon Moon,et al.  The FERET Evaluation Methodology for Face-Recognition Algorithms , 2000, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[33]  Andrea F. Abate,et al.  Ear Recognition by means of a Rotation Invariant Descriptor , 2006, 18th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR'06).

[34]  Xinbo Gao,et al.  A novel semi-supervised learning for face recognition , 2015, Neurocomputing.

[35]  J. Daugman.  Uncertainty relation for resolution in space, spatial frequency, and orientation optimized by two-dimensional visual cortical filters. , 1985, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics and image science.

[36]  Zhichun Mu,et al.  Multi-Pose Ear Recognition Based on Force Field Transformation , 2008, 2008 Second International Symposium on Intelligent Information Technology Application.

[37]  Jian Yang,et al.  Nearest orthogonal matrix representation for face recognition , 2015, Neurocomputing.

[38]  Emanuela Gualdi,et al.  Longitudinal study of anthropometric changes with aging in an urban Italian population , 1998 .

[39]  Hyeonjoon Moon,et al.  The FERET evaluation methodology for face-recognition algorithms , 1997, Proceedings of IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[40]  Shree K. Nayar,et al.  Attribute and simile classifiers for face verification , 2009, 2009 IEEE 12th International Conference on Computer Vision.

[41]  Jiang Chen,et al.  A robust algorithm for ear recognition under partial occlusion , 2013, Proceedings of the 32nd Chinese Control Conference.

[42]  Loris Nanni,et al.  A multi-matcher for ear authentication , 2007, Pattern Recognit. Lett..

[43]  K. Faez,et al.  Using 2D wavelet and principal component analysis for personal identification based On 2D ear structure , 2007, 2007 International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced Systems.

[44]  Arun Ross,et al.  An introduction to biometrics , 2008, ICPR 2008.

[45]  Loris Nanni,et al.  Fusion of color spaces for ear authentication , 2009, Pattern Recognit..

[46]  Bourouba Houcine,et al.  Ear recognition based on Multi-bags-of-features histogram , 2015, 2015 3rd International Conference on Control, Engineering & Information Technology (CEIT).

[47]  Michal Choras,et al.  Image Feature Extraction Methods for Ear Biometrics--A Survey , 2007, 6th International Conference on Computer Information Systems and Industrial Management Applications (CISIM'07).

[48]  Bill Triggs,et al.  Histograms of oriented gradients for human detection , 2005, 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR'05).

[49]  Gamal Fahmy,et al.  The effect of lighting direction/condition on the performance of face recognition algorithms , 2006, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[50]  Phalguni Gupta,et al.  An efficient ear localization technique , 2012, Image Vis. Comput..

[51]  Pedro Luis Galdámez,et al.  Ear recognition using a hybrid approach based on neural networks , 2014, 17th International Conference on Information Fusion (FUSION).

[52]  Vitomir Struc,et al.  Gabor-Based Kernel Partial-Least-Squares Discrimination Features for Face Recognition , 2009, Informatica.

[53]  Vitomir Struc,et al.  Adaptation of SIFT Features for Robust Face Recognition , 2010, ICIAR.

[54]  Stefan Winkler,et al.  A data-driven approach to cleaning large face datasets , 2014, 2014 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP).

[55]  N. Pavesic,et al.  Principal Gabor filters for face recognition , 2009, 2009 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications, and Systems.

[56]  Muhammad Shoaib,et al.  A human ear recognition method using nonlinear curvelet feature subspace , 2014, Int. J. Comput. Math..

[57]  B. Moreno,et al.  On the use of outer ear images for personal identification in security applications , 1999, Proceedings IEEE 33rd Annual 1999 International Carnahan Conference on Security Technology (Cat. No.99CH36303).

[58]  Y. S. Moon,et al.  Recent advances in ear biometrics , 2004, Sixth IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, 2004. Proceedings..

[59]  Michele Nappi,et al.  HERO: Human Ear Recognition against Occlusions , 2010, 2010 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition - Workshops.

[60]  Christoph Busch,et al.  Ear biometrics: a survey of detection, feature extraction and recognition methods , 2012, IET Biom..

[61]  Latha Lakshmanan,et al.  Efficient person authentication based on multi-level fusion of ear scores , 2013, IET Biom..

[62]  Xianzhong Long,et al.  Discriminative graph regularized extreme learning machine and its application to face recognition , 2015, Neurocomputing.

[63]  Vitomir Struc,et al.  The Complete Gabor-Fisher Classifier for Robust Face Recognition , 2010, EURASIP J. Adv. Signal Process..

[64]  Mark S. Nixon,et al.  Force field energy functionals for image feature extraction , 2002, Image Vis. Comput..

[65]  M. A. Carreira-Perpinan,et al.  Compression neural networks for feature extraction: Application to human recognition from ear images , 1995 .

[66]  Dariusz Frejlichowski,et al.  The West Pomeranian University of Technology Ear Database - A Tool for Testing Biometric Algorithms , 2010, ICIAR.

[67]  Yue Zhao,et al.  Ear and face based multimodal recognition based on KFDA , 2008, 2008 International Conference on Audio, Language and Image Processing.

[68]  Ryszard S. Choras,et al.  Geometrical Algorithms of Ear Contour Shape Representation and Feature Extraction , 2006, Sixth International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications.

[69]  Davide G. Tommasi,et al.  Age- and sex-related changes in the normal human ear. , 2009, Forensic science international.

[70]  C FIELDS,et al.  The ear of the newborn as an identification constant. , 1960, Obstetrics and gynecology.

[71]  Joshua B. Tenenbaum,et al.  Picture: A probabilistic programming language for scene perception , 2015, 2015 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR).

[72]  Alice Caplier,et al.  Face Recognition with Patterns of Oriented Edge Magnitudes , 2010, ECCV.

[73]  Mark S. Nixon,et al.  Automatic ear recognition by force field transformations , 2000 .

[74]  Zhi-Chun Mu,et al.  Feature-level fusion method based on KFDA for multimodal recognition fusing ear and profile face , 2007, 2007 International Conference on Wavelet Analysis and Pattern Recognition.

[75]  Zhi-qin Wang,et al.  Multi-scale feature extraction algorithm of ear image , 2011, 2011 International Conference on Electric Information and Control Engineering.

[76]  Dong Zhou,et al.  Translation techniques in cross-language information retrieval , 2012, CSUR.

[77]  Mohammed Bennamoun,et al.  Sparse Representation for Ear Biometrics , 2008, ISVC.

[78]  Ajay Kumar,et al.  Reliable ear identification using 2-D quadrature filters , 2012, Pattern Recognit. Lett..

[79]  Sudeep Sarkar,et al.  An evaluation of face and ear biometrics , 2002, Object recognition supported by user interaction for service robots.

[80]  Mark S. Nixon,et al.  Ear Biometrics by Force Field Convergence , 2005, AVBPA.

[81]  Ping Yan,et al.  Empirical Evaluation of Advanced Ear Biometrics , 2005, 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR'05) - Workshops.

[82]  Luis Álvarez,et al.  Normalization and feature extraction on ear images , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Carnahan Conference on Security Technology (ICCST).

[83]  Ping Yan,et al.  Biometric Recognition Using 3D Ear Shape , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.

[84]  Sabu M. Thampi,et al.  Advances in Signal Processing and Intelligent Recognition Systems , 2018, Communications in Computer and Information Science.

[85]  Patricia Melin,et al.  Modular neural network integrator for human recognition from ear images , 2010, The 2010 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN).

[86]  Mark S. Nixon,et al.  The effect of time on ear biometrics , 2011, 2011 International Joint Conference on Biometrics (IJCB).

[87]  Edmond Locard,et al.  L'identification des récidivistes , 1909 .

[88]  Mark S. Nixon,et al.  3D morphable model construction for robust ear and face recognition , 2010, 2010 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[89]  Alphonse Bertillon,et al.  Signaletic instructions including the theory and practice of anthropometrical identification , 2022 .

[90]  Miguel Angel Ferrer-Ballester,et al.  Earprint recognition based on an ensemble of global and local features , 2015, 2015 International Carnahan Conference on Security Technology (ICCST).

[91]  Mark S. Nixon,et al.  Toward Unconstrained Ear Recognition From Two-Dimensional Images , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Part A: Systems and Humans.

[92]  Mohammed Bennamoun,et al.  Score Level Fusion of Ear and Face Local 3D Features for Fast and Expression-Invariant Human Recognition , 2009, ICIAR.

[93]  Zhao Hai-Long,et al.  Combining wavelet transform and Orthogonal Centroid Algorithm for ear recognition , 2009, 2009 2nd IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Information Technology.

[94]  Ioannis A. Kakadiaris,et al.  Unified 3D face and ear recognition using wavelets on geometry images , 2008, Pattern Recognit..

[95]  Mahbubur Rahman,et al.  Person Identification Using Ear Biometrics , 2007 .

[96]  Ahmed Bouridane,et al.  An automated ear identification system using Gabor filter responses , 2015, 2015 IEEE 13th International New Circuits and Systems Conference (NEWCAS).

[97]  Mark S. Nixon,et al.  Force Field Energy Functionals for Image Feature Extraction , 2002, BMVC.

[98]  Ajay Kumar,et al.  Robust ear identification using sparse representation of local texture descriptors , 2013, Pattern Recognit..

[99]  M. Choraś,et al.  Perspective methods of biometric human identification , 2008, New Trends in Audio and Video / Signal Processing Algorithms, Architectures, Arrangements, and Applications SPA 2008.

[100]  Terence Sim,et al.  The CMU Pose, Illumination, and Expression (PIE) database , 2002, Proceedings of Fifth IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face Gesture Recognition.

[101]  Jiri Matas,et al.  XM2VTSDB: The Extended M2VTS Database , 1999 .

[102]  Fernando De la Torre,et al.  Supervised Descent Method and Its Applications to Face Alignment , 2013, 2013 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[103]  Hugo Proença,et al.  UBEAR: A dataset of ear images captured on-the-move in uncontrolled conditions , 2011, 2011 IEEE Workshop on Computational Intelligence in Biometrics and Identity Management (CIBIM).

[104]  M.S. Nixon,et al.  On Model-Based Analysis of Ear Biometrics , 2007, 2007 First IEEE International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications, and Systems.

[105]  Mark S. Nixon,et al.  Robust log-Gabor filter for ear biometrics , 2008, 2008 19th International Conference on Pattern Recognition.

[106]  Abhijit Patil,et al.  Automated Human Identification Using Ear Imaging , 2015 .

[107]  Naser Damer,et al.  Ear Recognition Using Multi-Scale Histogram of Oriented Gradients , 2012, 2012 Eighth International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing.

[108]  Jingyu Hou,et al.  A neural network based human identification framework using ear images , 2010, TENCON 2010 - 2010 IEEE Region 10 Conference.

[109]  Esa Rahtu,et al.  BSIF: Binarized statistical image features , 2012, Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR2012).

[110]  Li Zhang,et al.  Wonder ears: Identification of identical twins from ear images , 2012, Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR2012).

[111]  M. Choraś.  Perspective methods of human identification: Ear biometrics , 2007 .

[112]  David Zhang,et al.  Ear authentication using Log-Gabor wavelets , 2007, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[113]  I. Alberink,et al.  Performance of the FearID earprint identification system. , 2007, Forensic science international.

[114]  Tian Ying,et al.  Ear recognition based on weighted wavelet transform and DCT , 2014, The 26th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (2014 CCDC).

[115]  Zhiyuan Zhang,et al.  Multi-view ear recognition based on B-Spline pose manifold construction , 2008, 2008 7th World Congress on Intelligent Control and Automation.

[116]  C Sforza,et al.  Morphometry of the normal human ear: a cross-sectional study from adolescence to mid-adulthood. , 1999, Journal of craniofacial genetics and developmental biology.

[117]  Bo Yang,et al.  A comparative study on local binary pattern (LBP) based face recognition: LBP histogram versus LBP image , 2013, Neurocomputing.

[118]  Phalguni Gupta,et al.  Multimodal Belief Fusion for Face and Ear Biometrics , 2009, Intell. Inf. Manag..

[119]  Esa Rahtu,et al.  Rotation invariant local phase quantization for blur insensitive texture analysis , 2008, 2008 19th International Conference on Pattern Recognition.

[120]  Chenye Wu,et al.  Automated human identification using ear imaging , 2012, Pattern Recognit..

[121]  Anil K. Jain,et al.  Pushing the frontiers of unconstrained face detection and recognition: IARPA Janus Benchmark A , 2015, 2015 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR).

[122]  Matti Pietikäinen,et al.  Computer Vision Using Local Binary Patterns , 2011, Computational Imaging and Vision.

[123]  Miguel A. Ferrer,et al.  Analysis of local descriptors features and its robustness applied to ear recognition , 2013, 2013 47th International Carnahan Conference on Security Technology (ICCST).