Biometric template protection using cancelable biometrics and visual cryptography techniques

Wide spread use of biometric based authentication implies the need to secure biometric reference data. Various template protection schemes have been introduced to prevent biometric forgery and identity thefts. Cancelable biometrics and visual cryptography are two recent technologies introduced to address the concerns regarding privacy of biometric data, and to improve public confidence and acceptance of biometric systems. Cancelable biometrics is an important technique that allows generation of revocable biometric templates. As the number of biometric instances are limited and once compromised they are lost forever. Cancelable biometrics allows templates to be cancelled and revoked like passwords innumerable times. Recently, various approaches that utilize visual cryptography to secure the stored template and impart privacy to the central databases have been introduced. This work attempts to summarize the existing approaches in literature making use of these two technologies to protect biometric templates.