Mahendra Kumar Singh and Rajeev Deshpande | TNN | Apr 15, 2018, 04:49 IST
HIGHLIGHTS
- Acceptance of Aadhaar identification rose to 99% for senior citizens once facial recognition was mated with finger-prints
- Finger-prints of senior citizens are some times worn out due to age and can't be captured by machines
- The findings are encouraging for UID as it will get rid of hurdles in access to pensions and welfare benefits
NEW DELHI: The introduction of facial identification along with use of finger-prints promises to substantially address complaints of failed bio-metrics in Aadhaar authentication with a study of elder persons showing that when used in combination, the processes deliver a success rate of 99%.
A proof of conduct study carried out for Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the results of which were presented to the Supreme Court, showed that acceptance of Aadhaar identification rose from 83% for senior citizens to close to 100% once facial recognition was mated with finger-prints for authentication.
The findings are encouraging for UID as the problems faced by elder citizens, whose finger-prints are some times worn out due to age and cannot be captured by authentication machines, are hurdles in access to pensions and welfare benefits. The problems of smudged bio-metrics also crop up in the case of persons involved in hard manual labour with fingers getting cracked and calloused.
The study, conducted in old-age homes in nine states, and covering about 4,500 respondents, tested authentication processes with the use of fingerprints, iris, finger-print with iris and facial recognition with finger-print. The finger print with iris method also scored a success rate of 95% acceptance.
The iris method of authentication, in the case of senior citizens, suffers from drawbacks similar to the use of finger prints. The capture of bio-metric confirmation is problematic with changes in the iris due to age and insertion of medical devices like lenses or conditions like cataract or glaucoma. Yet, the iris method scored higher than the finger-print identification alone.
TOP COMMENT
When will UIDAI will stop bandaiding this dubious technology. We dont know whether fingerprints are unique but the way they are stored and matched in biometrics, Apple found there is one in 50000 chance of somebody elses biometrics matching yours so they moved to facial recognition where chance is 1 in million as per their white paper. But there is big catch. But as per University of Michigan study unlike fingerprint which does not change over life (excepting damage to ridges over decades in old age), failure rate of facial recognition increases dramatically after 6 years based on aging. But that was not problem for Apple since average period user holds IPhone is 3-4 years. But Aaddhar is touted from birth to cremation. So how are they going to change biometrics every five years and malpractices that can happen. More importantly capturing facial recognition biometrics requires higher skills where angle of incidence and ambient temperatures plays greater role in capturing as well as matching. Not only UK but California and New York States were not technically less competent than India in abandoning this unreliable technology which makes sense of limited use like mobile phones, passports, smart cards but never for national identity storing data of billion from birth to cremation to be collected by large number of ill-prepared agencies.
Girish Kamat
UID has worked to increase options and sophistication of technology to reduce authentication failures among groups like seniors and labourers as this takes away from important objectives associated with Aadhaar such as facilitating bank access and direct transfers to vulnerable groups. The use of Aadhaar is intended to make transfer and withdrawal of pensions and life certificate authentications easier.
The authentication process remains vulnerable to lack of internet connectivity in rural India and UID has issued advisories that lack of Aadhaar cannot result in denial of services. It hopes that with the increasing use of Aadhaar the system will improve.