Biometric recognition of newborns and young children for vaccinations and health care: A non- randomized prospective clinical trial

Abstract

Although universal biometrics have been broadly called for, and there are many validated technologies to recognize adults, these technologies have been ineffective in newborns and young children. The present work describes the development and clinical testing of a fingerprint capture system designed explicitly for longitudinal biometric recognition of newborns and young children for vaccination and clinical follow-up. The reader consists of a high-resolution monochromatic imaging system with an ergonomic industrial design to comfortably support and align infant fingers for imaging without a platen. This imaging approach without a platen, also referred to as free space imaging, reduces distortion of the fingerprint and ensures a more consistent finger placement. This system was tested in a newborn ward and immunization clinic at an urban hospital in Baja California, Mexico, from 2017–2019. Nearly five hundred children were enrolled and followed for up to 24 months. With a protocol of imaging all ten fingers, the failure to enroll (FTE) rate was < 1% when acquiring at least two fingers for all ages and < 2% when enrolling at least four fingers. The verification (1:1) true accept rate (TAR) was 77% for newborns enrolled at ≤ 3 days of age and 96% for those enrolled at ≥ 4 days of age, both at a time gap of 15–30 days after enrollment at a False Accept Rate (FAR) of 0.1%. Using the top-ranked match score, the identification rate (1:many) was 86% for the ≤ 3 days enrollment age and 97% for age ≥ 4 days for a single finger at 15–30 days after enrollment. The enrollment protocol and the frequency of updating will increase for infants compared to adults, but these data suggest that a high-resolution, free space imaging technique may fill the final gap for universal biometrics across all populations called for by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16.9.

A Longitudinal Study on Fingerprint Recognition in Infants, Toddlers, and Children

“…Among various biometric modalities, fingerprint recognition emerges as a promising choice for young children in terms of universality, acceptability, persistence over time from birth, and interoperability across acquisition method [3,[6][7][8][9]. However, the fingerprint systems designed for adults fail to cater to young children, who possess finer ridge spacing and softer skin compared to Disclaimer/Publisher's Note: The statements, opinions, and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s).…”

“…2 of 7 adults; using a contact base scanner can cause their fingerprint to flatten against the surface and merge the adjacent ridges, leading to the loss of distinct features. Thus, capturing the fine details of young children's fingerprints necessitates specially designed, child-friendly, non-contact highresolution scanners [7,8]. Figure 1 shows the difference in the quality of fingerprints captured with low-and high-resolution scanners.…”

“…Their results indicate that infants can be enrolled at 2 months and accurately recognized 3 months later with a TAR 95.2% @ FAR 0.1%. Kalisky et al [7] introduced a 3400 ppi contactless fingerprint scanner, suggesting that newborns can be enrolled with a single finger as early as 4 days old and recognized within 15 to 30 days with a TAR 96% @ FAR 0.1%. Their research also shows that recognition can achieve a TAR 100% @ FAR 0.1% with a 6-month age gap when enrolled with ten fingers.…”

“…Among the studies mentioned above, Engelsma et al [3] and Kalisky et al [7] demonstrated the most promising recognition possibility for infants using high-resolution fingerprint scanners. However, the scope of their trials was limited in terms of dataset diversity, dataset size, and the duration of the study.…”

IoT-Based Biometric Recognition Systems in Education for Identity Verification Services: Quality Assessment Approach

“…Using biometric technology in identity verification systems has several advantages over traditional identity verification. Access control using fingerprint recognition to check out [13] and face recognition to grant access [14], healthcare [15], citizen identification [16], [17], security systems [18], finance [19], airport [20], canteen management system [21], visitor management systems [22] and parking management systems [23][24][25] have addressed the advantages of implementing biometric technology. Biometric technology is one of the practical and useful alternatives for verifying exam takers.…”