Hello,
The purpose of this thread is to move further from where we had left it
in the earlier one and as suggested by Dinesh Shah, discuss how we as
FOSS people can provide alternate solutions to the shortcomings of the
current system. Lets keep this purely technical and not pro or anti Aadhar.
I have been looking up official as well as technology information about
the Aadhar UID system and some important links are posted below. My
observations are as follows.
1) The Aadhar project uses 2 forms of biometric identities, the
fingerprints and the iris.
2) The fingerprint system used is the standard 2D system which is prone
to errors due to various factors as explained in the links. There is a
new system which is the 3D fingerprint scan that is yet to be available
commercially (IMHO). It has better accuracy with good image quality as
it is contact-less. The pdf link to the same is here....
Quality and Matching Performance Analysis of 3D Unraveled Fingerprints
http://vis.uky.edu/~realtime3d/Doc/Manuscripts/Quality%20and%20matching%20p…
Fingerprint - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerprint
3) In iris scanning, there are chances of cheating by using fake iris
contact lenses. To eliminate this problem, iris scanners use
'live-tissue verification' techniques to detect natural tissue.
Iris recognition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_recognition
4) The Aadhar PoC ducument does not mention whether the live-tissue
verification system is in place for iris scanners.
proof of concept trial
http://uidai.gov.in/images/FrontPageUpdates/uid_enrolment_poc_report.pdf
5) It is surprising that though they take multiple photos of the subject
during the enrolment process, there is no face recognition software to
take advantage of this bio-identity for more accurate results. Although
this should be a fringe benefit and not the main basis of checking id.
6) Blood group which is an important and constant bio-identity for life
is not included in this project. If implemented, proper sterile needles
should be used for every sample collected. This information may not be
necessary for regular business but useful for security agencies for id
lookup of suspicious persons.
7) The software used for the devices is a custom software
"A reference implementation of the enrolment software was created to
standardize the process
and have a uniform look-and-feel of the application across all three
states. However, since the
devices used were different in each state, the enrolment software used
in each state was a
custom version which followed the reference design. The UID technology
team worked with
each of the three agencies to create the customized software to be used
in the corresponding
state. There were also variations in the capture process followed,
particularly in iris capture,
because of the variations in capture devices."
As devices vary in hardware, their accuracy will vary too. Since the
software is the custom type, there will be total dependency on the
hardware suppliers for software. In addition to this cost, for every
computer that they use across the country, a license fee will have to be
paid for every operating system that is the commercial proprietary type.
Conclusion:
1) Instead of leaving this project in the hands of private hardware and
software suppliers, the entire project should be centrally controlled by
a Govt. institution that is actively involved into computing and
software development like CDAC etc.
2) They should test devices from various vendors across the country and
list them according to their accuracy. Only those devices that conform
to FOSS software support should be included in the list. The entire
report of this testing should be posted openly on the internet.
3) Software for this entire project including the server side too should
be developed in-house by that Govt. institution and made the standard to
all computers involded in the Aadhar project across the country.
4) Use only free as in freedom and free as in cost and open source
software for the Aadhar system. This will eliminate the per computer
license fees for operating systems in every Aadhar computer across the
country. Given the total number of Aadhar computers in tens of
thousands, this will be a significant amount. The added advantage of
POSIX confirming systems will be immunity against common computer
viruses as the systems will be on-line all the time for faster
transactions.
Some more lniks....
Unique Identification Authority of India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unique_Identification_Authority_of_India
De-duplication – The Complexity in the Unique ID context
http://www.4gid.com/De-dup-complexity%20unique%20ID%20context.pdf
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Regards,
Rony.
http://ronybill.blogspot.com/