Biometric Research Center

Biometrics Research Centre (BRC)
人體生物特徵識別研究中心

Biometric technology has been playing an important role in security, medical diagnosis and other related areas during the past years. The key issues involved such as Biometrics Authentication and Medical Diagnosis are promising topics with excellent application potentials.

The members of our research team have been working on biometric related projects over 26 years and over HK$ 10 millions funds have been obtained in a last few years, including UGC/CRC fund (HK$ 1.2M), PolyU Central Fund (HK$ 3M), ITF Fund (HK$ 5.2M), NSFC Fund (HK$ 1M), CERG Fund (HK$ 1M), and Departmental Fund (HK$ 1.5M). Particularly, two research centers have been setup, including Biometrics Research Centre (UGC/CRC) supported by Hong Kong Government and the Government in China (NSFC) since 1998, respectively. We have been active and played a leading role in this area with the following achievements:

· The development of the first palmprint identification system in the world;

· The receipt of the Silver award on the International Invention Fair in 2003;

· The successful applications of 5 patents in China, HK and US;

· The organization of the first and second international conference on Biometrics Authentication in PolyU (http://www4.comp.polyu.edu.hk/~icba/);

· The proposal of the first international journal on Biometric Authentication for Springer publisher;

· The publication of 10 research books, over 200 research articles on topics of Biometrics technology, including 40 IEEE Transactions;

· Setup the first biometric book series in the world: Book Series on Biometrics (http://www.springer.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,5-40099-69-33110165-0,00.html).

We believe that our previous work and achievement have laid the foundation for the establishment of the Biometric Research Center to continue our advanced research on biometrics technology at the frontage of the world.

Applications of biometric technologies will bring about not only the revolution to the current systems, but also a totally new high-technology industry. To maintain our leading position in the world, it is crucial for PolyU to establish a biometric research center to keep our research strength and explore other opportunities for advanced applications.

BRC will transfer multiple biometric from university to industry, provide a biometric knowledge base for industry and technological advancement, and explore integrated biometric solutions to practical industrial applications. The center will focus on two major areas with the demonstrated leadership in the world: Biometrics Authentication and Medical Diagnosis in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), It is also to provide integrators of multiple solutions based on the consideration that offering more than one biometric technology is good business sense as well as a sensible technical decision, which is fast gaining support in the industry. In addition, BRC will cooperate with industries to provide high-tech products that can quickly produce enormous economy benefits. It is also to provide consulting for industry engineering managers to ensure their investment in biometric industry.

Mission:
·        Keep the Biometrics Research Center at the frontage in the world and play the leading role in Biometric Technology in the 21^st century;
·        Apply the multi-technologies into the Biometric related industries; and assist nurturing industry in Hong Kong;
·        Uphold a few largest databases, such as Palmprint and Tongue, at the world level and attain the international standard to open them to all researchers.