Combining Verification Decisions in a Multi-Vendor Environment

Abstract

Building access control represents an important application for biometric verification but often requires greater accuracy than can be provided by a single verifier. Even as algorithms continue to improve, poor samples and environmental factors will continue to impact performance in the building environment. We aim to improve verification accuracy by combining decisions from multiple verifiers spread throughout a building. In particular, we combine verifiers along the path traced out by each subject. When combining these decisions, the assumption of conditional independence simplifies implementation but can potentially lead to suboptimal performance. Through empirical evaluation of two related algorithms, we show that the assumption of conditional independence does not significantly impact verification accuracy. We argue that such a small reduction in accuracy can be attributed to the relative accuracy of each verifier. As a result, decisions can be combined using low complexity fusion rules without concerns of degraded accuracy.