Exploring a Brain-Based Cancelable Biometrics for Smart Headwear: Concept, Implementation, and Evaluation

Biometric authentication offers advantages over current security practices. Unlike keys and tokens, biometrics are never lost or stolen. Unlike passwords, biometrics cannot be forgotten. However, existing biometric systems are with controversy: once divulged, they are compromised forever. To this end, this paper explores a truly cancelable brain-based biometric system for the first time. Specifically, we present a new psychophysiological protocol via non-volitional brain response for trustworthy user authentication, with an application example of smart headwear. More specifically, we address the following research challenges in a theoretical and experimental combined manner: (1) how to generate reliable brain responses with sophisticated visual stimuli; (2) how to acquire effective brain response and analyze unique features in them for authentication; and (3) how to reset and change brain biometrics when the current biometric credential is divulged. To evaluate the performance of the proposed system, we conducted a pilot study and achieved an f-score accuracy of 95.46 percent and equal error rate (EER) of 2.503 percent, thereby demonstrating the potential feasibility of neurofeedback based biometrics for smart headwear applications. Further, the cancelability study proves the effectiveness of the reset brain password. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first in-depth research study on truly cancelable brain biometrics.