Offside
Limelight

Nuno Cruz, Ricardo André and Luís Seca

Free Nonsense

"I know that INESC Porto offers great competencies and facilities in OFS; this means that we can develop the best sensor configurations and interrogation techniques for the sensing platforms...", Mohammad Zibaii

Have your say

"The relaxed atmosphere, spirit of mutual aid and the exchange of scientific knowledge between colleagues at INESC Porto are all positive factors for me, but it was the projects I have been involved in that have really contributed to my scientific development...", Lucian Ciobanu

Gallery of the Uncommon

Following the analysis of the aesthetics of breasts, the researchers at INESC Porto have turned their attention to the pelvic region. The project is called BioPelvic and consists of a vaginometer which is not to be confused with any other mileage meter. This is a phallic device with sensors and yes ladies, there is a wireless version.

Jobs 4 the Boys & Girls

In this section, the reader may find reference to public announcements made by INESC Porto offering grants, contracts and other opportunities of the same kind.

Biptoon

More scenes of how life goes merrily on...

 
 

Russian team wins hand geometric points detection competition organised by INESC Porto

Russian team wins hand geometric points detection competition organised by INESC Porto

The Moscow Continuous Skeleton Team (MCST) were the winners of the first edition of the Hand Geometric Points Detection Competition (HGC2011), organised by INESC Porto. The competition registered 15 participants from nine different countries.

The leading Portuguese participant was Diogo Martins from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) who took third place. Second place went to Alberto de Santos from Spain. The French team SCAB12 and the Indian team Dushyant Goyal were also in the top five.

The challenge was to develop an algorithm that maximises accuracy in the detection of the nine points on the hand that could be used in biometric palm print recognition systems. It must perform well under various conditions and it should be more flexible with regards to the restrictions on the positioning of the hand and fingers. The current technology available for geometric hand recognition is quite restricting. In order to successfully extract data, the positioning of the hand and the fingers is generally quite limited. As well as being uncomfortable, the pegs and markers used can change the form of the hand slightly, thus distorting the palm print and the data collected. In this competition the restrictions were eliminated in the image acquisition phase giving the user complete freedom with regards to the positioning of the hand and fingers.

Palm print recognition systems (using geometry or palm print information) are the oldest biometric and automatic person authentication systems and have been available since the end of the 1970s. These devices were primarily used to control access and can be used, for example, for defence and security. Recently, however, scientists have become more interested in these systems due to the progress made in the last decades in research and development in areas linked to Computer Vision.

HGC2011 was organised by Filipe A. Magalhães, Hélder P. Oliveira and Hélder Matos, researchers at INESC Porto.

Photo: HGC2011