What Should We Learn? Special Issue on Biometrics and Forensics

Biometrics and multimedia forensics technologies are rapidly becoming an integral part of forensics sciences. This is evident by the increasing number of security applications such as computer and physical access control, digital rights management, homeland security, surveillance, and defence. Although important progress has been made in these technologies over recent years, it is well recognized that innovative research is needed to design systems with high accuracy, high throughput, and low cost.

This IET Biometrics in July 2018 Special Issue documents the latest breakthroughs in the areas of biometrics and multimedia forensics as presented at the 2017 International Workshop on Biometrics and Forensics (IWBF), which was held at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, from 4–5 April 2017. IWBF2017 is an international forum devoted specifically to facilitate synergies in research and development in the areas of multimedia forensics, forensic biometrics, and forensic science. IWBF is held annually since 2013 in various parts of Europe. It provides the meeting place for those concerned with the usage of multimedia analysis in forensic applications and biometric recognition systems, attracting participants from academia, industry, and end-users.

The Programme Chairs, in consultation with the General Chair, have selected six papers to be included in this Special Issue. The accepted papers represent the best contributions to IWBF2017 from the 50+ scientific submissions. They address various topics of importance, ranging from the identification of individuals via gait and palmprint recognition, to the protection of multimedia data via watermarking, and the resilience of biometric systems to attacks based on spoofed and morphed biometric data.

The papers in this Special Issue represent the most recent research in multimedia forensics and forensic biometrics. The editors believe that they are not only of interest to researchers already working in these areas, but they are also suitable for developers in industry and end-users interested in the practicality of digital forensics.