Cancelable Face Recognition using Deep Steganography


Authors : S. Lokesh; V. Lokeshwaran; R. Muthu Kumar; M. Priyadharshini

Volume/Issue : Volume 10 - 2025, Issue 3 - March


Google Scholar : https://tinyurl.com/4y45bpdb

Scribd : https://tinyurl.com/39trvnsz

DOI : https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/25mar1119

Google Scholar

Note : A published paper may take 4-5 working days from the publication date to appear in PlumX Metrics, Semantic Scholar, and ResearchGate.

Note : Google Scholar may take 15 to 20 days to display the article.


Abstract : While the dawn of digital privacy fears strikes hard at the very thread of our existence, biometrics, one of the traditional systems, is at risk of invasion through privacy breaches and identity theft. This is because cancellable biometric systems promise through revocation and reissuance of biometric templates. Based on this opportunity, the present work proposes a novel approach in cancellable face recognition through deep steganography such that biometric data is embedded in digital images to protect user privacy while maintaining the highest possible recognition accuracy. The approach utilizes deep learning models to design effective steganographic encodings of facial features that will then be securely embedded into innocuous images. In any given scenario, the embedded features can be extracted and used for a face recognition, thereby not leaking the original biometric data. The steganographic process is reversible, so the original face template can be revoked and replaced with a new one if compromised. We test the proposed system on publicly available face datasets and check the recognition accuracy, steganographic robustness, and cancelability of the proposed method. The results show that the deep steganography-based approach obtains high recognition accuracy to compare with traditional face recognition systems but also provides an extra layer of security by having the cancelability. This is highly potent in improving the privacy and security of biometric systems.

Keywords : Cancellable Biometric Systems, Face Recognition, Deep Steganography, Privacy, Identity Theft, Deep Learning, Biometric Template Revocation.

References :

  1. N. Li et al., "Chinese Face Dataset for Face Recognition in an Uncontrolled Classroom Environment," in IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 86963-86976, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3302919.
  2. Z. Huang, J. Zhang and H. Shan, "When Age-Invariant Face Recognition Meets Face Age Synthesis: A Multi-Task Learning Framework and a New Benchmark," in IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 45, no. 6, pp. 7917-7932, 1 June 2023, doi: 10.1109/TPAMI.2022.3217882.
  3. P. C. Neto, J. R. Pinto, F. Boutros, N. Damer, A. F. Sequeira and J. S. Cardoso, "Beyond Masks: On the Generalization of Masked Face Recognition Models to Occluded Face Recognition," in IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 86222-86233, 2022, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3199014.
  4. S. Malakar, W. Chiracharit and K. Chamnongthai, "Masked Face Recognition With Generated Occluded Part Using Image Augmentation and CNN Maintaining Face Identity," in IEEE Access, vol. 12, pp. 126356-126375, 2024, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3446652.
  5. P. Terhörst, M. Huber, N. Damer, F. Kirchbuchner, K. Raja and A. Kuijper, "Pixel-Level Face Image Quality Assessment for Explainable Face Recognition," in IEEE Transactions on Biometrics, Behavior, and Identity Science, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 288-297, April 2023, doi: 10.1109/TBIOM.2023.3263186.
  6. Y. Guo and Z. Liu, "Coverless Steganography for Face Recognition Based on Diffusion Model," in IEEE Access, vol. 12, pp. 148770-148782, 2024, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3477469.
  7. H. -T. Ho, L. Vuong Nguyen, T. Huong Thi Le and O. -J. Lee, "Face Detection Using Eigenfaces: A Comprehensive Review," in IEEE Access, vol. 12, pp. 118406-118426, 2024, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3435964.
  8. T. -H. Kim, S. -H. Choi and Y. -H. Choi, "Instance-Agnostic and Practical Clean Label Backdoor Attack Method for Deep Learning Based Face Recognition Models," in IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 144040-144050, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3342922.
  9. K. Farhan Rafat and S. Muhammad Sajjad, "Advancing Reversible LSB Steganography: Addressing Imperfections and Embracing Pioneering Techniques for Enhanced Security," in IEEE Access, vol. 12, pp. 143434-143457, 2024, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3468988.
  10. R. Huang, C. Lian, Z. Dai, Z. Li and Z. Ma, "A Novel Hybrid Image Synthesis-Mapping Framework for Steganography Without Embedding," in IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 113176-113188, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3324050.
  11. M. Zhang, R. Liu, D. Deguchi and H. Murase, "Masked Face Recognition With Mask Transfer and Self-Attention Under the COVID-19 Pandemic," in IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 20527-20538, 2022, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3150345.
  12. H. O. Shahreza and S. Marcel, "Comprehensive Vulnerability Evaluation of Face Recognition Systems to Template Inversion Attacks via 3D Face Reconstruction," in IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 45, no. 12, pp. 14248-14265, Dec. 2023, doi: 10.1109/TPAMI.2023.3312123.
  13. H. H. Nguyen, S. Marcel, J. Yamagishi and I. Echizen, "Master Face Attacks on Face Recognition Systems," in IEEE Transactions on Biometrics, Behavior, and Identity Science, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 398-411, July 2022, doi: 10.1109/TBIOM.2022.3166206.
  14. H. -B. Kim, N. Choi, H. -J. Kwon and H. Kim, "Surveillance System for Real-Time High-Precision Recognition of Criminal Faces From Wild Videos," in IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 56066-56082, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3282451.
  15. Y. Martínez-Díaz, H. Méndez-Vázquez, L. S. Luevano, M. Nicolás-Díaz, L. Chang and M. González-Mendoza, "Towards Accurate and Lightweight Masked Face Recognition: An Experimental Evaluation," in IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 7341-7353, 2022, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3135255.
  16. L. Laishram, J. T. Lee and S. K. Jung, "Face De-Identification Using Face Caricature," in IEEE Access, vol. 12, pp. 19344-19354, 2024, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3356550.
  17. L. Ambardi, S. Hong and I. K. Park, "SegTex: A Large Scale Synthetic Face Dataset for Face Recognition," in IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 131939-131949, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3336405.
  18. D. Wanyonyi and T. Celik, "Open-Source Face Recognition Frameworks: A Review of the Landscape," in IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 50601-50623, 2022, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3170037.
  19. J. P. Perez and C. A. Perez, "Face Patches Designed Through Neuroevolution for Face Recognition With Large Pose Variation," in IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 72861-72873, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3295330.
  20. C. Galea, "Comments on “Domain Alignment Embedding Network for Sketch Face Recognition”," in IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 71030-71034, 2022, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3188796.

While the dawn of digital privacy fears strikes hard at the very thread of our existence, biometrics, one of the traditional systems, is at risk of invasion through privacy breaches and identity theft. This is because cancellable biometric systems promise through revocation and reissuance of biometric templates. Based on this opportunity, the present work proposes a novel approach in cancellable face recognition through deep steganography such that biometric data is embedded in digital images to protect user privacy while maintaining the highest possible recognition accuracy. The approach utilizes deep learning models to design effective steganographic encodings of facial features that will then be securely embedded into innocuous images. In any given scenario, the embedded features can be extracted and used for a face recognition, thereby not leaking the original biometric data. The steganographic process is reversible, so the original face template can be revoked and replaced with a new one if compromised. We test the proposed system on publicly available face datasets and check the recognition accuracy, steganographic robustness, and cancelability of the proposed method. The results show that the deep steganography-based approach obtains high recognition accuracy to compare with traditional face recognition systems but also provides an extra layer of security by having the cancelability. This is highly potent in improving the privacy and security of biometric systems.

Keywords : Cancellable Biometric Systems, Face Recognition, Deep Steganography, Privacy, Identity Theft, Deep Learning, Biometric Template Revocation.

Never miss an update from Papermashup

Get notified about the latest tutorials and downloads.

Subscribe by Email

Get alerts directly into your inbox after each post and stay updated.
Subscribe
OR

Subscribe by RSS

Add our RSS to your feedreader to get regular updates from us.
Subscribe