Unimodal v/s Multimodal: Which Biometric Approach is more Secure for Individual Recognition

By ;Dr. Banee Bandana Das
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
SRM University – AP
Unimodal Biometric Authentication
It uses a single biometric trait (e.g., fingerprint, face, voice) for authentication. Few examples include fingerprint scanners on phones, facial recognition in security cameras, and voice recognition in smart assistants. Unimodal approach is simpler and faster, cost-effective, and easy to deploy. But it has also few limitations like noisy data (e.g., dirty fingerprints, low lighting for face recognition), intra-class variations (Changes in appearance, voice, etc.), Spoofing risk (Easier to fool with fake fingerprints or photos), non-universality as not everyone can provide a good-quality sample (e.g., worn fingerprints).
Multimodal Biometric Authentication
It combines two or more biometric traits (e.g., fingerprint + face, Signature + EEG) to improve accuracy and security. Few examples include fingerprint + iris scan at high-security facilities, face + voice authentication in banking apps, multi-biometric passports (e.g., fingerprint + facial data), EEG + signature for individual recognition systems. Multimodal approach has many advantages as higher accuracy and reliability, improved security: Harder to spoof multiple traits simultaneously, handles non-universality better (if one trait fails, another may work), reduces false positives/negatives. How ever few issues may be with this approach as it may be more complex and costly, higher processing time, requires more storage and computation.
In conclusion, unimodal biometric systems offer simplicity and cost-effectiveness but are constrained by limited accuracy, security, and resilience. In contrast, multimodal biometric systems, through the integration of multiple biometric traits, achieve superior performance in terms of accuracy, spoof resistance, and fault tolerance. Although the implementation of multimodal systems entails greater complexity and cost, they present a more reliable and secure solution for contemporary authentication and identity verification applications.