A New Biometric: Human Identification from Circulatory Function

John M. Irvine1, Steven A. Israel2, Mark D. Wiederhold3,

Brenda K. Wiederhold4
1
SAIC, 20 Burlington Mall Road, Burlington, MA 01803, john.m.irvine@saic.com,
2
SAIC, 4001 North Fairfax Drive: Suite 450, Fairfax, VA 22203
3
SAIC, 10260 Campus Point Drive, San Diego, CA 92121
4
Virtual Reality Medical Center, 6160 Cornerstone Court East, San Diego, CA 92121

Abstract (2001), Biel, et al (2001)] A major challenge to

Numerous biometric techniques exist for
verifying the identity of individuals. Traditional
biometrics, such as fingerprint, face, and iris
recognition, rely on a “snapshot” of data that are
rendered as images. This paper presents a new
biometric technique based on observation of
physiological functions related to circulation. In
particular, we present a biometric technique based on
the subject’s electrocardiogram. The development
and validation of this new biometric technique poses
some interesting challenges for design of the
experiments and data analysis. Since a person’s heart
rate can vary with mental and emotional state, we
developed a data collection protocol in which subjects
perform a variety of tasks designed to elicit varying
levels of stress or excitement. In developing and
validating the new biometrics, it is necessary to
identify features in the physiometric signals that are
unique to individuals, but invariant to mental and
emotional state. An estimate of the subject’s mental
state, based on coincident physiological data, can be
used to refine the data processing and classification
techniques. In this paper we present the experiment
procedures, summarize the data analysis and
processing, and present initial performance results.
Introduction
Biometric techniques, such as face
recognition, finger print analysis, iris recognition, and
voice recognition have emerged as methods for
automatically identifying individuals. These
techniques can be implemented to provide automated
security for facilities, restrict access to computer
networks, or verify identification for on-line
transactions. This paper explores a new method for
human identification based on features of
cardiovascular function derived from standard
physilogical measurements. Several methods exist
for monitoring cardiovascular function, including the
electrocardiogram (ECG), pulse oximetry, dynamic
blood pressure, and acoustic monitoring of the heart
or pulse. Initial investigations suggest that these
signals contain information unique to an individual,
i.e., a biometric. [Irvine, et al (2001), Jang, et al
developing biometrics based on circulatory function
is the dynamic nature of the physiological process.
Heart rate varies with the subject’s physical, mental,
and emotional state, yet a robust biometric must be
invariant across these changing states.
The ECG trace contains a wealth of
information. Researchers have been using ECG data
as a diagnostic tool since the early 20th century. More
recently, however, researchers been able to apply
digital analysis to the data [Golden (1973)]. In this
paper, we presents an extensive set of ECG
descriptors that characterize the trace of a heartbeat.
These ECG descriptors contain information that
appears to be stable across an individual’s mental and
emotional state, while providing a unique identifier
for the individual. Analysis of several data sets
quantifies the performance of ECG as a biometric for
human identification.
The Electrocardiogram (ECG)
The ECG signal measures the change in
electrical potential over time. The trace of each
heartbeat consists of three complexes: P, R, and T.
The fiducial points corresponding to the peaks and
inflection points define each complex (Figure 1). The
labels in Figure 1 document the commonly used
medical science ECG fiducial points.
The heartbeat begins with the firing of the
Sinoatrial (SA) node. The SA node () is the heart’s
dominant pacemaker. The electrical signal radiates
outward causing the myocytes to depolarize and
compress rapidly by a movement of sodium (NA+)
ions. This is expressed as P wave of the ECG trace.
The depolarization rate slows dramatically when the
signal hits the atrio-ventricular (AV) node, where the
chemical signal changes to relatively slow moving
calcium (CA+) ions. The change in contraction is
expressed as the gap between the P and the R
complexes. Once past the AV node, the signal passes
through to the cells lining the ventricles. The
ventricles contract rapidly, which produces the R
complex. Repolarization does not exactly mirror
polarization due to the chemical agents and the lag
between the end of the electrical impulse and physical
displacement [Dubin (2000)].
R-R Interval
R experiment. Because a clinical instrument was used,
T
P
Q
S To realize the ideal data structure (Figure 1),
Figure 1. Ideal ECG Signal: This figure depicts
two idealized heartbeats. The R-R interval
indicates the length of a heartbeat. The major
ECG complexes comprising one beat are indicated
by P, QRS, and T.
Data Collection
Two data collection campaigns provided the
ECG data for this study. For the first experiment,
data were collected from males and females between
the ages of 22 and 48. Twenty-nine individuals were
used and with twelve repeat sessions totaling forty-
one sessions within the dataset. Each individual
session contained a set of 7 two-minute tasks. The
tasks were designed to elicit different levels of mental
and emotional stress. The low stress tasks included a
baseline, a meditation task, and two recovery periods
following high stress tasks. The high stress were a
reading task, an arithmetic task, and virtual reality
driving simulation. Unlike conventional ECG data,
the hardware for this series of experiments collected
ECG data at 1000 Hz, a much higher temporal
resolution than is typical for clinical instruments.
The second experiment used a greatly
simplified protocol and a standard, FDA approved
b.
Figure 2. Raw ECG Data 1000 Hz (a) 20 seconds (b) 2 seconds. The Y axis is electrical potential and the X
axis is time in seconds.
ECG device. Data were acquired from 36 subjects
during 51 sessions. Thus, data for two session are
available for 15 individuals. The two tasks performed
during this protocol were a (low stress) baseline and
the same arithmetic stressor that was used in the first
the ECG signal was recorded at 256 Hz and quantized
to 7 bits.
ECG Processing
the raw ECG data must be processed to remove the
non-signal artifacts. The first step is to eliminate
obvious the noise in the signal. Based upon the
structure of these noise sources, a filter was designed
and applied to the raw data. Figure 2 (a and b) show
the data sample of the high resolution ECG data. The
figures show that the raw data contain both high and
low frequency noise components. These noise
components alter the expression of the ECG trace
from its ideal structure (Figure 1). The low
frequency noise is expressed as the slope of the
overall signal across multiple heartbeat traces in
Figure 2b. The low frequency noise is generally
associated with changes in baseline electrical
potential of the device and is slowly varying. Over
the 20 second segment, the potential change of the
ECG baseline inscribes approximately 1½ wave
periods. The high frequency noise is associated with
electric/magnetic field of building power (electrical
noise) and the digitization of the analog potential
signal (A/D noise). The goal of filtering is to remove
the 0.06 Hz and 60 Hz noise while retaining the
individual heartbeat information between 1.10 and 40
Hz.
 Once the non-signal components were
removed from the ECG datastream, analysis of the
ECG trace located the fiducial positions. For human
identification, attributes were extracted from the P, R,
and T complexes (Figure 3). Four additional fiducial
points were identified. The locations of the four new
fiducial positions noted by an apostrophe (‘) are at the
basal positions of the P and T complexes (Figure 3).
Collectively, the fiducials exploit the unique
physiology of an individual. Physically, the L’ and P’
fiducials indicate the start and end of the atrial
depolarization. The corresponding S’ and T’
positions indicate the start and end of repolarization.
R noise due to poor data collection and atypical ECG
Ventricular
Depolarization
Atrial Ventricular
Depolarization Repolarization
T problem generally corresponds to individuals with
P unusual features in their ECG traces. For example,
L’ P’ S’
S-T
Q
P-Q segment
interval
S chosen. Methods for robust exception handling
Q-T
interval
Figure 3. ECG Trace based upon Cardiac
Physiology. L’ and P’ indicate the start and end of
atrial depolarization, the R complex indicates
ventricular depolarization, and the T complex
indicates the repolarization.
The fiducial points were extracted in the
time domain in two stages. The peaks were
established by finding the local maximum in a region
surrounding each of the P, R, and T complexes. The
base positions were determined by tracking downhill
and finding the location of minimum radius of
curvature. The potential response of a heartbeat is a
function of sensor placement for magnitude only.
The sensor position does not affect the observed
timing of the individual P, R, and T complexes.
Therefore, the temporal distances among the fiducial
points are independent of the sensor placement.
Since the R position of the heartbeats was used for
aligning the waterfall diagram, the distances were
computed from the other fiducial points to the R
position.
The distances between the fiducial points
and the R position vary with heart rate. If a linear
relationship existed between heart rate and those
distances, normalization is computed as the extracted
distance divided by the L’T’ distance. This approach
effectively scales the heartbeat to unit length. The
normalized features then represent the relative
positions of the fiducials within the heartbeats. The
linear normalization has a heuristic rather than a
physiological basis. The distance that an electrical
impulse travels along the atrial axis is fixed, so that
changes in heart rate are not evenly distributed across
the P, R, and T complexes.
Problems did arise in some of the processing
data. These problems fall into two classes: excessive
traces where identification of the fiducial points is
difficult. To address the first type of problem, we are
investigating improved sensor placement and data
acquisition, with the aim of developing a device
suitable for operational use. The second type of
one individual had a double peak in the P complex.
T’ This anomaly was stable across tasks and sessions
and, therefore, would serve as a unique identifier.
Such anomalies, however, make it difficult or
impossible to compute the distance features we have
could, or course, be developed for these types of
cases.
Classification of Heartbeat and Subjects
Using the features extracted from each
heartbeat, classification was performed to assign each
heartbeat to the corresponding individual. From the
original 15 attributes, 10-12 attributes were
commonly selected based on stepwise discriminant
analysis. The attribute selection process was
performed to ensure stable discrimination. To link
the performance of the heartbeat classification to
human identification, a voting procedure assigned the
classification to the individual corresponding to the
largest number of heartbeats.
The classification results correspond to
different partitionings of the data into training and
testing sets. To use ECG as a biometric, individuals
will enroll their information into the security system.
After enrollment, the user’s ECG will be interrogated
at the system. Operationally, the enrollment process
corresponds to training the classifier and the use of
the biometric to identify an individual corresponds to
the classifier testing. Because of the limited number
of subjects, performance shown here may overstate
expected performance in an operational setting.
Further experimentation is needed to address large- (figure 5) and some loss in performance with the
scale performance. The results presented here show clinical instrument (figure 6).
good performance on data from the initial experiment

Problem Data Good Data

Figure 4. Examples of “Problem” and “Good” Data. The upper graphs show the ECG traces, while the lower
ones depict the waterfall diagram in which the heartbeats are aligned according to the R peaks.

Figure 5. Classification Results from the First Data Collection

 Classification performance depends on the The critical issue for an operational
variability across subjects compared to the within biometrics is performance across sessions. Given
subject variation. Within subject variation can arise data from one session (the enrollment data), can new
from several sources. Changes in the subject’s data be acquired in a subsequent session days or
mental and emotional state are critical, since heart weeks later that provide an accurate identification of
rate responds to a person’s level of excitement. In the individual. To address this question, data from
addition, variation across sessions, including both the two collections were augmented by clinical ECG
changes related to sensor placement and slowly data from another study. The classification
varying changes in physiological characteristics, must performance on this pooled data set shows about 90%
be understood. To provide a useful biometric for correct classification of individuals using the methods
human identification, the signature should be unique described above (table 1).
to the individual, while the variation attributable to
either mental state or session-to-session changes must The classification analysis exhibits good
be small. performance when training the classifier on data from
one task and testing on data from another task. In
The data from the first collection was
general, the shape of the heartbeat is stable across
analyzed in several ways to explore these issues. In
tasks, but differs across subject. There can be some
the first set of experiments, training data consisted of
stretching or contracting of the overall heartbeat as
one 20-second segment within a single session and
the subject’s rate varies, but the normalization of the
task. The testing data was the remaining 100 seconds
extracted features compensates for this source of
of data from the same session and task. These seven
variation. The average heartbeat within a single task
experiments (one for each task) are labeled “intra
task” in figure 5. The first and second bars indicate shows relatively little task-to-task variation (figure 7).
The differences across subjects, however, are clearly
the percent of heartbeats correctly classified in the
evident. The stability of the features across tasks
training and testing data, respectively. The third bar
suggests that identification based on cardiovascular
shows the percent of subject classified correctly based
function should be robust. Analysis of the specific
on the voting analysis of the heartbeat data. The
features reinforces this idea.
second set of bars, labeled task 1, task 2, etc.,
correspond to training on a 20-second segment for
one task and testing on all other tasks. The label
identifies that task used for training. The final set of
bars indicates performance when the classifier is
trained on data from one session and tested against
data for a different session.

Because the second data collection

employed a simplified protocol, the classification
analysis spans fewer training and testing conditions.
Task 1 represents baseline conditions, while task 2
was the arithmetic task designed to induce stress. As
with the first data collection, the results include
training and testing within a task, training on one task
and testing on another, and training on one session
and testing on a separate session (figure 6). In
general, performance was slightly lower on this data
set than on the first one. Two factors account for the
difference. The reduced temporal sampling (256 Hz
vs. 1,000 Hz) introduces a loss in precision of the
location of the fiducial pints that define the features
used in classification. In addition, less rigorous lab Figure 6. Classification Performance for the
procedures resulted in higher noise arising from Second Data Collection
sensor placement. Subsequent assessment of the
procedures have verified that this noise source can be
eliminated through improved procedures.
Table 1. Combined Performance Results

Experiment Training Test % Training % Test % Identified

Subjects Subjects Heartbeats Heartbeats
Train on first half of data 104 104 56 58 91
Train Session 1 95 55 64 67 88
Train Session 2 59 56 73 62 88

Each block of curves

represents the average
heartbeat for one
individual for each of
the 7 tasks, i.e., 7
curves per subject.

Figure 7. Mean Heartbeat Within a Subject and Task, for Several Subjects and Seven Tasks from the First

Analysis of Features presented here is not the best approach. Classifiers

that can handle disjoint sets are expected to provide
To insure good performance as a biometric, better classification performance. Initial
the underlying features extracted from the ECG signal investigations of a neural network approach shows
should be stable across mental and emotional state, substantial promise and we hope to report complete
stable across session, but show good variability results in the near future.
across subjects. A multivariate ANOVA was
performed to assess these sources of variance. The
contribution of each factor – task, session, and subject
– was estimated for each of the features used in the
classification analysis. Figure 8 shows the relative
contribution for each source of variation, with the
bars summing to 100% for each feature. It is clear
that features are stable across tasks, although certain
features show higher variation across sessions than
would be ideal. Further investigation is underway to
minimize the effects of session-to-session variation
on classification performance.

A more challenging problem, however, Figure 8. Relative Contributions to Overall

arises from the detailed analysis of the feature space.
Variance for Each ECG Feature
When viewed marginally (figure 9) and jointly (figure
10), the distribution of the feature values within an
Discussion
individual is sometime multi-modal. This suggests
that the classes (subjects) may not be linearly The analysis presented here indicates that
separable and the linear discriminant analysis human identification based on cardiovascular
function is feasible. By measuring a subject’s ECG identification, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation
and extracting features from the signal, it is possible and Measurement, 50 (3) (2001) 808-812.
to classify individuals with high accuracy. The
R. Hoekema, G. J. H. Uijen and A. van Oosterom,
features used for classification are stable across a
(2001) Geometrical aspect of the interindividual
range of mental and emotional tasks, indicating that
variability of multilead ECG recordings, IEEE
this biometric should be robust to an individual’s
Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 48 (2001)
current mood. The limited data from multiple
551-559.
sessions also shows good behavior. Analysis of the
feature space suggests that alternative classifiers J. M. Irvine, B. K. Wiederhold, L. W. Gavshon, S. A.
merit consideration and these investigations are Israel, S. B. McGehee, R. Meyer and M. D.
currently underway. Wiederhold, (2001) Heart rate variability: A new
biometric for human identification, International
Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IC-AI'2001),
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(2001) ECG analysis: A new approach in human

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40 20

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Figure 9. Marginal Distribution for One Feature (L’T’) for Two Subjects

.600
Acknowledgements
.500 This research was supported by the DARPA
Human Identification program under contract
.400
DABT63-00-C-1039. Additional assistance was
sub5 provided by Dr. Rodney Meyer, Dr. Lauren Gavshon,
RL

.300
subj13
subj17
subj20
Ms. Shannon McGee, and Ms. Elizabeth Rosenfeld.
.200
subj38 The authors also wish to thank Dr. P. Jonathon
.100
Phillips, DARPA, for valuable comments concerning
the development of this work. The views expressed
.000
.000 .050 .100 .150 .200 .250 .300 .350 .400 .450
here are those of the authors and do not necessarily
RP reflect the positions of DARPA, SAIC, or the Virtual
Figure 10. Joint Distribution of Two Features (RL Reality Medical Center.
and RP) for Several Subjects.