Vein-Based Biometric Verification Using Densely-Connected Convolutional Autoencoder

In this letter, we propose a vein-based biometric verification system relying on deep learning. A novel approach consisting of a convolutional neural network (CNN), trained in a supervised manner, cascaded with an auto-encoder, trained in an unsupervised way, is here exploited. In more detail, a novel densely-connected convolutional autoencoder is here used on top of backbone CNNs. This architecture aims at increasing the discriminative capability of the features generated from hand vein patterns. Experimental tests on finger, palm, and dorsal veins show that the proposed approach leads to an improvement of the recognition rates with respect to the use of the sole CNNs for feature extraction. The achieved performance are superior to the current state of the art in vein biometric verification.