Biometric recognition systems are finding applications in more and more civilian fields because they proved to be reliable and accurate. Among the other technologies, ultrasound has the main merit of acquiring 3D images, which allows it to provide more distinctive features and gives it a high resistance to spoof attacks. This work reviews main research activities devoted to the study and development of ultrasound sensors and systems for biometric recognition purposes. Several transducer technologies and different ultrasound techniques have been experimented on for imaging biometric characteristics like fingerprints, hand vein pattern, palmprint, and hand geometry. In the paper, basic concepts on ultrasound imaging techniques and technologies are briefly recalled and, subsequently, research studies are classified according to the kind of technique used for collecting the ultrasound image. Overall, the overview demonstrates that ultrasound may compete with other technologies in the expanding market of biometrics, as the different commercial fingerprint sensors integrated in portable electronic devices like smartphones or tablets demonstrate.
Keywords: biometrics; ultrasonic transducers; ultrasound imaging.