#5 State of Your Research Prospectus (freewrite, 10 minutes)

My thinking has come very far just from the start of the topic. In the beginning I knew I wanted to do something related to Biometrics, as that has always interested me since the day that Professor Heishman introduced it to the class. From this fairly vague topic I had to then research into some of the more narrow topics within this field. I had previous knowledge of security and privacy being problems with this system, and thought that that would be a very manageable topic considering these methods are closing in on the general population fast, and they will more than likely be implemented in most place within the nextseveral years. Knowing that security and privacy are problems, I started hypothesizing different questions regarding that subject, making sure to keep on that single narrow subject. With this I found that the question should involve some sort of new "method" for guarding the general public against the security and privacy concerns of biometrics, after all, almost all Computer Science journals that I have read propose some sort of alternative method that gets the job done in a much more efficient way. From this question it was fairly easy to devise the problem since the question was initially derived from a problem that the population was having. Using the question the problem was very straightforward and concerned how people felt towards the security and privacy problems and how those people can be put at risk by using biometrics.


Although I haven't really started the review of the literature, I feel this won't be a very hard part. Most of the general information concerning biometrics is widely available, and in fact I have already found many sources using the keywords "Biometrics & Privacy" which will help me in my methodological literature review. In developing my literature review, I have learned to make the subject as broad as possible so that the audience will be able to tell that I have "done my homework" concerning the topic at hand. With this in mind I plan to take a thematic approach of the methods used in biometrics, jumping around to the most prominent topics in biometrics by explaining how some of the more famous theories have been derived and are used in everyday biometrics.

#3 Reading the Literature Review (freewrite, 10 minutes)

I recently read a Literature Review of biometrics, which also happens to be the topic of my research prospectus. Its structure was much less straightforward and narrow compared to the article that I used for the Anatomy of a Journal Article assignment. Instead of following through with a single research question or problem, this author decided to take the literature review on a broad journey of a single topic, creating a very nice overview of Biometrics. This literature review seemed to mostly be organized thematically. To begin, the author first started talking about the historical aspect of Biometrics and about how it has advanced. Then the author moved on to share the differences among the many different types of biometric methods that have evolved. There were many models and pictures in this point, which almost seemed to take my focus away from extracting knowledge from the writing. From this point, the author decided to include a wide variety of some of the present day companies or entities that use biometrics. He noted that people are increasingly using this in their homes in order to increase security. He also noted how there are many companies all over the world that have started to implement various biometric systems. There seemed to be three main themes throughout this review, the history, the methods, and the use. Although they seemed to mesh together rather well when reading it, now that I stepped back to look at the overall themes of the paper I don't think that they work that well together at all. I think there should have been more interlinking between the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods with the various methods that are available for use today.

It is different from papers that I have written in the past in that it is a very broad overview of a single topic. Most papers that I have written require that you focus on a single issue and then discuss ways to solve it. This literature review would be useful as support for a project proposal just based upon the sheer amount of data contained on a single subject in just one place. Literature Reviews are really helpful for most researchers as they don't necessarily have to look all over the place to find sources when they could just look in one place to find everything that they needed. Although the review may not be as dense as the researcher wanted, you can also trace back through the sources of the literature review, seemingly opening up your available sources exponentially. Usually the sources that are used in a literature review are some of the best sources on that topic, so by using those sources you can almost guarantee a solid paper.

#1 Researching/Writing Goals and Aspirations (freewrite, 10 minutes)

My goals as a writer and researcher in ENGL 302 this term is to be sufficient enough to do well in the class. I really don't mind writing, or researching for that matter, but with this class it seems that the items that we have to do are not spelled out very clearly. I have really tried to email the professor about this and it seems that they take days to answer, most of the time meaning that wastes the time that I actually do have to do an assignment. It hasn't been bad so far, but recently we have had to do a project introduction and this coming week we have a literature review. This, unfortunately, is all that I know about the assignment, neither of them come with any description or instruction as to what I should actually be doing with the graded work. Like I said, I don't mind writing, and I'm sure that I'll have to do it much more over the next year and a half until I graduate. Hopefully the assignments that I have them will be much more precise than these, but I should be able to work my way around it either way. For my future career goals I am completely positive that I will have to write at least a little bit. Working as a programmer I am almost assured to have to do documentation for customers regarding products that I will be working on or plan to work on. Although this isn't like the normal college essay, we have already been taught how to do this in one of the earlier Computer Science classes, and it logically comes fairly easy to me. For myself personally, I really wouldn't mind to take up a blog in my free time. I doubt I would ever get anyone to follow it, but it still is pretty fun to free your mind of all of those thoughts that were holding you back. Other than that, I think that I would really enjoy research topics at the graduate level, once I actually have enough knowledge to do them. At the moment it feels like most people do not have enough information in their major to actually divulge those deep research topics that have yet to be uncovered. Hopefully after graduating and finishing up the required classes I will have a firmer grip on those topics and be able to uncover topics that lead to unchartered research topics. I know that most research work is done with one or more people as well, and think that I would actually flourish in this environment as everyone would be able to bounce ideas against each other. It seems to me that the topic of research on its own requires some sort of building and experimentation, and that sort of goes back to the topic of students not having enough experience to complete a well thought out uncovered research essay. I feel that the topics would be much better if the students were able to actually construct, design, and implement some of the things that their research has to offer.

Science Article Summary - 14

Science Article Summary - 14

Dark Liquor Makes For Worse Hangovers

[1]	L. Sanders, “Dark Liquor Makes For Worse Hangovers,” Wired Science, Feb. 2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/dark-liquor-makes-for-worse-hangovers/#more-16015. [Accessed Feb. 10, 2010].

Researchers have finally released a study that hits at home with most college students.  They have found that dark liquors make for a much hangover the morning after drinking.  In order to complete the study, the researchers recruited 95 healthy individuals and divided them into teams which drank bourbon, vodka, and tonic water.  Once the individuals had the blood alcohol level of .11 they were put to bed with sleep monitoring equipment which monitored them throughout the night.  At 7 am the next morning the subjects were woken up, and what the researchers found was astonishing.  Using a scale to measure the severity of the hangover, bourbon drinkers were overall much worse than those that drank vodka.  Although this seems like a big difference, the alcohol showed no different effects with sleeping ability or cognitive tests.

Researchers note that this outcome could be expected.  They note that bourbon, and dark liquors in general, have over 37 times as many toxic compounds as vodka does, ranging from acetone, acetaldehyde, tannins, and furfural.  The researchers noted that as a good rule of thumb, the lighter the liquor, the less of these toxins contained in them.

Although this research probably won't stop people from drinking dark liquors, researchers hope that people can use this data as a way to be more responsible with their drinking.  If someone has a sensitive task to be done in the morning, such as driving, one might want to stay away from the dark liquors and instead choose the lighter liquors.

Refined Research Problem Statement

(*) Introduce the issue to be studied.


As issues of security are starting to get greater and greater, the general public is really starting to see a gradual shift in the methods of security.  One of the main methods that we are shifting our paradigm to is Biometrics, the way we uniquely identify humans based on physical or behavioral traits.  It seems like this issue would be just as foolproof as the normal password and PIN security method, but in reality it has just as many vulnerabilities and pitfalls.

(*) Introduce to background of the research area. 


Now that the massive shift to biometrics is taking place, many people are finding that the biometric data given to these security machines can be compromised against peoples liking.  Not only are there ways for attackers to gain access and to duplicate some of your biometric data, the companies or agencies that actually choose to implement the security methods can use your own biometric data against you.  Some biometric methods are capable of telling your sex, skin color, race, and even sometimes your thoughts.  This opens up the capabilities for the company, or even someone else with the capabilities, to use that data against your will.

(*) State the key issue, the overall research problem, specific research question/s.  There may be 1-3 separate questions connected to research problem area. Should be formulated in a very clear language in a form of a question.  


Although Biometrics seems fine to most people outside of the Computer Science field, many people are finding plenty of issues with the new methods which biometrics entails.  The largest issue with the biometric method would be the privacy concerns found with the use of gathered biometric data.


I am studying the advancement of biometrics with respect to the privacy of the individuals who use the system because I want to find out how the entities that implement these systems can use the biometric data against the user in order to help the user understand how their privacy is being violated and what new things can be done to fix the problem.


(*) Statement of relevance to the field. Define your audience of experts.


Since the advancement of biometrics is continuing, the key issues found within this topic will only grow worse.  By acknowledging the issues, the Computer Science field will be able to better serve the general public instead of merely pleasing everyone in the technology field.  By solving this problems now instead of later, we will be able to truly find a better method of security, be it in biometrics or not, and in the end solving this problem of privacy within the biometrics field will revolution both security and technology.  


The audience of experts for this topic would be biometric, security, and human-computer interaction experts.  Almost every topic in Computer Science correlates to biometrics in some form or fashion, so almost any scholarly being in the Computer Science field would find this problem and solution interesting.

(*) Introduce your proposed methods of study, in brief, if you can at this time.


A general proposal of my study methods would be primarily based on others research since I am unable to design my own biometric systems.  It would be best to decipher scholarly articles to search for methods that would be relevant to the privacy and advancement of biometrics.  If methods of this type can be merged into a singular method, the effect may be strong enough to fix the problem.

(*) Introduce limitations of the study, if you can at this time.


Although it will be easy to find sources regarding the topics that are already designed and being implemented, the limitation begins at the design of new systems.  I have had a wealth of experience in my college career, but it isn't at the point that I can go out and design a new biometric system to solve this problem.

(*) Note scholarly publications (1-3 publications, by title) where you might be able to publish the resulting paper you would write.


Security & Privacy Magazine, IEEE 
Journal of the ACM
Computer Law and Security Review

Bibliography

[1] A. Squicciarini and E. Bertino, "Privacy Preserving Multi-Factor Authentication with Biometrics,"Identity, 2006, pp. 63-71.


[2] A.M. Froomkin, "The Death of Privacy?," Stanford Law Review, vol. 52, 2000, pp. 1461-1543.


[3] D. Bala, "Biometrics and information security," Kennesaw, Georgia: ACM, 2008, pp. 64-66.


[4] J. Woodward, "Biometrics: privacy's foe or privacy's friend?," Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 85, 1997, pp. 1480-1492.


[5] S. Prabhakar, S. Pankanti, and A. Jain, "Biometric recognition: security and privacy concerns,"Security & Privacy, IEEE, vol. 1, 2003, pp. 33-42.


[6] S. Cimato, M. Gamassi, V. Piuri, R. Sassi, and F. Scotti, "Privacy-Aware Biometrics: Design and Implementation of a Multimodal Verification System," 2008, pp. 130-139.

#4 Refine Your Research Topic/Question/Problem (freewrite, 10 minutes)

1. How can we utilise and advance biometrics while still insuring personal privacy of citizens?

First I would like to start with refining my research problem.  I really wanted to stick with something that deals with the privacy part of biometrics.  For example, I am fairly curious as to what companies or other agencies actually do with the biometric data. One refined question could be:

I am studying the advancement of biometrics with respect to the privacy of the individuals who use the system because I want to find out how the entities that implement these systems can use the biometric data against the user in order to help the user understand how their privacy is being violated and what new things can be done to fix the problem.

Possible answers would be the subject that I have heard of in class (but not researched) which is called cancelable biometrics.  We all know that our own biometric data cannot be changed because we cannot just change our fingerprints, but with this new method the security system would implement some sort of hashing or manipulation algorithm which would safeguard the user from even having to lose their biometric data in the first place.  As for the issues of their privacy being used against them, the companies that create these security systems should also do algorithms which hide important data from the company.  This would then safeguard the user from racism or other privacy-eluding acts that would allow the company to figure out the users color, race, gender, and in some highly technological security systems, their thoughts.

Another issue that I would like to get into would be the issue regarding the national DNA database for newborns.  Although this doesn't seem like biometrics, under the shell it is being used as an uniquely identifiable source, which categorizes it as biometrics.