KT Awards Recipients of Year 2023/24

HKBU Innovation Award

Awardee: Prof. CHEUNG Yiu Ming

Department of Computer Science

Project:

“Lip-password for Personal Identity Verification”

This project provides a new innovative and promising solution to personal identity verification. As a new modality, the lip-password verifies the personal identity by matching both of the password information and the underlying behavioral characteristics of lip motion simultaneously. The lip-password can be used alone for speaker verification, featuring the possession of the inherent characteristics of a target speaker and the changeable password information. Consequently, a target person saying the wrong password or an imposter even knowing the correct password can be detected successfully. Compared to the existing biometrics, e.g., face recognition, fingerprint, and iris, which are all unchangeable even if they are stolen and copied, the lip-password is changeable.

In this sense, the lip-password is therefore more secure. Furthermore, the lip-password is privacy-preserving compared to the face recognition. Besides that, the additional merits of the lip-password are at least four-fold:

1) The lip-password has no language restriction

2) The dynamic characteristics of lip motions are resistant to the mimicry

3) The acquisition of lip motions is somewhat insusceptible to the background noise and distance

4) The lip-password are applicable to a speech-impaired person

The underlying technique of the lip-password has been protected by a US patent. Its potential application includes but not limited to: door-access control, human-computer interface, financial transaction authentication, and so on. Apparently, the lip-password can also be used together with the other biometrics to enhance the security level. For example, the lip-password can be combined with the face recognition, whereby addressing the problem of spoofing face recognition with 3D masks, and identical twin face recognition.

HKBU Knowledge Transfer Award

Awardee: Dr KWONG Chi Man

Department of History

Project:

“Revisiting the Wartime History of Hong Kong through GIS-Based Historical Spatial Data Platforms”

Since 2018, Dr Kwong has been building GIS-based interactive maps about the wartime history of Hong Kong. Based on his extensive studies on the topic and additional archival research and field studies, Dr Kwong and his research team have been creating interactive maps about the wartime history of Hong Kong that include data about the various aspects. These open-access online interactive maps have been used by not only fellow academics but also educators, conservationists, archivists, museum curators, urban planners, tourism professionals for their works, and have changed how they approach their various problems. Leveraging interactive maps as the pathway to impact, Dr Kwong not only changed the way various professionals work but also introduced the history of wartime Hong Kong to the general public in an innovative and accessible way. Moreover, the adoption of the spatial approach to Hong Kong history also promoted the use of spatial data in cultural and educational works in Hong Kong, and on the other hand introduced a unique historical perspective to professional sectors such as survey, urban planning, and architecture.