Biometric recognition has been the subject of considerable interest and extensive research within different scientific communities over the last few decades. A consequence of this has been the significant progress achieved in different aspects of the field, ranging from data acquisition to performance accuracy. The last few years, however, have witnessed a growing demand for accelerated evolution of biometrics into a reliable technology for complementing, or even replacing, the traditional means of determining individuals' identities on a very large scale. The deployment of biometrics for large populations, which has primarily been motivated by various government applications including homeland security and border control, is also expected to penetrate many other areas. Examples of these are finance, commerce and health services. Such broad scale use of biometrics together with the specific characteristics and requirements of its individual applications give rise to challenging problems. The aim of this Special Issue is to establish the latest advances and current challenges in different aspects of the field, ranging from accuracy and robustness to data security and user interface.

This Special Issue is associated with COST 2101 Workshop on "Biometrics and Identity Management" held in Denmark in May 2008. Therefore, contributors to COST 2101 Workshop are particularly invited to submit papers. However, contribution to this Special Issue is open to all researchers working in the field and they are strongly encouraged to make a submission.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
* Conventional and emerging biometrics
o Face/Iris/Retina recognition
o Speaker identification/verification
o Fingerprint/Palm/Hand geometry recognition
o Signature/Keystroke/Ear/Gait/ECG recognition
* Multi-biometrics
o Multi-modal/multi-sensor recognition
o Multi-classifier/multi-algorithmic recognition
o Fusion schemes/Data quality estimation/Qualitative-based fusion

* Security and Usability
o Biometric encryption/hashing
o Template protection/Secure protocols/Privacy
o User interface/Unsupervised interaction
* Embedded biometrics
o Biometrics integration in travel documents and smart cards
o Biometrics-enabled mobile devices
o Interoperability

GUEST EDITORS
Dr. Aladdin Ariyaeeinia, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, United Kingdom
Dr. Andrzej Drygajlo, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
Prof. Michael Fairhurst, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NT, United Kingdom
Dr. Ben Schouten, Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica, 090 GB Amsterdam, Netherlands

Important Dates
Manuscript due: 29th August 2008
Acceptance/rejection notification: 14th November 2008
Final Manuscript due: 12th December 2008
Publication: First Quarter of 2009.


SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Original, high quality contributions that are not yet published or that are not currently under review by other journals or peer-reviewed conferences are sought. Manuscripts should not exceed 4000 words (excluding references, tables and figures).
Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/iet-spr.
A guide for authors for preparing their papers is available online at http://www.ietdl.org/journals/doc/IEEDRL-home/info/journals/proceedings/submissions.jsp. Contributing authors might be asked to review some of the papers submitted to this special issue.