First International StepUP Competition for Biometric Footstep Recognition: Methods, Results and Remaining Challenges

TL;DR

This paper reports on the first international competition for biometric footstep recognition using the new UNB StepUP-P150 dataset, highlighting advances, top results, and remaining challenges in generalization and robustness.

Contribution

It introduces the first competition in biometric footstep recognition, providing a large dataset and benchmarking methods, and identifies key challenges for future research.

Findings

Top EER of 10.77% achieved by the best team

Deep learning methods show promise in footstep recognition

Generalization to new footwear remains a challenge

Abstract

Biometric footstep recognition, based on a person's unique pressure patterns under their feet during walking, is an emerging field with growing applications in security and safety. However, progress in this area has been limited by the lack of large, diverse datasets necessary to address critical challenges such as generalization to new users and robustness to shifts in factors like footwear or walking speed. The recent release of the UNB StepUP-P150 dataset, the largest and most comprehensive collection of high-resolution footstep pressure recordings to date, opens new opportunities for addressing these challenges through deep learning. To mark this milestone, the First International StepUP Competition for Biometric Footstep Recognition was launched. Competitors were tasked with developing robust recognition models using the StepUP-P150 dataset that were then evaluated on a separate, dedicated test set designed to assess verification performance under challenging variations, given limited and relatively homogeneous reference data. The competition attracted global participation, with 23 registered teams from academia and industry. The top-performing team, Saeid_UCC, achieved the best equal error rate (EER) of 10.77% using a generative reward machine (GRM) optimization strategy. Overall, the competition showcased strong solutions, but persistent challenges in generalizing to unfamiliar footwear highlight a critical area for future work.