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Biometric Identification

 

The word biometric can be defined as "life - measure." It is used in security and access control applications to mean measurable physical characteristics of a person that can be checked on an automated basis.

Although you may not think about it, your driver's license contains biometric information about you. Your height, weight, hair color and eye color are all physical characteristics that can easily be checked. However, your height changes with age (16 year old drivers get taller, senior citizens get shorter). Your hair color changes naturally (and on purpose). You can wear colored contact lenses that change your eye color; everyone's weight fluctuates over time.

Biometric data that does not change

Security personnel look for biometric data that does not change over the course of your life; that is, they look for physical characteristics that stay constant and that are difficult to fake or change on purpose.

Most of us can remember when biometric security checks were the stuff of science fiction or action movies like James Bond. However, biometric identification is becoming commonplace as hardware and software come down in price.

 

Biometric identification systems can be grouped based on the main physical characteristic that lends itself to biometric identification:

· Fingerprint identification

Fingerprint ridges are formed in the womb; you have fingerprints by the fourth month of fetal development. Once formed, fingerprint ridges are like a picture on the surface of a balloon. As the person ages, the fingers get do get larger. However, the relationship between the ridges stays the same, just like the picture on a balloon is still recognizable as the balloon is inflated.

 

· Hand geometry

Hand geometry is the measurement and comparison of the different physical characteristics of the hand. Although hand geometry does not have the same degree of permanence or individuality as some other characteristics, it is still a popular means of biometric authentication.

 

· Palm Vein Authentication

This system uses an infrared beam to penetrate the users hand as it is waved over the system; the veins within the palm of the user are returned as black lines. Palm vein authentication has a high level of authentication accuracy due to the complexity of vein patterns of the palm. Because the palm vein patterns are internal to the body, this would be a difficult system to counterfeit. Also, the system is contactless and therefore hygienic for use in public areas.

 

· Retina scan

A retina scan provides an analysis of the capillary blood vessels located in the back of the eye; the pattern remains the same throughout life. A scan uses a low-intensity light to take an image of the pattern formed by the blood vessels. Retina scans were first suggested in the 1930's.

 

· Iris scan

An iris scan provides an analysis of the rings, furrows and freckles in the colored ring that surrounds the pupil of the eye. More than 200 points are used for comparison. Iris scans were proposed in 1936, but it was not until the early 1990's that algorithms for iris recognition were created (and patented). All current iris recognition systems use these basic patents, held by Iridian Technologies.

 

· Face recognition

Facial characteristics (the size and shape of facial characteristics, and their relationship to each other). Although this method is the one that human beings have always used with each other, it is not easy to automate it. Typically, this method uses relative distances between common landmarks on the face to generate a unique "faceprint."

 

· Signature

Although the way you sign your name does change over time, and can be consciously changed to some extent, it provides a basic means of identification.

 

· Voice analysis

The analysis of the pitch, tone, cadence and frequency of a person's voice.

William Rogers

& Associates, Inc.

P.O. Box 510047

St. Louis, MO

63151-0047

U.S.

 

BillRogers@swbell.net

Tel:    314-892-8632

          800-745-2455

Fax: 314-487-5198

http://biodigest.newsvine.com

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