What are biometrics?
Biometrics are best defined as measurable physiological and / or behavioral characteristics that can be utilized to verify the identity of an individual. They include fingerprints, retinal and iris scanning, hand geometry, voice patterns, facial recognition and other techniques. They are of interest in any area where it is important to verify the true identity of an individual. Initially, these techniques were employed primarily in specialist high security applications, however we are now seeing their use and proposed use in a much broader range of public facing situations.
“Biometric” come from the Greek words “bio” (life) and “metric” (to measure). Biometrics are technologies used for measuring and analyzing a person’s unique characteristics. There are two types of biometrics: behavioral and physical. Behavioral biometrics are generally used for verification while physical biometrics can be used for either identification or verification.
Biometrics is the methodology for recognizing or identifying persons based on physiological or behavioral characteristics. Essentially all security features are based on a combination of three key concepts. Security can be based on something you have, something you know or something you are. While tokens or passwords can copied or stolen, biometric identifiers like fingerprints are much more difficult to reproduce or steal. Currently, there are several physical traits which can be used as Biometric identifiers. These include a persons facial shape, fingerprints, iris patterns, retina patterns, hand geometry, speech, handwriting / keystroke order and finally even wrist vein patterns. Most of these identifiers are very difficult to compromise, and some like the keystroke order or speech recognition may be difficult to reproduce consistently. It’s the task of the biometric product to apply a mathematical algorithm to the identifier (retina, or fingerprint for example) to determine if a us
