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| Sunday, 18 September 2005 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Your own automatic identification
We have all heard about Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) and passwords. But did you know that humans too have automatic identifications? This is called biometric identification. In simple words, biometric identification is the automatic identification of living individuals by using their physiological and behavioral characteristics. And remember, if a PIN or password is lost or forgotten, it can be changed and reissued, but biometric identification cannot. Biometric identification relies on physical characteristics that are unique to each person to decide on the identification of an individual. Biometric identification can include retinal scanning, iris scanning, voiceprint identification and fingerprint or handprint scanning. An individual with a disability may not possess the biological characteristics required for a scan or may be unable to position themselves for a scan.
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. Your height, weight, hair colour and eye colour are all physical characteristics that can easily be checked. However, your height changes with age (children get taller, elders get shorter). Your hair colour changes naturally (and on purpose). You can wear coloured contact lenses that change your eye colour; everyone's weight fluctuates over time. 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 you may have seen biometric security checks taking place in science fiction or action movies. However, biometric identification is now 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 when one is still in the womb; you have fingerprints by the fourth month of foetal development. Once formed, fingerprint ridges are like a picture on the surface of a balloon. As the person ages, the fingers get larger. However, the relationship between the ridges stays the same, just like the picture on a balloon is still recognisable as the balloon is being 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. 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 1930s. Iris scan An iris scan provides an analysis of the rings, furrows and freckles in the coloured 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 1990s that algorithms for iris recognition were created (and patented). All current iris recognition systems use these basic patents, held by Iridian Technologies. Face recognition Relies on 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(fall or modulation of voice in music or verse) and frequency of a person's voice. There are some factors for biometric identification methods to be successful, such as: the physical characteristic should not change over the course of the person's lifetime, the physical characteristic must identify the individual person uniquely, the physical characteristic needs to be easily scanned or read in the field, preferably with inexpensive equipment, with an immediate result and the data must be easily checked against the actual person in a simple, automated way. Other characteristics that may be helpful in creating a successful biometric identification scheme are: ease of use by individuals and system operators, the willing (or knowing) participation of the subject not being required and the use of legacy data (such as face recognition or voice analysis). There are a number of advantages to this technology: biometric identification can provide extremely accurate, secured access to information; fingerprints, retinal and iris scans produce absolutely unique data sets when done properly. Current methods like password verification have many problems (people write them down, they forget them, they make up easy-to-hack passwords). Automated biometric identification can be done very rapidly and uniformly, with a minimum of training. Your identity can be verified without resorting to documents that may be stolen, lost or altered. More on automatic identification later. |
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