Biometric recognition, or simply biometrics, refers to the automatic recognition of individuals based on their physiological and/or behavioral characteristics. By using biometrics it is possible to confirm or establish an individual’s identity based on “who she is”, rather than by “what she possesses” (e.g., an ID card) or “what she remembers” (e.g., a password). A biometric system is essentially
a pattern recognition system that operates by acquiring biometric data from an individual, extracting a feature set from the acquired data, and comparing this feature set against the template set in the database. Depending on the application context, a biometric system may operate either in verification mode or identification mode:
• In the verification mode, the system validates a person’s identity by comparing the captured biometric data with her own biometric template(s) stored system database. In such a system, an individual who desires to be recognized claims an identity, usually via a PIN (Personal Identification Number), a user name, a smart card, etc., and the system conducts a one-toone comparison to determine whether the claim is true or not (e.g., “Does this biometric data belong to Bob?”). Identity verification is typically used for positive recognition, where the aim is to prevent multiple people from using the same identity.
• In the identification mode, the system recognizes an individual by searching the templates of all the users in the database for a match. Therefore, the system conducts a one-to-many comparison to establish an individual’s identity (or fails if the subject is not enrolled in the system database) without the subject having to claim an identity (e.g., “Whose biometric data is this?”). Identification is a critical component in negative recognition applications where the system establishes whether the person is who she (implicitly or explicitly) denies to be. The purpose of negative recognition is to prevent a single person from using multiple identities. Identification may also be used in positive recognition for convenience (the user is not required to claim an identity). While traditional methods of personal recognition such as passwords, PINs, keys, and tokens may work for positive recognition, negative recognition can only be established through biometrics. Biometric Systems
Biometric identification seems to have finally been widely accepted and is gaining momentum to the extent that it should be the norm within a few years. There have been a few different biometric identification methods surfacing such as hand recognition, iris recognition and facial recognition but it seems that the market is stabilising on fingerprint identification probably because it is relatively simple and becoming cost effective to implement.
