So far, the fascinating field of biometrics was either witnessed in Sci-Fi
movies, or used by defense establishments, large banks, etc. The world around
used to remain content with authenticating a person's identity with user names
and passwords. However, things are changing.
Biometric technology is becoming more affordable, and thereby becoming more
feasible for enterprises to adopt. The most popular one till date is fingerprint
scanning, which is finding applications in various segments, like retail, BPOs,
KPOs, banks, hospitals, etc. But work is on to make other biometric technologies
more accessible to the corporate world as well. That may not happen in the
immediate future, but we'll definitely hear about more biometric implementations
in the coming years. Let's look at some of the currently available and emerging
biometric techniques.
Iris scans
As the name suggests, an Iris scan uses features in the iris of human eye to
authenticate a person. Iris patterns are complex and at least 200 points on iris
can be used for comparison. The iris scan device usually has an infrared enabled
camera and requires an individual to be placed 2-3 feet away(depending upon the
capability of device) in such a way that the individual can see his/her own
eye's reflection on the device. The camera then captures an image of the iris
which is kept in database for matching or verification. As iris patterns are
unique and different in left and right eye, chances of false matching are low.
According to vendors, eyeglasses and contact lenses don't cause any problems
for iris authentication. They remain constant over a person's lifetime except in
case of an eye disease or injury.
Blood vessel patterns at the back of the retina form a distinct pattern that varies from person to person. This lies at the heart of Iris scans |
Facial recognition
As the name suggests, this technology analyzes characteristics of a person's
face which don't change easily over a particular period of time such as distance
between the eyes, sides of mouth, area around the cheek bone etc. Initial 2D
face recognition systems were fooled by masks or face molds etc, but newer
devices require a user to blink or smile for verifyication-a process known as
testing for life. Facial recognition is also used for surveillance.
Voice recognition
This finds applications beyond user authentication, and goes beyond desktop
voice recognition software one hears of. Many industries have started using it
for automated customer query management on the phone. Instead of pushing keys in
a menu driven Interactive Voice Response system, a user has to give voice
commands. Unlike other biometric fields, a voice recognition system just
requires a microphone to operate, which is commonly available. For user
authentication, various aspects of an individual's voice are captured, like
resonant and harmonic frequencies of the vocal tract, etc. Earlier voice
recognition systems could be rendered useless by using a person's voice
recording to gain access. These are countered by combining voice recognition
with speech verification.
One commercial product that provides this is Nuance SpeechSecure. It can work
with IVR systems and is language independent. Its text independent feature
requires a caller to read out the password specified at the time of enrolment
and some other speech data which can be in any language. In this case speech
data is longer than the normal text dependent speaker verification but requires
less support from callers. The voice recognition technique is increasingly being
deployed in places where a large number of people need to be authenticated on a
regular basis. Banks have shown a lot of interest in this technology for
authencating customers over the phone. Likewise, other service industries like
railways, airlines, etc will also find this useful.
Another unique way of establishing identity. Vein patterns both at the back of the hand and in the palm vary in individuals and can be traced using infrared radiation |
Hand geometry scans
Identification based on a hand's geometry is also becoming popular. It's
more beneficial in areas where systems like fingerprints, palm prints, etc fail.
For eg, industries like oil refineries, coal mines and traditional manufacturing
companies where dirt, oil, grease and other kinds of debris reduce the
feasibility of finger or palm print matching. Hand geometry detectors have been
used for access control in Olympics since 1984. The 1992 Barcelona Games marked
the first time that biometric access control was expanded from the Olympic
Village to the competitive venues. 1996 Olympic Games used hand geometry
scanning to control access to the Olympic Village, tracking 65,000 people.
Further security overlays have been implemented to control access to national
and press offices at the Olympics.
A hand geometry reader comprises of a CCD or CMOS imaging device that
measures fingers and their combinations or the entire hand in two or three
dimensions. The parameters taken into account include: length and curvature of
fingers; thickness and width of fingers and palm; knuckle shape; distance
between joints, hand surface area, bone structure and translucency. On an
average 90 different parameters are measured over 31,000 points in a full hand
scan that ignores any scars, grease or dirt on the surface. The technology is
less intrusive than iris and retinal scans, that involve passing light through
as sensitive an organ as eyes, and comes with an inherent ease of use, thus
reducing user error rates. Another convenient feature of such a kind of scan is
its extremely small template size that allows for faster processing and at the
same time can be accommodated on a variety of devices including smart cards. The
flip side of using these scanners is their relatively large size and their
comparatively higher cost. Moreover, injuries to hands and debilitating diseases
such as arthritis can render them useless.
Future Biometric Technologies |
Heart Beat Authentication: This technology is still under development. Similar to the logic behind other biometric technologies, all individuals are said to have different heart beat patterns. It works by taking measurements of heart beats through ECGs and ultrasound and then comparing them with other heart beat signals. Development of sensors which can detect heart beat signals without any physical touch is also going on. Ear Body Salinity Level based Authentication: |
Biometrics goes beyond the surface
It's time now to go beyond the skin, deep into the complicated arterial and
venous networks of the body to identify an individual. As an added security
measure, banks are installing security devices that scrutinize veins in an
individual's palm to establish a person's identity. The system uses a palm vein
detector to check out the number of veins in a person's palm, the location of
points at which they cross each other and their size. This is accomplished by
using infrared to scan for hemoglobin in the blood flowing through the veins.
De-oxygenated hemoglobin shows up in black while the surrounding hand area is
lighter in color. This is quite similar to the technique used to capture retinal
patterns. The information thus collected is matched against a database that
stores such information about a customer, to establish his identity. A good
thing about this technology is that it uses infrared radiation to scan a
person's palm, thus making it a non-contact technique as compared to finger
scans, which involves finger contact with the scanning device and hence is
unpopular because of hygiene concerns. The biometric template can also be stored
on a multi-purpose smart card that can be carried around by the individual for
accessing personal accounts.