Biometric Articles

Read comprehensive descriptions and explanations of the latest biometric technology solutions including a glossary of biometric terms and definitions.

Explainer: What is a Biometric Screening?

biometric-screening


A biometric screening is an important component of a comprehensive health and wellness program wherein corporations measure their employees’ blood pressure, cholesterol levels, triglycerides, and blood glucose. Due to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations, employers in the United States cannot take blood measurements without having an independent firm such as a wellness company or health screening organization perform the testing. For employers, biometric screenings provide important baseline data to shape the direction of their corporate wellness program.

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Explainer: What is Biometric Identification?

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Biometric technologies use physical characteristics, such as voice tone or hand shape, to identify people automatically. Behaviors, such as handwriting style, can also be used by computers in this way. The term “identify” is used here quite loosely. There is actually nothing in your voice, hand shape or any biometric measure to tell the computer your name, age or citizenship. External documents (passport, birth certificate, naturalization papers) or your good word establishing these facts must be supplied at the time

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History of Biometrics

biometrics-history


Introduction The term “biometrics” is derived from the Greek words “bio” (life) and “metrics” (to measure). Automated biometric systems have only become available over the last few decades, due to significant advances in the field of computer processing. Many of these new automated techniques, however, are based on ideas that were originally conceived hundreds, even thousands of years ago. One of the oldest and most basic examples of a characteristic that is used for recognition by humans is the face.

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Explainer: Biometric Middleware

middleware


Biometric middleware is authentication software that enables various biometric devices and technologies and allows the match or no—match decisions made by core technologies to provide authentication to various PC applications and resources. Middleware solutions may be compatible with as few as five and as many as 25 different authentication solutions, with a focus on biometrics but also including smart cards and tokens. Authentication through these devices can provide access to operating systems, applications, or other protected resources. Middleware solutions can

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Explainer: Vascular Pattern Recognition

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Vascular pattern recognition, also commonly referred to as vein pattern authentication, uses near-infrared light to reflect or transmit images of blood vessels. Researchers have determined that the vascular pattern of the human body is unique to a specific individual and does not change as people age. Potential for the use of the technology can be traced to a research paper prepared in 1992 by Dr. K. Shimizu, in which he discussed optical trans-body imaging and potential optical CT scanning applications.

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Explainer: Speaker Recognition

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Speaker, or voice, recognition is a biometric modality that uses an individual’s voice for recognition purposes. (It is a different technology than “speech recognition”, which recognizes words as they are articulated, which is not a biometric.) The speaker recognition process relies on features influenced by both the physical structure of an individual’s vocal tract and the behavioral characteristics of the individual. It is a popular choice for remote authentication due to the availability of devices for collecting speech samples (e.

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Explainer: Iris Recognition

iris-recognition


Iris recognition is the process of recognizing a person by analyzing the random pattern of the iris. The automated method of iris recognition is relatively young, existing in patent only since 1994. The iris is a muscle within the eye that regulates the size of the pupil, controlling the amount of light that enters the eye. It is the colored portion of the eye with coloring based on the amount of melatonin pigment within the muscle. Although the coloration and

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Explainer: Hand Geometry Recognition

hand-geometry


Hand geometry recognition is the longest implemented biometric type, debuting in the market in the late 1980s. The systems are widely implemented for their ease of use, public acceptance, and integration capabilities. One of the shortcomings of the hand geometry characteristic is that it is not highly unique, limiting the applications of the hand geometry system to verification tasks only. Hand geometry systems have the longest implementation history of all biometric modalities. David Sidlauskas developed and patented the hand geometry

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Explainer: Face Recognition

facial-recognition


Humans often use faces to recognize individuals and advancements in computing capability over the past few decades now enable similar recognitions automatically. Early face recognition algorithms used simple geometric models, but the recognition process has now matured into a science of sophisticated mathematical representations and matching processes. Major advancements and initiatives in the past 10 to 15 years have propelled face recognition technology into the spotlight. Face recognition can be used for both verification and identification (open-set and closed-set). Automated

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Explainer: Dynamic Signature

signature-verification


Dynamic signature is a biometric modality that uses, for recognition purposes, the anatomic and behavioral characteristics that an individual exhibits when signing his or her name (or other phrase). Dynamic signature devices should not be confused with electronic signature capture systems that are used to capture a graphic image of the signature and are common in locations where merchants are capturing signatures for transaction authorizations. Data such as the dynamically captured direction, stroke, pressure, and shape of an individual’s signature

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