Biometrics

Biometric Authentication Technology: From the Movies to Your

Desktop

by Fernando L. Podio1 and Jeffrey S. Dunn2,

A door silently opens, activated by a video camera and a face recognition

system. Computer access is granted by checking a fingerprint. Access to

a security vault is allowed after an iris check. Are these scenes from the

latest Hollywood spy thriller? Perhaps, but soon it could be in your office

or on your desktop. Biometric authentication technologies such as face, finger, hand, iris and speaker

recognition are commercially available today and are already coming into wide use. Recent advances in

reliability and performance and cost drops make these technologies attractive solutions for many computer

and network access, protection of digital content and physical access control problems.

What are Biometrics?

Biometrics are automated methods of identifying a person or verifying the identity of a person based on a

physiological or behavioral characteristic. Examples of physiological characteristics include hand or finger

images, facial characteristics, and iris recognition. Behavioral characteristics are traits that are learned or

acquired. Dynamic signature verification, speaker verification, and keystroke dynamics are examples of

behavioral characteristics.

Biometric authentication requires comparing a registered or enrolled biometric sample (biometric template

or identifier) against a newly captured biometric sample (for example, a fingerprint captured during a login).

During Enrollment, as shown in the picture below, a sample of the biometric trait is captured, processed

by a computer, and stored for later comparison.

Biometric recognition can be used in Identification mode, where the biometric system identifies a person

from the entire enrolled population by searching a database for a match based solely on the biometric. For

example, an entire database can be searched to verify a person has not applied for entitlement benefits...