Biometrics
Biometrics: State – of – the – Art and Current Issues
An Article in Techno Rama -- Informatics
Introduction
Biometrics refers to the automatic identification of persons based on their physiological of behavioral uniqueness. An ample variety of systems call for dependable personal recognition methods to ascertain the identity of an individual requesting their services. Examples of such services include safe and secure access to buildings, computer systems, laptops, cellular phones and ATM s..
The main benefit of the biometric technology is that it is more safe and comfortable that the traditional systems. By using biometrics, it is possible to authenticate or establish an individual’s identity based on who he /she is rather than what he/she possesses, example and ID card or what he/she memorizes, example a password.
Biometrics has already earned a reputation for its effectiveness in a variety of demanding environments that require high levels of accuracy, robust security and solid customer service.
Biometrics methods, which identify people based on physical or behavioral characteristics, are of interest because people cannot forget or lose their physical or behavioral characteristics in the way that they can lose passwords or identity cards.
Biometrics refers to the automatic recognition of a living individual based on their physiological or behavioral uniqueness.
Biometrics is measurable: Measurable means that the characteristic or attribute can be easily offered to a sensor, sited by it and converted into a quantifiable and digital format. This measurability permits for matching to transpire in a matter of seconds and makes it an automated procedure.
Biometrics is robust: Robustness of a biometric refers to the intensity to which the characteristic or attribute is subject to appreciable variation over time. These variations can occur as a consequence of age, wound, sickness, professional use or chemical exposure. An extremely robust biometric does not alter appreciable over time while a less robust biometric vary.
Biometrics is distinctive: Distinctiveness is a gauge of the deviations or differences in the biometric blueprint among the broad-spectrum population. The higher level of distinctiveness, the more individual is the identifier.
Biometrics is essentially the automatic recognition of individual using characteristic traits. The person to be recognized is required to be physically present at the point of identification.
The recognition based on biometric techniques obviates the necessity to memorize a password or carry a coupon or a smart card. By replacing PIN and password, biometric techniques are more convenient in relation to the client and can potentially thwart unauthorized admission to or deceptive use of ATMs, time and attendance systems, and cellular phones, smart cards, desktop PCs, workstations and computer networks.
Biometrics provides the right person with the right privileges to have right access at right time.
An Overview
Biometric systems have been unintentionally marketed as a very advanced, high end security technology for many years now. The difference between today and twenty years ago is seen in both the effectiveness of the technology and the greatly reduced cost.
The commonly used biometric features include speech, finger-print, face, handwriting, gait and hand-geometry. The face and speech procedures have been used for over twenty five years while IRIS Scan, Retinal Scan and DNA methods.
This technology serves as the doorkeeper of secret personal information and is used intensively to raise a barrier between personal data and unauthorized access.
Technically talking, the devices generate electronic digital templates that are stored and compared to live images when there is a need to verify the identity of an individual.
Categories
A biometric can be categorized as,
- Physiological
- Behavioral
Physiological
Biometric:
It measures some physical attribute of the subject such as
o Fingerprint
o Finger geometry
o Face
o Hand
o Iris
Behavioral Biometric:
These are in control of the subject and have a tendency to change over the short and long terms due to health, aging and physiological state.
The subject can frequently create false negatives, hiding their true individuality by consciously altering the behavior being gauged. This implies that behavioral biometrics must be collected from a cooperative or unaware subject.
Methods -- Confirm identity of a person.
- Ownership: Something one possesses (smart cards, key, etc) which can be lost or stolen.
- Knowledge: Something one knows (password, PIN, etc) which can be forgotten, compromised or guessed.
- Biometrics: Something one is or something one does (fingerprints, voice, face, etc)
The first two methods of checking someone’s identity actually suffers from a common difficulty of inability to differentiate between a certified person and a play-actor who recklessly acquires the access advantage of the authorized person.
Only the third method, “Biometrics” can identify us as what we are. Biometric systems are classified into two major categories,
One to One System:
This system weighs the biometrics information of the individual against one particular entry on a database that pertains to that person.
The individual, then provides the system some sort of biometric information and the system decides whether a match can be made corresponding to a stored information on the database. This type of systems is referred to as “Verification Systems”.
One to Many Systems:
This kind of system compares the biometric information of a person to all entities on a database. A person does not assert his/her identity to that system, instead the person just give the biometric information.
The system then strives to match this data to all the entries in the database and drives whether a match can be made. This category of system is referred to “Identification Systems”.
Biometrics Technologies
Biometrics solutions mean lower cost solutions and biometrics technologies are reliable technologies that deliver effective solutions. The savings from converting manual processes to those driven by biometrics devices can be significant.
Biometrics technologies include,
o Facial recognition
o Iris Scans
o Retinal Scans
o Hand / Finger geometry recognition
o Speaker / Voice recognition
o Dynamic Signature verification
o Keystroke Dynamics
o DNA Recognition
Facial Recognition
Facial recognition is a non-intrusive and cheap technology. This technology is based on two dimensional recognition.
Facial recognition analyzes the characteristic of a person’s face. It measures the overall facial structure, including distances between eyes, nose, and mouth and jaw edges.
These measurements are retained in a database and used as a comparison when a user stands before the camera.
This biometric has been widely touted as a fantastic system for recognizing “potential threats including threats from terrorists, scam artists and known criminals”.
Five steps of facial recognition include,
o Image capture
o Face location in image
o Future extraction to generate template
o Template comparison and matching
declaration.
o Facial geometry: It uses geometrical characteristics of the face. This may use several cameras to get better accuracy.
o Skin pattern recognition: It may involve skin print.
o Facial thermo gram: This technique uses an infected camera to map the face temperatures.
o Smile: It involves the recognition of the wrinkle changes when smiling.
Iris Scan
Iris scanning measures the iris pattern in the coloured part of the eye. Though the iris colour has nothing to do with the biometric yet iris patterns are formed randomly.
Iris scanning can be used quickly for both identification and verification applications because the iris is highly distinctive and robust. Its major draw back is cost.
User places eye within scanning distance of device. This technology compares nearly 200 different spots in the eyeball.
Retinal Scan
Currently retinal scanning devices are not commercially available. This technique is characterized by the extremely high accuracy. There is no known way to replicate a retina. This is very intrusive and very expensive.
Hand / Finger Geometry
It is an automated measurement of many dimensions of the hand and fingers. Neither of these methods takes actual prints of the palm and fingers.
Spatial geometry is examined as the user puts his hand on the sensor surface and uses guiding poles between the fingers to properly place the hand and initiate the reading.
Finger geometry usually measures two or three fingers.
Hand geometry is a well developed technology that has been thoroughly field-tested and is easily accepted by users.
Finger print technology is a standardized technology with very high accuracy and it is easy to use. It is also the most economical biometric PC user authentication technique and one of the most developed biometrics.
It requires small storage space required for the biometric template, reducing the size of the database memory required.
The amount of data required to uniquely identify a user in a system is the smallest by far, allowing it to be used with smart cards easily.
Speaker / Voice recognition
Voice or speaker recognition uses vocal characteristics to identify individuals using a pass-phrase. A telephone or a microphone can serve as a sensor, which makes it a relatively cheap and easily deployable technology.
A person’s voice can be easily recorded and used for unauthorized PC or network. An illness such as a cold can change a person’s voice, making absolute identification difficult or impossible.
Dynamic Signature Verification
When signing, the hand can operate in a regime known as “ballistic motion”, where the muscles are not controlled by feedback. Ballistic motions are generally rapid, practices motions whose accuracy increases with speed. Walking, playing piano and golf swings are some of the examples of ballistic motions.
Dynamic signature verification is an automated method of measuring an individual’s signature. This technology examines such dynamics as speed, direction and pressure of writing; the time that the stylus is in and out of contact with the paper, the total time taken to make the signature; and where the stylus is raised from and lowered onto the paper.
It is designed to verify subjects based on the traits of their unique signature. Individuals who do not sign their names in a consistent manner may have difficulty enrolling and verifying in signature verification.
Keystroke techniques can be classified as either “static or continuous”. It is an automated method of examining an individual’s keystrokes on a keyboard.
This technology examines such dynamics as speed and pressure; the total time taken to type particular words and the time elapsed between hitting certain keys.
Possible measurements in this technology include latency between consecutive keystrokes, duration of the keystroke (hold time), overall typing speed, frequency of errors (how often the user has to use back space), habit of using additional keys in the keyboard and numbers with the numpad.
Static verification approaches analyze keystroke verification characteristics at specific times, for example, during the login sequence. Continuous verification on the contrary, monitors the user’s typing behavior throughout the course of the interaction.
DNA Verification
DNA (Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid) is the well known double helix structure present in the human cell. DNA performs well on the aspects of universality, distinctiveness, permanence, performance and resistance to circumvention, while it is weak on collect ability.
DNA does not change throughout the person’s life; therefore the permanence of DNA is incontestable. The public is fairly hostile to DNA usage and storage. Further privacy and security concerns are discussed fully.
DNA collection in the past was regarded as invasive sampling (example, finger prick for blood). However, DNA sampling methods have evolved to allow less invasive sampling (example, collection with a bucal swab of saliva sample or of epidermal cells with a sticky patch on the forearm)
The main problem with DNA is that it includes sensitive information related to genetic and medical aspects of individuals. So any misuse of DNA information can disclose information about hereditary factors and medical disorders. Hence, DNA markers are not established in order to be associated with any genetic disease. Race and ethnicity are actually cultural, not biological nor scientific, concepts.
A DNA fingerprint, unlike a conventional fingerprint cannot be altered by surgery or any other known treatment. Each person has a unique DNA fingerprint and it is the same for every single cell of a person.
The two main security problems are the security of DNA system (access rights, use of information only for the overriding purpose) and the implementation of security mechanisms in order to ensure, for instance, a high level of confidentiality and the security of DNA database.
DNA is widely used for paternity tests, criminal identification and forensics. It is also used in certain cases for personal identification. It is characterized by its very high accuracy and it is impossible that the system makes mistakes.
Comparison and Practical Usages of Biometric Technologies
Biometrics technologies are used to analyze human physical and behavioral characteristics for recognition and authentication purposes.
Biometrics is a rapidly growing technology that is being extensively used in forensics, such as criminal identification and prison safety and that has the potential to be used in large range of civilian application areas.
Biometrics can be used to check unauthorized access to ATMs, cellular phones, smart cards, desktop PCs, workstations and computer networks. In automobiles, biometrics can substitute keys with keyless entry devices.
Biometrics is safe a secure technology that is, biometrics devices and software are generally non intrusive technologies. These devices do not leave marks, do not take physical samples and require minimal or no contact by the user.
Scenarios in which biometrics is both a sound practice and a solid investment that can ultimately help ensure security while reducing cost.
Health Care: Medical insurance cards, patient / employee identity cards
Retail and Gaming: Retail programs, such as check cashing, loyalty rewards and promotional cards and gaming systems for access management and VIP programs.
Security: Access control and identity verifications, including time and attendance.
Public justice and safety: Prison IDs, county probation offices use for identification of parolees, county courthouses use for ID systems.
Education: Student / teacher identity verification and access control. Biometrics is now being implemented in large scale ID systems around the globe. Many new passport and national ID card systems use some type of biometrics encoded in a bar code or smart chip.
Driver’ Licenses:
Technologies being suggested by American Association of Motor Vehicle
Administrators (AAMVA), the organization that oversees DMV standards, include
biometrics and two dimensional bar codes.
Biometrics is the future of the defence industry and is rapidly becoming acknowledged as the most precise identification technology in the market place.
Biometrics prospect will include e- commerce applications for added security on the checkout page and biometrics will safeguard against unauthorized entrance to cars and cell phones. In the future develop 3-D infrared facial recognition access control, real time facial recognition passive surveillance and visitor management authentication systems.
Already A4 vision, a provider of 3-d facial scanning and identification software uses dedicated algorithms to interpret the traditional 2-d camera image and transfer it into a 3-D representation of a registered face. This makes it almost impracticable to swindle the biometric system with still photos or other images. All of these security modernisms will make biometric technology more perfect and make its usage more widespread.
Access control facial recognition:
Biometric technologies will approve authorized user entry to a property or to a specific location in a building. Today, A4 vision uses 3-D infrared facial recognition system to project restrained light onto a subject’s face for finest identification.
But in the future, this biometric technology will be augmented so that the subject will not have to be a just few meters away from the video surveillance cameras.
During the last decade, the discipline of biometrics has grown into an industry that presents real world solutions to serious problems faced by business schools and government agencies. However, the public, opinion leaders, regulators and legislators necessitate the details about biometric technology.
However biometrics technology is generally user friendly and these devices are engineered and developed with the user in mind. The convenient designs have intuitive interfaces that make them easy to operate whether they are used every day or just now and then.
Biometrics manufacturers and developers deliver what they promise and the devices on the market offer refined, durable and accurate solutions that have undergone rigorous evaluations and been out through exhaustive trails by end users.
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