Biometrics: Hand and Fingerprints

Biometrics: Hand and Fingerprints

Abstract: Biometrics is research that is needed in all areas of life. Biometrics involves using the different parts of the body, such as the fingerprint or the iris, as a password or another form of identification. This is said to be the security of the future. Think about all of the situations that we face in life that will either destroy you or help scientific matter. Currently, fingerprints are used to identify criminals for crime scene. Biometrics is being used more by the public. The fingerprint and hand is a unique map that each individual has. In this paper I will explain to you about fingerprint and hand biometrics.

Introduction

Biometrics is a science. It is a science that measures individualsЎ¦ physical characteristic properties that are unique. With world changing of every second of everyday; human beings is still the cause of security breaching. On just about every website you need a password or pin number. Passwords and ID cards have been used to control access to restricted systems. However, security can be easily breached in these systems when a password is disclosed to an unauthorized user or a card is stolen by an impostor. We as humans forget password and pin numbers because we have so much to protect and access. Furthermore, simple passwords are easy to guess and difficult passwords may be hard to remember. The coming out of biometrics has addressed the problems that occur in traditional verification methods. Biometrics in this case would be best. With biometrics itЎ¦s uniqueness of physical characteristics can never be lost, stolen, shared or forgotten.

For biometrics authentication, there are some requirements that are needed:

„Є Uniqueness- one of a kind

„Є Universality- present or occurring in everyone

„Є Permanence- the state of being permanent

„Є Measurability- being measurable

„Є User friendliness- clear and simple to measure

There are three basic factors that are used for authentication:

„Є Something you know - a shared secret, a password, something both the use and the authenticator know.

„Є Something you have - a physical ID (e.g., an identification card)

„Є Something you are ЎV a measurable feature (e.g., fingerprint, facial characteristics, voiceprint). The measuring of a physical characteristic is called biometrics.

Identification vs. Verification

There are two primary uses for biometrics and that is identification and verification. Both are different. Identification is the process of determining the personЎ¦s identity from the system of the biometric template. The system will search the database for an exact match. It is also known as one-to-many comparison.

Positive identification answers the question of Ў§Who you are?ЎЁ. The answer that you receive could be a name, identification number or some other type of unique number.

Negative identification does the same except it makes sure you are not in the database.

Verification is the process of which you verify someoneЎ¦s identity. The unique number, name, or identification number is entered into the database system to see if there is a match. If there is a match, you have verified the person successfully. This is also known as one-to-one comparison. Verification answers the questions of Ў§Who I say I amЎЁ.

The main uses for identification and verification are:

„Є Fighting crime: fingerprint and DNA

„Є Security: granting access

„Є Comfort: correctly identify someone

Authentication

Authentications have different methods that are fundamentally sound:

„Є Who are you? ЎV The oldest system to identify someone.

„Є What do you know? ЎV To know pin numbers and passwords to gain access.

„Є What do you have? ЎV To have a key, pass,