BIOMETRICS:THE FUTURE OF IDENTIFICATION

Prepared by K.Sushmitha B.Manasa

Automated methods of identifying a person by using physiological traits. Biometrics allows us to confirm or establish an individuals identity based on who she is, rather than by what she possesses (e.g., an ID card) or what she knows (e.g., a password).

The need for security is the main reason behind the origin of biometrics. What makes biometrics interesting is that the traditional security systems such as passwords, PINs can be exchanged but the physiological traits cant be. It provides the most secure mode of authentication and identification which are difficult to forge. The purpose of establishing the identity is to ensure that only a legitimate user, and not anyone else, accesses the rendered services. Ex: ATM machines, airports. These systems alleviate the need for a user to remember multiple passwords associated with different applications. Instead, it takes a simple biometric trait as a password .

The biometric device consists of: Scanner A software for converting scanned information to digital form(which identifies match points) A database that stores the information for comparison with previous records The match points are processed using an algorithm and compares it with the stored biometric data when a user tries to gain access.

Biometric identifiers are classified into two types: physiological and behavioral. There are other identifiers like ear recognition, skin reflection, lip movement, body odor which are of less practical use.

To scan the finger prints, a special type of scanner that works with optical rays is used. A software module scans the finger print and measures the distance between the special features of that print.

Finger pint scanning can be achieved by the following ways: Minutiae based scanning: It sets minutiae as a set of points in a plane and the points are matched in the template.

Correlation based matching : It superimposes two fingerprint images and correlation between corresponding pixels is computed.

This technique records characteristics of face like distance between eyes, nose, mouth, and jaw edges through a digital camera. These are broken down into facial planes and retained in database for further comparison.

Speech is made of two components: physiological components(voice tract), and behavioral component(accent). Inherent properties of the speaker like fundamental frequency, nasal tone, cadence, inflection are used for speech authentication. A voice print is a spectrogram, which shows time on x-axis and frequency on y-axis. Different speeches create different shapes on the graph.

Iris recognition analyzes features like rings, furrows, and freckles existing in the colored tissue surrounding the pupil. The scanner uses a regular video camera and works through glasses and contact lenses.

Identification process is divided into: Localization-inner and out boundaries of iris are calculated. Feature extraction-A feature vector is formed which consists of ordered sequence of features extracted from iris images. Matching- Feature vectors are classified using techniques like hamming,distance,dissimilarity function,etc and is compared with the authenticated image.

As the name suggests, it involves the measurement and analysis of the human hand. Features like length and width of the fingers, aspect ratio of the palm or fingers, width of the palm, thickness of the palm, etc are computed.

The basic procedure involves capturing top and side views of the hand using a single camera by judicious placement of a single 45 mirror. To enroll a person in a database, two snapshots of the hand are taken and the average of resulting feature vectors is computed and stored.

This is an instance of writer recognition, which has been accepted as irrefutable evidence in courts of laws. signature verification is based on features like number of interior contours and number of vertical slope components.

Signatures are behavioral biometric that change with time, influenced by physical and emotional conditions of the signatories. But professional forgers can reproduce signatures to fool an unskilled eye and hence is not the preferred choice.

This technique identifies someone by his gait (or the way that he or she walks),based on dynamic movement. Modern gait recognition technology is based on a model of a moving person, which is used to obtain a series of mathematical vectors called Eigen vectors.

Uses in law enforcement: Agencies like FBI, use biometrics for the identification of suspects. Evidence on crime scenes, such as fingerprints or closedcircuit camera footage, are compared against the organization's database in search of a match. In addition, iris scans have been used in prisons in United States to avoid cases of inmates being accidentally released because they claimed to be different persons. Border Security: Biometrics are used to verify the identity of people entering and leaving a country. Biometric passports contain a microchip with all the biometric information of holders as well as a digital

Transactions with Banks: Advanced biometric identification systems to cope with cases of fraud, especially in automated transactions in ATMs. However, the use of biometric identification is not widespread as of now, and most banks still rely on the use of PINs. Biometric systems in Airports: By having a biometric ID card requiring a positive facial match, airports can be sure of allowing access to the right people in the right place. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), recognizes facial recognition as its primary biometric standard, with iris and fingerprints accepted as the two optional identifiers.

ADHARCARD: The biggest implementation of Biometrics is in the registration of Adhar Cards. It consists of individuals biometric info- finger prints, retina scan and face recognition. AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMS SERVICE- Smart Gate System: This is the First fully operational face recognition system for border control in the world. Processes aircrew at Sydney Airport, has now been operating successfully for over a year. FBI Biometrics Over the Years: Over the years, biometrics has been incredibly useful to the FBI and its partners in the law enforcement and intelligence communitiesnot only to authenticate an individuals identity (you are who you say you are), but more importantly, to figure out who someone is (by a fingerprint left on a murder weapon or a bomb, for example), typically by scanning a database of records for a match.

There are always concerns about adapting new technologies. biometrics, at best, handle identification, which is only one part of security. Most security experts recommend that a biometric device be used in combination with another security technology, such as password, account-number or smart card based verification. Trusting the technology alone is not safer. This technology combined with human brains could work wonders!

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