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 individualsÐŽ¦ 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 itÐŽ¦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 ÐŽV 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 personÐŽ¦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 ÐŽ§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 someoneÐŽ¦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 ÐŽ§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? ÐŽV The oldest system to identify someone.

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

„Є What do you have? ÐŽV To have a key, pass, or an ID card (with or with a chip) that has information on it to verify who you are.

Combined methods include two out of the three named above.

Security for authentication means there has to be some accuracy for the biometric systems. There are ways that authentication is measured to reflect the effectiveness of biometrics.

FAR- False Acceptance Rate ÐŽV It measures the possibility for a non authorized user to be recognized as an authorized user by mistake.

FRR- False Rejection Rate ÐŽV It measures the possibility for an authorized user to be rejected as a non authorized user by mistake.

EER- Equal Error Rate ÐŽV This is where the False Acceptance Rate and the False Rejection Rate meet.

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Using biometric systems, the system is positioned to produce a very low rate of false accepts. This usually comes at the cost of increasing the rate of false rejects. Unauthorized individuals are kept out, but a lot of authorized individuals are denied access. If the system is set to produce a low rate of false rejects, the rate of false accepts increases. Few authorized individuals are denied access, but this is at the cost of accepting more unauthorized individuals. Biometric systems with false accept rates and false reject rates of 1% are considered reliable now, although such a rate means that out of 5000 individuals, 50 are falsely denied access and 50 are falsely granted access.

All biometric systems operate in a five stage process that is automated and computerized.

Enrollment- The process of getting the individual samples for biometric and the