Biometrics: For a secure tomorrow
Till now passwords and PIN numbers are the basic way of authentication. But to a large extent this system is largely insecure. As the level of security breaches the need for highly secure identification and verification systems increases. Biometrics promises a secure and effecient way of authentication for the coming days. Biometrics make use of automated systems to verify the identity of a person taking psychological and behavioral characteristics into account. In a way Biometrics refers to statistical analysis of available biological data.
The most prevalent kind of biometric technology used now is fingerprint scan. As you all know "No two persons in the world have the same fingerprint pattern". Fingerprint scanners make use of optical or electromagnetic means to capture the pattern. The system analyses the pattern for loops, whorls, arches etc. and compares the sample with the existing signature in its database. But fingerprint scanners must ensure that the pattern is taken from a live finger not from artificial fingers. Electromagnetic scanners are comparatively better over optical scanners. Electromagnetic scanners can identify live finger from artificial rubber finger because of their difference in electrical characteristics. But these can also be fooled by sheets to gelatine with fingerprints impressed and wrapped around your finger.
Face recognition systems are another way of Biometric based authentication systems. Facial analysis is a little bit complex and sometimes it may even fail to recognise the pattern. Some simple systems takes ten to fifteen points on the face and store them in a geometrical array. At the time of authentication they again analyze the sample and verify it with the existing array.
The other is Three-D recognition system that looks at the whole face, not at a fixed number of points. It sees the entire face as you would. It uses a single cell structure to train the system it takes hundreds to thousands of images of one person, in various lighting conditions, with and without sunglasses at various angles, etc.,. It stores them into a single neuron cell structure and has the ability to look at all the information simultaneously. Identification and verification occurs in under a second.
Another way is retinal scan. This is very reliable and cannot easily be fooled. The person who needs to be authenticated must put his face in front of a camera. A low intensity infrared beam shine through the eye and hits the inside surface of retina. The camera takes a snapshot of the retina and the image is digitalized. The digitalized image is then compared with the existing patterns in the database. The entire authentication process is shown below in a flash image. (Courtesy of http://www.eyedentify.com)
The "one-to-many" is to determine the identity of a person. The biometric system obtains a submission from a user and performs a series of comparisons to determine if the submission matches any of the submissions in the database. And "one-to-one" search to ensure that the user is who he/she claims to be. The user claims an identity and the biometric system verifies if the pattern matches the claimed identity.
Biometric systems make use of digitalized templates to perform matches. The biometric system have varying accuracy. The authentication system is affected by lighting conditions, change in physical characteristics over time. Biometric systems even do some errors, they may accept unauthorized users as authorized users or may even reject authorized users.
Passwords and PIN numbers may be used for a long time from now. Biometric systems are in their way of wide acceptance. So get ready for the BIOMETRIC world.
Sincerely yours
assassin007
admin, http://www.hrvg.tk