BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGIES - PALM AND HAND

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Abstract
This paper covers the biometric use of palm and hand prints and is the third in a series of
papers on biometrics. A paper prepared in November 2005 provides an overview of
biometrics, related standards, uses and concerns. This was followed by a paper in February
2006 describing fingerprint recognition, the biometric use of fingerprints, biometric standards
and related security issues.

Introduction
Previous papers have covered a background to biometrics and the use of fingerprints as a
biometric measure. Currently used for identity, authentication and forensic purposes,
biometric technologies have been broadly grouped into four areas with several techniques in
each:


Palm Prints
As with finger, palms of hands and soles of feet have epidermal ridges, thought to provide a
friction surface to assist with gripping and object of surface. The biometric use of palm
prints uses ridge patterns to identify an individual. Similar in many respects to fingerprint
identification, palm print identification systems measure and compare ridges, lines and
minutiae found on the palm.
Palm prints have a history perhaps equal to fingerprints, for example Joao de Barros, an early
explorer and writer, wrote that the Chinese merchants distinguished young children from
each other by recording palm prints and footprints on paper with ink.


Palmistry
Palmistry, also known as chiromancy, is a study of the characteristics of the hands, including
lines, markings, skin tone and fingernails in order to reveal the past, present and future.
These characteristics can reportedly diagnose latent health problems, reveal character traits
and guide future actions.
The hand has been ascribed a special significant from stone age time, illustrated by many
cave paintings in Europe and other parts of the Western hemisphere and Bushman paints in
Africa. Hands made of stone, wood and ivory have been discovered in a number of
archaeological excavations. Many ancient cultures including the Egyptians, Greeks and
Romans used palmistry to foretell the future. History also records the use of palmistry in
ancient India and China.


Palm and Hand Print Recognition
One of the earliest uses of palm prints in a criminal case is the State of Nevada vs Kuhl
(1918). This was the last horse-drawn mail stage robbery in the United States, and in which
the driver was murdered. A palm print was found on a torn, bloodstained letter at the crime
scene. This was later matched to Kuhl by two experts. Kuhl was sentenced to death, later
commuted to life imprisonment9.