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ABSTRACT
Biometrics is the science of using digital technology to identify individuals based on the individual's unique physical and biological qualities. Simply, biometrics is the technique of verifying a person's identity from a physical characteristic (i.e., fingerprint, hand print, face, scent, thermal image, or iris pattern), or personal trait (voice pattern, handwriting, or acoustic signature).
The advances in accuracy and usability and decreasing cost have made the biometric technology a secure, affordable and cost effective way of identifying individuals. This paper presents what is biometrics and how it is applicable to various fields in medicine and its main focus is on ameliorate authentication.
Definition:
The statistical use of the characteristic variations in unique elements of living organisms is known as biometrics.
Why we need biometrics?
In order to avoid the problems of forgetting passwords and ID codes, Biometrics based authentication helps us in verifying your finger prints, iris pattern and voice for your identity at A.T.M’s, Airports etc.., you can unlock your houses, withdrawing money from a bank with just a blink of an eye, a tap of your finger or by just showing your face.
What is it?
Biometrics refers to the automatic identification of a person based on his/her physiological or behavioral characteristics. This method of identification is preferred over traditional methods involving password’s and PIN numbers for various reasons:
(i) The person to be identified is required to be physically present at the point of identification.
(ii) Identification based on biometric techniques obviates the need to remember a password or carry a token. By replacing PIN’s, biometric techniques can potentially prevent unauthorized access to or fraudulent use of A.T.M‘s, Smart cards, computer networks.
(iii) PIN‘s passwords may be forgotten, and token based methods of identification like passwords and driver’s licenses may be forged, stolen or lost. A biometric system is essentially a pattern recognition system which makes a personal identification by determining the authenticity of a specific physiological or behavioral characteristic possessed by the user.
How It Works:
Biometric devices consist of a reader or scanning device, software that converts the gathered information into digital form, and a database that stores the biometric data for comparison with previous records. When converting the biometric input, the software identifies specific points of data as match points. The match points are processed using an algorithm into a value that can be compared with biometric data in the database
Biometric Authentication System
A basic biometric system is made up of:
• a sensor to record the biometric trait
• a computer unit to process and eventually save the biometric trait
• an application, for which the user's authentication is necessary
Classifications of biometrics:
There are two types of classification.They are
1) Physical Biometrics
2) Behavioral Biometrics
1) Physical Biometrics:
It identifes include finger prints,hand geomentry,eye patterns and facial features.
2) Behavioral Biometrics:
Typical behavioral idetifers voice and signature.voice print and signature analyzers are generally considered less conclusive because they are subject to limitations such as illness and imitations.
Physical biometrics includes:
1. Fingerprint Recognition
2. Iris Recognition
3. Hand Recognition
4. Facial Recognition
1. Fingerprint Recognition
Fingerprints are perhaps the first biometric that comes to mind when first considering this technology as a means of enhancing your security. This is partly because in many minds biometrics are synonymous with security and identification and fingerprints are of course the primary means of positive identification among law enforcement agencies the world over.
In essence, fingerprint verification looks at the patterns found in the fingertip. There are a variety of technical approaches in this area, ranging from emulating the traditional police method of matching minutiae (the unique patterns on the surface of the fingertip) to standard pattern comparison. At the point of identification, the fingerprint is processed and a mathematical representation produced; this is then compared to an electronically-held template or set of templates, previously captured, for verification.
Fingerprints are a distinctive feature and remain invariant over the lifetime of a subject, except for cuts and bruises. As the first step in the authentication process, a fingerprint impression is acquired, typically using an inkless scanner. Several such scanning technologies “Typical scanner” digitizes the fingerprint impression at 500 dots per inch (dpi) with 256 gray levels per pixel. The digital image of the fingerprint includes several unique features in terms of ridge bifurcations and ridge endings, collectively referred to as “minutiae.”
2.Eye Recognition:
Two distinct parts of the human eye can be used to positively identify the identity of an individual: the iris or the retina. The technology has similarly taken 2 paths when it comes to authentication and identification using the eye.
Iris Recognition:
The iris is the outer visible part of the eyeball responsible for protecting and directing light to the retina, crudely speaking. But the iris is in fact a complex structure which may be used to uniquely identify an individual and which also does not alter dramatically with age. The technology employs image capture techniques to create an image of the iris. This is processed by a proprietary algorithm to create a representative template which in turn is compared to previously captured templates in order to identify or authenticate the identity of the individual.
Retina Scanning:
The alternative method of authenticating the identity of an individual using the eye is via retina scanning. This technology employs a more intrusive technique by way of requiring the individual to place their eye close up to a binocular or monocular type device. However, retina scanning is highly accurate and has been in use for military applications since the early seventies. The principle behind retinal scanning is that blood vessels at the retina provide a unique pattern which may be used as a tamper-proof personal identifier. To read this characteristic, a small beam of coherent light is beamed through the cornea to illuminate the blood vessels which are then photographed and analysed.
3. Hand Geometry Recognition:
Hand geometry was one of the first biometrics to prove practical in use across a variety of real-world applications. Hand geometry systems work by taking a 3-dimensional view of the hand in order to determine the geometry and metrics around the finger length, height and other details. Leading hand geometry biometrics systems measure up to 90 parameters. This information is processed via proprietary algoritham and a representative template is created accordingly for the individual concerned. An important consideration with hand geometry is that an individual's hand does not significantly change after a certain age. Once the representative template has been created, it is compared to a single or set of pre-recorded templates for authentication or identification.
4. Facial Recognition
The facial recognition method analyses the patterns in individual faces. Similar to the ay in which we recognize friends and family amongst a group of people by focusing on their faces, a facial recognition biometric system takes images from standard capture techniques such as digital pictures and generates a mathematical representation of the human face. This is compared to a template or set of templates, held electronically on a central system, to authenticate or identify an individual.
Behavioral biometrics includes:
1. Voice authentication
Voice authentication is not based on voice recognition but on voice-to-print authentication, where complex technology transforms voice into text. Voice biometrics has the most potential for growth, because it requires no new hardware—most PCs already contain a microphone. However, poor quality and ambient noise can affect verification. In addition, the enrollment procedure has often been more complicated than with other biometrics, leading to the perception that voice verification is not user friendly. Therefore, voice authentication software needs improvement.
1. Signature:
Signature verification analyzes the way a user signs her name. Signing features such as speed, velocity, and pressure are as important as the finished signature's static shape. Signature verification enjoys a synergy with existing processes that other biometrics do not. People are used to signatures as a means of transaction-related identity verification, and most would see nothing unusual in extending this to encompass biometrics. Signature verification devices are reasonably accurate in operation and obviously lend themselves to applications where a signature is an accepted identifier.
SELECTING A BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY:
Different technologies may be appropriate for different applications, depending on perceived user profiles, the need to interface with other systems or databases, environmental conditions, and a host of other application-specific parameters.
MULTIBIOMETRICS:
Biometric systems based on a single source of information (unibiometric systems) suffer from limitations such as the lack of uniqueness and non-universality of the chosen biometric trait, noisy data and spoof attacks. In contrast, multibiometric systems fuse information from multiple biometric sources; an optimal combination of information can alleviate some of the limitations of unibiometric systems. Consequently, multibiometric systems achieve better performance compared to unibiometric systems and are being increasingly adopted in a number of applications. Some of the major issues in designing a multibiometric system are
(i) determining the sources of biometric information to be fused,
(ii) acquisition and processing sequence,
(iii) type of information to be fused,
(iv) optimal fusion methodology and
(v) cost-benefit analysis.