The Importance Of Biometrics

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Biometrics is the measurement and statistical analysis of people's physical and behavioral characteristics. The technology is mainly used for identification and access control, or for identifying individuals that are under surveillance. The basic premise of biometric authentication is that everyone is unique and an individual can be identified by his or her intrinsic physical or behavioral traits. (The term "biometrics" is derived from the Greek words "bio" meaning life and "metric" meaning to measure.)
There are two main types of biometric identifiers:
1. Physiological characteristics: The shape or composition of the body.
2. Behavioral characteristics: The behavior of a person.
Examples of physiological characteristics used for biometric authentication includes the followings :
Fingerprint identification : Fingerprints are unique patterns, made by friction ridges (raised) and furrows (recessed), which appear on the pads of the fingers and thumbs. Prints from palms, toes and feet are also unique; however, these are used less often for identification, so this guide focuses on prints from the fingers and thumbs. The two underlying premises of fingerprint identification are uniqueness and persistence (permanence). To date, no two people have ever been found to have the same fingerprints—including …show more content…

Because of the complex structure of the capillaries that supply the retina with blood, each person's retina is unique. The network of blood vessels in the retina is not entirely genetically determined and thus even identical twins do not share a similar pattern. A retina scan provides an analysis of the capillary blood vessels located in the back of the eye; the pattern remains the same throughout life. A scan uses a low-intensity light to take an image of the pattern formed by the blood vessels. Retina scans were first suggested in the

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