Future of Biometrics
Biometrics is described as the use of human physical features to verify identity and has been in use since the beginning of recorded history. Only recently, biometrics has been used in today’s high-tech society for the prevention of identity theft. In this paper, we will be understanding biometrics, exploring the history of biometrics, examples of today’s current technology and where biometrics are expected to go in the future.
By definition, “biometrics” (Woodward, Orlans, and Higgins, 2003) is the science of using biological properties to identify individuals; for example, fingerprints, retina scans, and voice recognition. We’ve all seen in the movies, how the heroes and the villains have used other’s fingerprints and voice patterns to get into the super, secret vault. While these ideas were fantasy many years ago, today biometrics are being used and you may not even know it.
By combining the Greek words “bio”, which stands for “life”, and “metrics”, which stands for “measure”, you produce the term “biometrics” or “life measurements”. To understand biometrics at the most basic level, all one has to do is to picture a loved one in their mind. A human can specifically recognize another human by remembering an eye color, a hair color, a nose shape, a wart, or any combination of facial features. While the human mind is capable of remembering the physical characteristics of several humans, it is impossible to retain, reference, and sort thousands of biometric data which may contain details down to the molecular level. Today, this has been made easier by computer technology.
The first recorded use of biometrics dates back to the 14th century when the Spanish explorer Joao de Barros witnessed Chinese parents pressing their children’s inked fingers and feet onto paper allowing them to differentiate one child from another. Through Barros’ travels, he noted that Chinese businessmen also closed various financial and business transactions with fingerprints. There are other pieces of historical evidence indicating the use of biometrics for various purposes prior to Barros’ records. However, none were successfully documented.
Vacca (2007) found the use of biometrics would slip into the darkness until the mid to late 1800s when it would reemerge to be known as “anthropometrics” and address the identification crisis facing the world resulting from a population explosion, human mobility, and a need to positively identify individuals. In 1858, Sir William Herschel stamped the handprint of employees to determine whether the person in line to receive a paycheck was an employee or an imposter.
Another discrepancy between actual forensics and how it is portrayed in the media is the availability of information in databases. There is only a small percentage of the entire population’s fingerprints or DNA samples stored within databases such as the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). This makes finding a match between a DNA sample or fingerprint difficult, as a match would only be found if the person’s information was already stored within the database. If there is no match previously stored in a database, the fingerprint or DNA sample could be potentially rendered useless within a trial. Typically, in order to perform an analysis, investigators must already have a suspect in mind and request a DNA or fingerprint sample from him or her. If the suspect does not want to provide one however, the sample collected as evidence may not count as valid. The CSI effect creates an idealized image that all crimes can be solved with a hair or drop of blood, but this is not always the case in real life.
Now-a-day, biometric authentication system or simply biometric system, offers a reliable and user-friendly solution to the problem of identity management by establishing the identity of an individual based on “who the person is”, rather than the knowledge-based i.e. “what the person knows" or token-based i.e. “what the person carries” (Jain et al., 1999). The word biometrics is derived from the Greek words bios (meaning life) and metron (meaning measurement); biometric identifiers are measurements from living human body (Maltoni et al., 2003). Biometric system refers to automatically identify or verify an individual's identity based on his physiological characteristics (e.g. fingerprints, face, iris and hand geometry) and behavioral characteristics (e.g. gait, voice and signature) (Figure 2.1). Ancillary characteristics (also known as soft biometric) such as gender, ethnicity, age, eye color, skin color, scars and tatoos also provide some information about the identity of a person. However, soft biometric traits do not provide sufficient evidence to precisely determine the identity (Jain et al., 2004a). Biometric traits provide a unique and permanent binding between an individual and his identity. This “binding" cannot be easily lost, forgotten, shared or forged and free from making false repudiation claims. Biometrics offers several advantages over conventional security measures. These include
By the 19th century, the criminology research scholars have had a keen interest in biometric identification, they hope to combine physical characteristics with criminal tendencies, which resulting in a series of measuring devices, and also collected a large amount of data. Since then, the concept of measuring a person's physical characteristics are finalized, fingerprints also become the identification of international methodological standards for public security agencies. People often debate whether fingerprints have absolutely unique, and also thought that the different countries have the different standard for identifying fingerprints. So far, it is still the most widely methods of public security organs, and the process is also automated.
Identity theft has been a major issue of privacy and fraud. In the data breach analysis from the Identity Theft Resource Center (2013), the number of data breaches from the year 2005 to 2012 increased. In 2012, there had been 49% where the data breach exposed people Social Security Number. The data breach of 2012 has a rate of 27.4% caused by hackers. These breaches were commonly from 36.4% businesses and 34.7% health and medical (Identity Theft Resource Center 2013). The number of identity theft varies from physical possession to digital possession. At least one-fifth of trash cans contains papers listing people’s credit card number and personal information. People that throw away their trash mails contain much personal information that is useful to steal someone's identity (Davis, 2002). Technology becomes a need where people use it daily and as a result it has also become a use for identity theft as well. Throughout the years as technology develops so does identity theft. This paper shows the types, methods and technique used for identity theft, and it also examines possible risk of identity theft from current technology.
The Blooding is a true story of the first murder case solved by a genetic “fingerprinting”. In 1983, a fifteen-year-old Lynda Mann’s was found murdered and raped near the English village of Narborough in Lester, England. The local police had no suspects and no clues. During the time, Alec Jefferys, a professor, developed techniques for DNA fingerprinting to see if the pattern of inheritance was as simple as he expected it to be. The Lynda Mann’s murder case was still enlarged and open for a couple years.
Forensic genetics has other applications . The " fingerprint " DNA represents a valuable tool for forensic science . As is the case with an ordinary fingerprint genetic fingerprint is unique to each individual (except identical twins ) . The determination involves the observation of specific DNA sequences which can be obtained from extremely small tissue samples , hair, blood or eventually left at the scene . As Fifty microliters of blood, semen or five microliters of ten roots of hairs are enough , and nozzles secretions and cells from the fetus . In addition to its use in the capture of criminals , especially rapists , the genetic fingerprints can be used to establish family relationships . People involved in the conservation of species use them to be sure that captive breeding is among individuals who do not belong to the same family .
Law enforcement uses several methods to solve all types of crimes. Having a variety of ways to help solve an investigation gives officials an advantage. If one method fails or isn’t helpful, there are several others they can rely on. For instance, if there are no physical witnesses to a crime, the criminal may have left a fingerprint at the crime scene. An individual’s fingerprint is unique, “no two persons have exactly the same arrangement of ridge patterns” (“Fingerprint ID”). Fingerprints of criminals and of civilians are collected and stored. Also, “People who apply for government jobs, jobs that handle confidential information, banking jobs, teaching jobs, law enforcement jobs, and any job that involves security issues can be fingerprinted” (“The First ID”). Fingerprints are processed within hours and minutes through the Integrated Automated Fingerprint ID System. This system was developed in 1991, and made it easier for different law enforcement agencies to store and share fingerprints.
It stores DNA identification records of many people convicted of crimes. Secondly, it also contains analyses retrieved from unknown human remains. Finally, it kept analyses of genetic samples retrieved from a crime scene.
Everyone has a personal identity-size, shape, features- every characteristic is different. It is what makes each of us unique. Uniqueness is what makes us all so very different and makes us all human. Everyone deserves to be known after death, it is the last sign of respect for the dead. Rather they died a natural death, a man-made disaster, or a natural disaster they deserve to be known, and returned to their family. But, that isn't always as simple as it may seem. The Procedures, Historic uses, and the criticisms are all very important in establishing a face for every John, Baby, or Jane Doe from any time in history.
The belief that signing legibly on the LCD screens at the checkout counter is necessary, is incorrect. Alex Kuczynski proves that these signatures are useless in her article, “Identity Crisis.” Kuczynski, a contemporary writer, uses this article to not only argue that signing your name on a screen has lost its importance, but that all personal identity is being lost in society today. People have become reliant on technology and their busy lives keep them from actually sharing real life experiences. In the digital era, we have lost our identity and become a generic number, as T.K. Cheung stated, “the personal stamps have become unidentifiable and unrecognizable.”
Judson, Olivia. (2008). Sticky fingers: fingerprints are one of the oldest biometric measures of identity. What do we actually know about them? Natural History. 117.10. p16.
Biometric technology is used for the ways humans can be identified by unique aspects of their bodies, such as fingerprints, body odor, our voices and many more. If one was to think about privacy rights, he/she would be concerned about the widespread adoption of these systems, since such systems could easily be used to develop a record of known rebellious people and/or dangerous criminals, to be used for social control purposes. Although that may seem pretty good and a positive thing for the society, one should take into account of the defects and errors of technology. Of the many biometrics technologies that are being developed and are already developed, facial recognition is one of the most threatening because it can be deployed secretly; one may not know whether or when they can be caught in a surveillance camera for such facial recognition biometrics. Additionally, tests have found that the miscalculations for facial biometrics technologies are very high. As a result, according to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, innocent people can be erroneously identified as dangerous criminals and actual dangerous criminals and/or suspected terrorists can fail to be detected overall, allowing for a huge injustice and unfairness. Privacy rights concerned with biometrics have sparked a concern and should be dealt with; otherwise, this is just one of the
... Since we are all unique, we all have a precise and specific “imprinting protocol” that makes us human. Finding our exact “imprint” is “the mystery of the human person” (Cortez, 93). But, “the emergence of higher-level properties and complex systems with novel properties. cannot be comprehensively understood in lower-level terms alone,” affirming that what defines a physical being as being “human,” or what delineates David as a “real boy” is ultimately abstract and unknown (Cortez, 94).
The purpose of biometrics is to identify a person based on the measure of his anatomical and physiological characteristics. This concept is not new, its history dates back to 14th century when Chinese used footprints to identify newborns and divorce records. In the 1880s, Henry Faulds, William Herschel and Francis Galton were the first who conceived the idea of using biometric identification to guaranty the security in civil areas, like using footprints for criminal identification and fingerprinting t...
National Identification System which I call NIS is a form of identification card that is a “portable document, typically a plasticized card with digitally-embedded information” (Rouse, 2010). Most of us carry around a form of NIS which confirms our identity, like our drivers licenses.