Biometric Technology FAQ by Thomas Boggo
Biometric technology uses intrinsic human characteristics such as fingerprints, handprints, facial characteristics, irises or retinas in the eyes, voice, and many other things for identification purposes. Biometrics security systems are growing rapidly because they are considered more secure... How quickly can a fingerprint be identified by a biometric system? ... The fingerprints will be similar enough to identify individuals when scanned but if an exact replica of a previously scanned fingerprint is scanned again, the biometric system will know it and deny access.

Privacy Issues Surrounding Biometric Technology by Thomas Boggo
The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center have provoked in-depth discussion and study of existing security measures, their deficiencies, and how to enhance security to prevent similar terrorist attacks from occurring in the future. Biometric technology has risen to the top of the list as a... The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted a study that showed single fingerprint biometric systems had a 98.6 percent accuracy rate. ... Fingerprints are the most commonly used biometric identifiers.

Biometric Baggage Check-in and More by Andy Reed
Back in January we reported on the use of biometric scanners at Heathrow and other international airports. Now two more biometric applications that will impact international travelers are coming down the pike, both from Precise Biometrics, a Swedish company with subsidiaries in the US and UK. ... As reported by Internet Travel News (June 28, 2006) and the company’s website (www.PreciseBiometrics.com), passengers will leave their fingerprints on a fingerprint scanner at the baggage check-in. ... Precise Biometrics and its partner company, World Wide Trust (www.wwtrust.com) are jointly...

An Overview of Biometric Face Recognition and Video Identifying Technologies by Alice Osborn
Biometric face recognition technologies are a new and evolving measure that governments and firms use to identify criminals and protect innocent people. However, the makers of this biometric face technology must contend with the inevitable ethical issues: what if the wrong person is identified... Biometric market growth and its applications today Most of the biometric industry’s revenue comes from government security applications, with only 20% of the total coming from the health care, financial services and transportation industries.

Biometrics History -- Looking at Biometric Technologies from Past to Present by Alice Osborn
The ancient Egyptians and the Chinese played a large role in biometrics' history. Although biometric technology seems to belong in the twenty-first century, the history of biometrics goes back thousands of years. Today, the focus is on using biometric face recognition and identifying... • In the 1960s and '70s, signature biometric authentication procedures were developed, but the biometric field remained fixed until the military and security agencies researched and developed biometric technology beyond fingerprinting.

How Biometric Technology is Used in Video Surveillance by Alice Osborn
As the recent July 7th London bombings would reveal, biometric technology images from over 200,000 video surveillance cameras are key weapons against the terrorists. What makes these biometric cameras so extraordinary is that these cameras have a 360-spherical lens, called a fisheye, to follow... How to evaluate these biometric solutions Although evaluation techniques for biometric solutions are not standardized, research enterprises and commercial firms are encouraged to take the Face Recognition Vendor Tests (FRVT).

Here's Looking At You! by Andy Reed
We wrote in January about various biometric scanning systems and fingerprint scanners. At the time we also mentioned retina scanners as one of the systems with potential for wider use in the future. But it seems that interest in developing retina scanners for the retail market is diminishing. ... Retina scanners are also expensive compared to more user-friendly proximity or fingerprint scanners. ... As one writer put it, coupling user-supplied information like a user-name – identifying “who you are” – with a biometric reading based on your unique physical self – “what you are” – approaches...

Biometrics - Customer Friendly Computer Security by Rick Parrott
I don’t know about you, but I hate passwords. I hate changing them, because I never can think of what I want to use! Isn’t there a better way? Actually there is. It’s called biometrics. Biometrics is a method of authentication that uses something you are to allow access to the computer network. ... Fingerprint recognition • Used for matching and verification. ... Identification made based on one of two methods. ... Face recognition • Passive recognition method, doesn’t need the person’s active participation.

Finger Print Recognition Process and Parameters by Brindha Ramamoorthy
Introduction In a number of business transactions and access to privileged information, reliable and accurate verification of people is extremely important. Forensic science labs and identification units for criminal investigations routinely use fingerprints. ... Biometrics And Basics Of Fingerprint Till date the research conducted in automatic fingerprint processing, concentrated on description of fingerprint impressions by determining the location of ridge endings, bifurcations, enclosures etc.

USB Flash Pen Drives by Damian Sofsian
USB pen drives are all the rage nowadays and are tagged as the next big thing in the USB flash drive industry. They come with a lot of added features such as MP3 playback, fingerprint biometric privacy and even built-in cameras. Most of these USB pen drives are not yet widely available but are... Further, a lot of pen drives come with card reader support for portable memory formats. ... The newer models also offer up to 10 hours voice recording and may even come with tiny speakers for added functionality.