By Steve Ranger, 20 July 2006 13:25
NEWS
Juan Vucetich
Argentinean policeman Juan Vucetich was the first to identify a criminal by using their fingerprints, way back in 1892.
The list from A to Z
Click on the links below to find out more on each of the entries in the list.
A is for Accuracy
B is for Behavioural biometric
C is for Cash machine
D is for Database
E is for Ear
F is for Facial recognition
G is for Gummi bears
H is for Hand geometry
I is for Iris
J is for Juan Vucetich
K is for Keystroke dynamics
L is for Liveness testing
M is for Mobile phones
N is for Network security
O is for Oxford
P is for Palm
Q is for Queues
R is for Registration
S is for Signature verification
T is for Twins
U is for Universality
V is for Voice verification
W is for Walk
X is for X-ray
Y is for Young
Z is for Zurich Airport
Since then fingerprinting has come on a long way. The UK police National Automated Fingerprint Identification System now holds around 4.6 million full sets of fingerprints.
The pattern of friction ridges and valleys on an individual's fingertips are unique - not even shared by identical twins - and so make a good means of identification.
Another benefit of using fingerprints is that they can be verified by the human eye, unlike some other biometrics. And because they are accurate and easy to capture, fingerprints are likely to remain the leading biometric in use.
Laptops are also appearing with fingerprint readers built in to replace passwords. The first and best-known is the ThinkPad range from Lenovo (ex of IBM), with a million units sold as of the end of last year. As this type of laptop becomes more common it's likely that access to corporate networks will increasingly be through fingerprint verification.
But there are limitations - manual workers can wear away the ridges on their fingers and some people also have missing digits. Some people are reluctant to use fingerprint systems because of connotations of criminality.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Karen Challinor
It would be interesting to know which of these have published positive and negative failure rates
2. Mike Murray
Biometric Access Protection Devices and their Programs Put to the Test
http://www.heise.de/ct/english/02/11/114/
3. Martin George
Iris recognition has actually been around for more than 20 years - a key patent "Flom and Safir" expired in Feb 2006. This has opened to door to commercial competition. Companies like ours are opening up the market with low cost camera devices, and low cost business models for algorithm deployment on devices and on server farms, where large scale cross-matching must take place for ID applications like Cards and Border Control.