Biometrics: Future of Identification
Sharath Pankanti · 2000
ouldn’t you feel better about flyingfrom an airport that could identifycriminals wearing disguises? Wouldn’tyou love to replace password-basedaccess control to avoid having to resetforgotten passwords and worry about the integrityof your system? Wouldn’t you like to rest secure inthe comfort that your healthcare system does not relymerely on your social security number as proof ofyour identity for granting access to your medicalrecords?Because each of these questions is becoming moreand more important, access to a reliable personal iden-tification infrastructure is becoming increasingly essen-tial. Conventional methods of identification based onpossession of ID cards or exclusive knowledge—like asocial security number or a password—are not alto-gether reliable. ID cards can be lost, forged, or mis-placed; passwords can be forgotten or compromised.One of the earliest and best-known biometric tech-nologies is fingerprint recognition. Automatic finger-print-based identification systems have been com-mercially available since the early 1960s. But untilrecently those systems were primarily used in forensicapplications for investigating criminals. Biometrictechnology has now become a viable alternative to tra-ditional identification systems in many governmentand commercial application domains.In addition to fingerprint recognition technology,other biometric technologies are beginning to emerge.As Figure 1 illustrates, new biometric applicationsinclude face (both optical and infrared), hand, finger,iris, retina, signature, and voice recognition. Investiga-tions of other characteristics, like ear, odor, keystrokeentry pattern, and gait are under way.