We are undergoing some big changes here at findBIOMETRICS, and to celebrate June will be Multi-Modal Month. Not just focusing on solutions that leverage multiple types of biometric technology, this month’s theme will be a broad look at the staggering diversity of technology covered under the umbrella of “biometrics,” as well as some of the challenges facing the industry as a whole.
Biometrics boil down to a simple idea that can be applied to a multitude of situations. That idea is that no two people are perfectly similar and this uniqueness can be measured. The following list of articles will give you a good idea of how many different physical features. Let’s take a look at what we’ll be talk about as we talk about biometrics.
Fingerprint
The fingerprint has been unanimous with unique identity since 1788 when a German anatomist by the name of Johann Christoph Andreas Mayer first recognized that the ridges on the tips of everyone’s digits are naturally different. Today we take advantage of this fact for anything from access control, to authorizing PayPal transactions with a smartphone.
Here are some articles examining the various places we find fingerprint biometrics keeping us safe and saving us time:
Biometrics Versus Amusement Park Ticket Fraud
DigitalPersona Fingerprint Biometrics to Be Deployed in China Fashion Retailer Locations
MorphoTrak Partners With Identity One, Brings Biometric Access To Railroads
Suprema Readers Deployed For Ugandan Biometric Voter ID
VIDEO: Zwipe Biometric Access Card Demonstrated at ISC West
Apple Opens Touch ID to App Developers
Iris
If iris biometrics feel futuristic, it’s probably because this high tech sounding identification method has been a staple of science fiction, notably featured in Demolition Man, Minority Report, The Simpsons Movie and the James Bond film Never Say Never Again. Don’t let the media’s fantastical fascination fool you though, iris recognition is real and extremely useful in population management, time and attendance and access control. There are even persistent rumors that it’s being eyed for an upcoming smartphone.
Check out some articles about real life applications of this futuristic sounding technology:
Samsung Considering Iris Biometrics on Future Smartphones
SRI and emaratech Bring Iris Biometrics to United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Oman
Biometrics Against Child Abduction: M2SYS Announces KinderGuardian
Face
Facial recognition is interesting because it is among the most intuitively understandable modes of biometric identification. There are few features of the human body that tie us to our identities as strongly as our face. It’s right in the name of Facebook, mugshots are still an integral aspect of law enforcement, and it has become an important feature of our language: when we want to describe the act of hiding one’s identity we invoke the word “mask.”
Thanks to the proliferation of digital cameras and the availabilty of facial recognition software, face biometrics are finding unique applications in marketing and mobility as well as the expected access control deployments.
Face Recognition and Big Data Analysis Bringing Efficiency To Law Enforcement
Cognitec Upgrades FaceVACS-Video Scan Biometric Video Screening Technology
Unisys Chosen By Her Majesty’s Passport Office For Facial Recognition
Facial Biometrics Replacing Passwords in Online Learning
Voice
Voice recognition is another biometric technology finding an increasing amount of traction thanks to the hardwares we carry around with us everyday. Our voices have been the primary method of communication since the very first grunts that developed into language, and just like the other features on this list, the sounds we make are unique to us. As different as each voice biometric deployment is, one thing they have in common is a convenience of familiarity.
Here are some articles and interviews illustrating how natural it feels to authenticate by talking.
Nuance Brings Voice Biometric Protection to Phone Banking in Mexico
VoiceVault Introduces ViGo Mobile Voice Biometric Platform
Invisibility: The Place of Voice Biometrics In the Mobile Landscape
Anti-Spoofing is a Key Feature in AGNITiO’s New KIVOX 4.1
Pop Cultural Identity Management: Her
Vein
Vein or vascular biometrics measure the unique pattern made by the blood-carrying conduits underneath your skin. If it sounds secure, that’s because it is. As you might imagine, vein-based biometric solutions are incredibly difficult to spoof simply by virtue of the fact that a healthy human isn’t leaving their vascular patterns on things they touch, or posting them online in morbid selfies.
The articles here will give you an idea of how and where palm-vein and eyeprint (eye vein pattern) biometrics work best.
Eyeprints To Protect Mobile Banking Transactions
The Future of Palm Reading: Fujitsu Continues To Champion Palm Vein Biometrics
Palm Vein Biometric Patient Management Making a Strong Case at Healthcare Exhibition
Behavioral
Sometimes biometrics measure how you act instead of how you look. Relatively young, these types of biometric solutions are passive, looking for signs that someone (or something) is trying to impersonate you.
The Biometric Social Network and Keystroke Authentication
Biometric Solution From BioCatch Protects eCommerce Websites From Fraud
As Unique as You Are
As usual, nothing quite illustrates the big picture of a concept like interviews with the professionals behind this technology. So much diversity born of a simple idea. Here are some findBIOMETRICS interviews that touch on the big picture of biometrics:
Mobility Rules: An Interview With BIO-key and IDEX
Interview with Mohammed Murad, Vice President of Iris ID Systems Inc.
Peter O’Neill of findBIOMETRICS interviews Toby Rush, CEO, EyeVerify
Interview With Alexey Khitrov, President, Speechpro
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Stick with us throughout the month of June as we dive deeper into this topic. Have something to contribute to this discussion? Follow us on Twitter and use the hashtag #fBMultiModal to keep the conversation going all month.
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June 4, 2013 – by Peter B. Counter
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