comments welcome

After reading this material, and listening to the lecture, students will be able to;

    o describe the range of technologies that biometrics encompasses
    o identify applications that effect the marketing of services and products
    o understand the basics of some future biometric trends

"Biometrics are automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic.  Among the features measured are; face, fingerprints, hand geometry, handwriting, iris, retinal, vein, and voice. "

Biometric systems are superior because they provide a nontransferable means of identifying people not just cards or badges. The key point about an identification method that is  "nontransferable" means it cannot be given or lent to another individual so nobody can get around the system - they personally have to go through the control point.

The fundamentals of biometrics is that they are things about a person that are:
    o measurable - things that can be counted, numbered or otherwise quantified
    o physiological characteristics - like height, eye colour, fingerprint, DNA etc.
    o behavioral characteristics - such as the way a person moves, walks, types

WTGR

In Nov 2006 the link was working   www.biometrics.dod.mil/bio101/index.aspx
2008 the link is www.biometrics.dod.mil/

Under the heading of "components" we have
Static Information

- which basically means information that is the same all the time, like your fingerprints

Sub-heading 
Close distances

- means biometrics working on the principle that the person to be identified is close enough to make contact, or be measured close-up

on the NBC site the link is
 http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&brand=
msnbc&fg=email&vid=fab2cd88-8c42
-4ce6-bd5c-3b6aca92ad7d&from=00

discusses fingerprints, facial recognition programs 
and implants

the clip is quite short

Fingerprints Why is fingerprint technology still used, aren't there other more advanced systems? Yes, but many of the more advanced systems are also vulnerable to errors in harsh environments.

There are three different types of fingerprint capture technologies:

  o Optical technology
  o Silicon technology
  o Ultrasound technology

Handprints (properly termed Hand Geometry Recognition) Why is Hand Geometry necessary if fingerprint technology works? Simple - maybe the person is in a health lab and wearing gloves. Or it is cold weather and they have gloves for warmth.

Some Hand Geometry recognition systems use ultrasound technology which allows penetration through gloves or mitts to measure the bone size, shape and spacing in a hand.
 

The pad can also be calibrated to record the body temperature so that you could not cut off someone's hand and use it.

A variation of this is the Fujitsu PalmSecure (palm vein recognition) and the Hitachi UB READER (finger vein recognition)

"Older voice recognition applications require each word to be separated by a distinct space. This allows the machine to determine where one word begins and the next stops. These kinds of voice recognition applications are still used to navigate the computer's system, and operate applications such as web browsers or spread sheets."

"Newer voice recognition applications allow a user to dictate text fluently into the computer. These new applications can recognize speech at up to 160 words per minute. Applications that allow continuous speech are generally designed to recognize text and format it, rather then controlling the computer system itself."

Problems:
"While the accuracy of voice recognition has improved over the past few years some users still experience problems with accuracy either because of the way they speak or the nature of their voice."

from http://www.findbiometrics.com/Pages/voice%20articles/voice_1.html

"Facial recognition analyzes the characteristics of a person's face images input through a digital video camera. It measures the overall facial structure, including distances between eyes, nose, mouth, and jaw edges. These measurements are retained in a database and used as a comparison when a user stands before the camera."

Problems:
"This biometric has been widely, and perhaps wildly, touted as a fantastic system for recognizing potential threats (whether terrorist, scam artist, or known criminal) but so far has been unproven in high-level usage."

from http://ctl.ncsc.dni.us/biomet%20web/BMFacial.html
 

student Miron L. of MGD415 at University of Toronto (UTM) in March 2006 found some information related to the subject of Keystroke recognition. Miron said "I found some very recent and interesting articles on Biometrics.  This  article talks about a password management product that remembers user  keystroke patterns for less user invasive authentication"

John Adams wrote a story about how San Antonio city employees Credit Union has deployed a password management product that remembers user keystroke patterns for less user invasive authentication.
Miron's link www.banktechnews.com/article.html?id=20060301N36LCQ3U

Gait - walking pattern recognition some applications are based on "far distances", that is the ability to classify and identify humans at distances up to 500 feet away under day or night, all-weather conditions

Digital Character Animation by George Maestri

Basic
Applications

Often, when biometrics is applied in situations requiring a high level of security, there is more than one feature that is authenticated and it is also often done in combination with other technologies such as smart cards, encryption keys and digital signatures.

from  www.biometrics.org

Applications
in
marketing
 

Problem - An easy to use, non-intrusive way of identifying transport truck drivers crossing the Canada-U.S. border

Solution - Allow truck drivers to pre-register their fingerprints and use this to quickly identify themselves at an accesspoint by reaching out the truck window and pressing a pad.

Can this work? Canadian truck drivers can have their fingerprints registered to cross borders smoothly in a system called FAST which stands for Free and Secure Trade. This is desirable for drivers who have to frequently cross the border with freight for U.S. destinations.

See www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/fast/menu-e.html
on the Canadian Border Services website

Applications
in
marketing
 

UTM student Sean C (in MGD415 in 2008) sent an email to contribute some points about how fingerprint access control works details  www.itracentral.com/e-tap-01.htm

"There is a new product that was debuted at the  consumer electronics show in las vegas this week (Jan 2008) called  TAP-01  biometric doorbell "The TAP-01 Fingerprint Access Control with Doorbell sports the obligatory fingerprint scanner, voice / name display, internet /  intranet management capabilities, arbitrary time zone and grouping  access control, and also a keypad password feature for an added level  of security."

"This is interesting because it shows how such small things are starting to use enhanced security features. These features have been used in many military compounds but I think it will be a continuing trend for residential home security systems. Biometrics will be used a lot more regularly as it becomes cheaper and mass produced by companies. Also if the ease of use becomes to a level that any average 'joe' can use the technology then that becomes a large selling point. We are seeing many wearable computers created today so it is a natural progression to be
using biometrics for security for these wearable computers. "

Applications
in
Access
Control
for
facilities
and
events

Applications
in
Access
Control
for
facilities
and
events

Sharon explains, 
I took a trip to Disney world in Dec, 2006. so I actually got to use the Fingerprint scanner. As mentioned in the article, the major purpose to use this technoology is to reduce waiting time at the front entrance. However, when I was there, it still took some time for the lineup. Most visitors (especially elders) are not familiar with this technology, and they got stuck in front of the gate for a long time. For example, the instruction indicates to put the index finger for scanning. Some people use thumb instead of index finger, and they couldn't enter the gate. Also, the instruction is to "PLACE" the index finger on the scanner, but lots of people "PRESS" on the scanner. They couldn't pass the scanner because the machine can not read the real shape of their finger.

WTGR adds, thanks Sharon, your perspective is interesting because it illustrates that new technological applications are not always so simple when you try to do it with the general population, especially when you have to make allowances for having to explain certain procedures and ask people to follow instructions.

Applications
in
marketing
a service

Solution - when a person uses a password for the first time, the vendor records the password, and way the strokes are typed on a keyboard. This pattern is stored. When the customer logs in again, the password is matched to the file rendering the way the letters were typed to see if it is the same rhythm, and then authenticates the user.

These two companies are best known for Web filtering programs. ,The story said they are joining forces to create software that can identify individual music users. This information would be used to protect songs against unauthorized distribution and use.

John Borland, who wrote the article for CNET explains that the "companies want music labels or online retailers to insert the technology into downloaded music, so that only a person who buys a given song would be able to play it on a computer. Identifying the buyer by these keystroke patterns is far more secure than using passwords, which can be passed on to thousands of people..."

Can this work? Borland explained that "Analysts who follow the biometrics industry say the keystroke technology is less accurate than other technologies such as fingerprinting or retinal scans, but it makes up for that weakness in its relative ease of use."

Applications
in 
smart 
phones

Applications

student Saman H. of BCS 555 at Seneca College in November 2006 found an example in a current news story citing the need for biometrics.

Saman's video link pulled from CNN later