Popular Biometric Methodologies

You will see reference to a number of biometrics, some of which are rather impractical even if technically interesting. The ‘popular’ biometrics seem to gravitate at present around the following methodologies. 

1) Fingerprint verification

There are a variety of approaches to fingerprint verification. Some of them try to emulate the traditional police method of matching minutiae, others are straight pattern matching devices, and some adopt a unique approach all of their own, including moiré fringe patterns and ultrasonics. Some of them can detect when a live finger is presented, some cannot. There is a greater variety of fingerprint devices available than any other biometric at present. Potentially capable of good accuracy (low instances of false acceptance) fingerprint devices can also suffer from usage errors among insufficiently disciplined users (higher instances of false rejection) such as might be the case with large user bases. One must also consider the transducer / user interface and how this would be affected by large scale usage in a variety of environments. Fingerprint verification may be a good choice for in house systems where adequate explanation and training can be provided to users and where the system is operated within a controlled environment. It is not surprising that the workstation access application area seems to be based almost exclusively around fingerprints, due to the relatively low cost, small size (easily integrated into keyboards) and ease of integration.

2) Hand geometry

As the name suggests, hand geometry is concerned with measuring the physical characteristics of the users hand and fingers, from a three dimensional perspective in the case of the leading product. One of the most established methodologies, hand geometry offers a good balance of performance characteristics and is relatively easy to use. This methodology may be suitable where we have larger user bases or users who may access the system infrequently and may therefore be less disciplined in their approach to the system. Accuracy can be very high if desired, whilst flexible performance tuning and configuration can accommodate a wide range of applications. Hand geometry readers are deployed in a wide range of scenarios, including time and attendance recording where they have proved extremely popular. Ease of integration into other systems and processes, coupled to ease of use makes hand geometry an obvious first step for many biometric projects.

3) Retinal scanning

An established technology where the unique patterns of the retina are scanned by a low intensity light source via an optical coupler. Retinal scanning has proved to be quite accurate in use but does require the user to look into a receptacle and focus on a given point. This is not particularly convenient if you are a spectacle wearer or have concerns about intimate contact with the reading device. For these reasons retinal scanning has a few user acceptance problems although the technology itself can work well. The leading product underwent a redesign in the mid nineties, providing enhanced connectivity and an improved user interface; however this is still a relatively marginal biometric technology.

4) Iris scanning

Iris scanning is undoubtedly the less intrusive of the eye related biometrics. It utilizes a fairly conventional CCD camera element and requires no intimate contact between user and reader. In addition it has the potential for higher than average template matching performance. As a technology it has attracted the attention of various third party integrators and one would expect to see additional products launched in due course as a result. It has been demonstrated to work with spectacles in place and with a variety of ethnic groups and is one of the few devices which can work well in identification mode.

5) Facial recognition

A technique which has attracted considerable interest and whose capabilities have often been misunderstood. Extravagant claims have sometimes been made for facial recognition devices which have been difficult if not impossible to substantiate in practice. It is easy to understand the attractiveness of facial recognition from the user perspective, but one needs to be realistic in ones expectations of the technology. To date, facial recognition systems have had limited success in practical applications. However, progress continues to be made in this area and it will be interesting to see how future implementations perform. If technical obstacles can be overcome, we may eventually see facial recognition become a primary biometric methodology.

6) Voice verification

A potentially interesting technique bearing in mind how much voice communication takes place with regard to everyday business transactions. Some designs have concentrated on wall mounted readers whilst others have sought to integrate voice verification into conventional telephone handsets. Whilst there have been a number of voice verification products introduced to the market, many of them have suffered in practice due to the variability of both transducers and local acoustics. In addition, the enrolment procedure has often been more complicated than with other biometrics leading to the perception of voice verification as unfriendly in some quarters. However, much work has been and continues to be undertaken in this context and it will be interesting to monitor progress accordingly.

XPEG methodologies

As discussed above, we can adopt variety of methods to achieve a robust biometric security system. But the major driving thought behind XPEG was to come up with the less costly solution while maintaining a high level of robustness. Hence, going for Voice and Facial based biometric system was an obvious choice for XPEG. But still there was a problem. Can we really achieve a high level of robustness with these methodologies in the backend process? The Research and Development team of XPEG worked on the problem for a year and came up with a unique solution that helped to manage a high level of robustness. XPEG developed some new techniques and a protocol suit that enabled the system to work in a network as well as in a standalone environment. It helped XPEG to reduce the cost of the system while updating the system for more number of client ends.