Biometrics has evolved into a multi-use tool for corporations and government organizations.
While the surface is just being scratched as far as the full potential of biometrics, a basic knowledge of the science involves an understanding of the two types of biometric systems: physiological biometrics, sometimes called Physiometrics, and behavioral biometrics, often known as Behaviometrics.
Physiological biometric systems compile and analyze physical characteristics associated with a subject or group of subjects. Examples of physiological biometric applications include retinal scans and facial recognition software. Behavioral biometric systems track subjects' patterns and habits, analyzing and identifying individuals by gait, this includes typing patterns, as well as by voice. When a behavioral biometric system is put into place, there is first an “enrollment period,” during which time the system analyzes the subject for identifying patterns; the system will then analyze that subject on the adherence of those patterns.
Recently, however, biometric systems have been developed with multimodal adaptivity. This advancement negates the necessity of retraining the system when there is a change in the subject's environment that would alter the integrity of the pattern established during enrollment – for example, a replacement keyboard in regard to the above-mentioned typing pattern example. This lessens the necessity of enrollment periods in general. The practical benefit here is that biometric systems are becoming highly efficient and user friendly, making them available to anyone with the necessary infrastructure.
Often, biometrics is used for security purposes. Biometrics has surpassed fingerprints, passwords, and keycards in reliability, increasing resistance to fraudulent terminal logins. As has been dramatized in James Bond movies since the 1960s, biometrics can control points of entry and access and can track individuals' movements throughout the premises. These movements can be verified on the spot via retinal scans, voice reads, and even pressure point analysis when punching in an entry code. The days of sneaking into restricted areas with someone else's keycard are over, a development which is crucial to the security operations of military and government installations as well as private sector financial and medical institutions.
Companies like Zerco Systems are creating stand-alone biometric systems that don’t require linking to a central computer to verify information. For example, Zerco’s ID cards contain fingerprints, facial recognition, signatures, voice prints, iris scans and other biometrics. This could have significant impact on the ability of employees to safely log in and telecommute over a secure network, on the integrity of public networks that require age verification, and even on simple website membership confirmation.
Karen Goor is a customer interaction specialist at NICE Systems, a company that specializes in workforce management.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometrics#History_of_Biometrics https://www.biofeedback.net/corporate/ http://findbiometrics.com/zerco-offers-corporate-america-biometric-worker-id-solution/
