What is Biometric Technology? Overview, Types & Details

The use of fingerprints as a way to recognize an individual has been in use for many years. When biometric technology was first invented, it was largely restricted to fingerprint recognition. Online data theft, terrorism, and terrorist challenges began to increase, prompting deeper innovations in the biometrics field.

Newer technologies were developed fast, which included voice recognition, face, and hand recognition. Currently, the technology has developed further to include iris recognition and DNA matching. Security threats are still high in buildings, crowded places, and public transportation. Tech developers are taking biometric technology to a higher notch.

What is Biometric Technology?

The best way to help you understand biometric technology is first to define the word biometrics. For example, if you want to understand how to get the best college paper writer, you must first understand what academic paper writing means and why people use such services.

In the same way, it is important to understand the term biometrics to understand why the technology is used. The term is derived from two words – bio and metrics. Bio, like in biology, means life, while metrics mean measurements.

In the simplest terms, biometrics can directly be translated as life measurements. In this scenario, it is human beings' life that is being measured for recognition. The metrics/measurements used are both the physical things that can be seen and the internal/unseen things.

They can be fingerprints, eyes, special marks on the body, facial features, skin color, etc. The unseen things are things such as DNA, blood group, rhesus factor, and behavior. The global population is over 7 billion people. You can easily identify nuclear family members, close relatives, and friends, but you cannot identify 7 billion people.

This is where biometrics technology comes in. It is the technology that helps authorized people to effectively identify individuals using their biological data. This information is used to detect bad people or allow access to places or objects. Each individual's traits and characteristics are unique. They have unique DNA, fingerprints, facial characteristics, eyes, voice, and body geometry.

Biometric Technology Overview

The current situation

Globally, security threats are experienced both physically and online. Different applications and measures are used to secure data over the internet. Technologies such as encryption and antivirus are used to prevent data theft. The online security enemy is not physical.

Unlike online security, physical security threat deals with living individuals. They plan for many days to attack people, bomb places, shoot innocent people or bring down buildings. Due to this, important establishments use biometric systems to enhance security. The technology helps to identify different aspects of individuals – behavior and physiological. The technology is used to analyze these traits and to correctly identify the individual as genuine or otherwise.

The history of biometric technology

The earliest use of biometrics can be traced back to China in the 14th century. China was a center of trade frequented by merchants. To correctly identify the genuine merchants and their children/families, the Chinese would use fingerprints as a form of identification.

The development was improved in the 19th century when technology for taking an individual's body measurements was developed. Its developer was known as Alphonse Bertillon, and the technology was known as Bertillonage. He discovered that some human features can never change even if the person added weight or lost.

Later, Dr. Carleton Simon discovered retinal identification in 1935. The first machine for identifying a person through retina scanning was launched in 1981. Cambridge university invented iris identification in 1993. The most concrete identification tools were developed in Kosovo in 2001. The tool was called BAT (Biometrics Automated Toolset).

Why is biometrics technology important today?

There are threats everywhere and in every business field. The banking sector loses a lot of money due to identity theft. Gangsters access banking halls and empty teller boxes and safes within minutes.

There is fear of attacks in airports, airplanes, train stations, and bus stations. The embassies, hotels, supermarkets, and the business or government field are no longer safe. People want to be certain of their security wherever they go, and the development of biometric technology is providing these answers. Technology is important in different ways.

Authentication of individuals

Authentication involves confirming if an individual is a right or genuine person. Biometric technology is used to confirm if the person is the same as they claim to be. The system might have pre-coded features of the person, such as their eye/iris features, voice, or hand features.

Verifying individuals

The individual submits a live sample that can be used and compared with a previous sample or information given. It could be a fingerprint, eye, hand, or face photo. If the present and previous sample matches, the person is verified as genuine.

Access authorization

The technology is used to allow people to access buildings or vehicles. The individual's features are taken and fed into the system. The next time the individual wants to access the place, the system scans them, and if they are positively identified, they are allowed access.

Types of Biometric Technology

Human beings have intrinsic characteristics. Each characteristic is naturally different from any other individual globally. Biometric technology focuses on these unique characteristics to identify the person. Here are the most developed types of biometric technologies.

Fingerprint identification

Every individual globally has unique fingerprints. It is not easy to identify someone's fingerprints using the natural eye, although people have used this technology manually for many centuries. Machines and applications that help with fingerprint identification have been developed today.

Fingerprint scanners are installed in smartphones, computers, door panels, on gates, etc. Fingerprint scanning is the commonest method used by companies to identify their workers and visitors.

Video/photo identification

Some places require multiple identification methods, and video scanners are used to identify an individual's face or iris. The device can be mounted at entrances to take an individual's photo or video of their face to allow entry. This type of identification is growing in popularity.

DNA recognition

This method of identification is not widely used currently because it involves taking DNA samples of the individual. Their DNA has to be tested to correctly identify them. The technology has been under stiff resistance from different quarters, and there have been court battles to resist its use. Nevertheless, the technology is currently in use in the criminal investigation departments to correctly identify criminals.

Voice recognition

Companies use different types of voice recognition devices, but the commonest are telephone-based devices. The person requesting access speaks into a voice recognition device, and when their voice is correctly identified, they are allowed access.

Signature recognition

Signatures have been used in several millenniums to identify individuals. Authors sign their books and other types of literature for authority. Today, biometric technology has advanced the use of signatures for identification. The most widespread signature technology is digital scanners used in the financial and retail sector to checkout.

Physiological recognition

This technology includes various types of physiological identifications. The commonest is facial recognition, followed by hand geometry recognition. Special gadgets are used to recognize certain features on an individual's face or hands. The same technology is used to recognize someone's ear, palm vein and to scan the retina. The devices recognize the shape of the ear and how their veins run through their hand.

Behavioral identification

This type of identification is used to identify certain behavioral characteristics of a person. The technology has been in use online to distinguish between real humans and robots. The technology is used to identify individuals according to several unique patterns.

How an individual engages with technology: unknown to an individual, there are unique ways they engage with technology, like how far they let their phone battery drain power, how they use applications, navigate websites, tilt phones, or check social media.

The typing patterns of an individual: people have unique typing patterns such as speed, impact on the keyboard, or how often they make typing mistakes. The technology can be developed further to capture someone's driving patterns or cycling.

Their physical movement: this is the way an individual walks, runs, or goes upstairs. This biometric technology is still new, and its developers hope to capture more details on how people move, make gestures, or even their posture.

Behavioral identification methods are prone to errors because people often change as they gain experience or as the environment around them dictates. The methods have to be combined with other reliable methods to get a more accurate result.

Concerns about biometric identification

For biometric technology to work the best way, information about the individual is fed into the system during the setting up phase. Some security experts are concerned about this process because someone can hack the information and gain access to a facility or account.

Although it is rare, sometimes the devices and their software can fail and give wrong information or access to the wrong people. However, experts are improving on it to eliminate all issues and concerns.

Conclusion

Biometric technology is a currently trending technology used to correctly identify individuals. The technology developed fast due to an increase in security threats witnessed recently. The commonest types of biometric technologies used currently are fingerprints recognition, facial recognition, DNA testing, hand and retina scanning. Other fast-developing identification technologies are voice, video, behavioral, and signature identification. The use of biometric technology has helped improve security both online and physically. The biometrics devices and applications correctly identify an individual to give them access to an account or facility.

Author Bio:

Leon Collier is a blogger and essay writing service for college writer from the UK. He loves trying various subjects and is always able to prove his writing prowess with absolutely error-free and well-researched writing. His hobbies are reading books and playing tabletop games.