In just a few years, biometrics has gone from being a very selective security technology to being implemented in almost all modern smartphone models.

Biometrics is an identification technology based on the recognition of a physical and non-transferable characteristic of people, such as the fingerprint, the recognition of the venous pattern of the finger or facial recognition. Biometrics is an excellent system of identification of the person that is applied in many processes due to two fundamental reasons, safety and comfort.

Biometric recognition systems can be used in any application that requires security, access control, presence control, and user identification or verification. Basically, they provide three advantages: physical resistance, low maintenance costs, and no electrostatic problems.

The biometric reading devices allow to guarantee or deny the passage or access to people without them having to use keys or cards, nor to memorize passwords, password or codes. These devices ‘read’ a characteristic or series of physical (static) characteristics of the person, considered sufficient for identification: the most common are the fingerprints, the vein lattice of the retina, the shape of the iris, the facial patterns, the veins of the hand or the geometry of it.

Biometric readers can also read dynamic or behavioral characteristics, such as the signature, the way of walking or the way of typing. This type of readers is much less frequent than those with static characteristics because according to the current development of the technology, they have a greater margin of error. The most used dynamic biometric reading system is that of voice recognition. The performance of a biometric measurement is generally defined in terms of the false positive rate (False Acceptance Rate or FAR), the false negative rate (False NonMatch Rate or FNMR, also False Rejection Rate or FRR), and the failure of the enlistment (Failure-to-enroll Rate, FTR or FER). The different performances of the different types of biometric reading are shown in box 1. Box 2 shows the different biometric reading technologies currently available in the market, as well as their horizontal applications and the main vertical markets (in the private sector).

Hand Reading Applications

The fingerprint reader Nitgen Hamster is a peripheral for computer security and computer security in general. It is equipped with a fingerprint reader module based on Nitgen biometrics technology. This reader connects directly to the computer and replaces access by password, which makes the system less vulnerable to fraud.

For digital biometric reading or the palm of the hand, contact is not always necessary. Fujitsu’s PalmSecure system performs readings in the palm of your hand in just one millisecond, without the user touching it: just bring the palm closer so that the system performs the reading (public and public) offered by the biometric industry.

Retina Recognition Systems

The pattern of the retina is unique in each person, such as fingerprints. Moreover, each of the two eyes of the same person has a different retina pattern and, unless it suffers wounds, remains unchanged throughout life.

The retina is captured at a distance, usually in the near-infrared spectral region, where even light and dark eyes show a rich texture. The reader locates the retina using characteristics of the reference point. This is an important step in recognition because, if done incorrectly, the resulting noise (e.g., eyelashes, reflections, pupils, and eyelids) can easily lead to an erroneous reading.

When the user approaches half a meter away from the terminal, it detects its presence thanks to the infrared sensor. Immediately the emission and capture of infrared are activated to capture up to 60 points characteristic of the cranial physiognomy of the person that emit a very fast and accurate identification 1: N If the user is enrolled the terminal will give access and register incidence.

Because infrared light has insufficient energy to cause photochemical effects, the only possibility of damage to the ‘read’ eye comes from the thermal energy of the sector. If light-emitting diodes are used, the resulting light is inconsistent, so the risk to eye safety is very remote if only one LED source is used. Multiple LED illuminators can, however, cause damage if they have not been carefully designed, or due to misuse.

A retinal identification system consists of a processing unit (a common PC) with sufficient resources and a scanner or retinal camera (currently, the VeriEye biometric reading system is compatible with the Cross Match I Scan 2 and Retica Mobile scanners- Eyes) plus software developed with an SDK.

The VeriEye retina recognition technology is easy to integrate with multi-biometric systems. The compatibility with technologies of easy identification and fingerprint of Neurotechnology, allows the VeriEye algorithm to be used in conjunction with other of our biometric products.

Facial Recognition

The Hanvon Face ID 3D facial recognition terminal is, as its name suggests, an access and presence control terminal with integrated 3D facial biometric recognition. The emission and capture of infrared light and its double camera allows obtaining the cranial physiognomy of the person as a unique biometric pattern. Apparently, this team can differentiate the faces of two twin brothers. 3D facial recognition technology corrects a weakness in 2D facial biometric technology: you cannot be deceived by the use of face masks or photographs.

Although well-formed passwords (basically, long strings of characters and random numbers) can be an extremely secure form of authentication, the reality is that these types of secure passwords are difficult to create and remember. This means that often easy-to-guess passwords are created, such as “abc123”, or stored in easily accessible places, which goes against the goal of passwords.

Biometric security uses a form of identification inherent in us, which means we can never lose or forget passwords. Biometrics also does not require entering a long string of characters, but we simply have to expose unique features of our physique (eyes, fingers or face) to a simple scan. Currently, the default state of a smartphone is blocked by biometrics.

Biometrics is not infallible; In fact, it may be easier to steal someone’s fingerprints than their memorized password. However, the great comfort it offers means that users who use devices and systems with biometric authentication are more likely to comply with basic security measures and, therefore, better overall security.