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If
you have watched Tom Cruise’s film Minority Report and
observed how the government identify the citizens using
iris recognition, or probably you have been keeping an
eye for CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), and notice how
biometrics have helped the investigators solve the case,
you would then know the impact and benefits biometrics
bring to mankind.
Long
before, people already have the vision of implementing
the biometric technology in our daily lives, and in
recent years, this has now become a reality.
As incidents of fraud, theft, life and property
threats prevalently intensify, individual
authentications are making transitions from passwords
and keytags to biometric technologies.
Biometrics, by definition in the dictionary,
means statistical study of biological data or the
identification of somebody thru an electronic system.
Originated from the two Greek words --- bios
means life and metros
means measure, biometrics brings about a new era of
personal identification and verification.
Increasing
Demand
While
keytags, passwords and cards remain to be the widely
applied individual identification, but one cannot
eliminate the possibilities of forgotten passwords,
stolen cards, and left behind keytags, and that is
exactly the greatest advantage of biometric system over
the card verification system.
Using the unique traits human possesses, such as
fingerprint, facial, voice or signature, individual
carries their “identification card” anywhere
providing not only convenience but also eliminating risk
of being stolen or duplicated.
It
has been clearly proven that knowledge based and
token-based automatic personal identification have
provided an effective means to identify an
individual’s identity, however, when it comes down to
verification, there still exists a question of doubt ---
Is the individual carrying the card truly the person who
he claims to be? It
is impossible to determine the true identity of the
cardholder unless a staff is stationed to monitor people
getting in and out of the premise.
Biometrics, in this case, precisely authenticates
a person’s identity, as again, there are no two
individuals hold the same physiological patterns.
In
addition to the advantage biometrics carries, numerous
manufacturers have pop up and devote themselves to
biometric development making the devices widely
available to the market.
And with the creative minds of the IT companies,
solution providers and manufacturers, biometrics has
leaped out of the impression of providing mere physical
access control solution.
Cashless payments, e-passports, and forensic
science are just some of the popular applications that
implement biometrics and have produced innumerable
benefits and provided substantial supports.
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