The digital technology revolution began with the massive change of computers, and faster progress was spurred by the development of the Internet and wireless data transmission. As the amount of information that can be stored in digital form grew, so did their importance, so the need arose to develop adequate systems for their protection.
Biometric authentication is an area that has experienced significant progress in the past decade, both in terms of the application of technologically sophisticated systems, and in the expansion itself and its increasing application in everyday life. In the IT world, biometrics refer to technologies that measure and analyze the characteristics of the human body such as fingerprints, retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns and hand measurements, for identification purposes.
What is Biometric Authentication and how does it work?
Biometric authentication is a procedure that relies on the unique biological characteristics of an individual to confirm that they are actually the person they claim to be. It is a complex system composed of software and hardware components that works by comparing two sets of data: the first set of data represents the recorded biological characteristics previously set by the device owner, while the second set belongs to the biological characteristics of the device visitor.
If the two sets of data are almost identical, that is, if they “overlap”, the device knows that the “visitor” and the “owner” are one and the same person and allows access to stored resources.
Mechanisms of Biological Authentication
With the development of compact systems for measuring the physical characteristics of an individual, the number of mechanisms of biometric authentication has also increased. We will list some of the most important ones below.
Fingerprint scanner
The fingerprint consists of papillary lines – furrows (“patterns”) on the fingertips of each person. No two people have the same fingerprints, not even identical twins.
Fingerprints are uniquely detailed, durable during an individual’s life, and are difficult to alter or forge. Because there are countless combinations, fingerprints have become an ideal means of identification.
Ancient civilizations knew that too. There are records of fingerprints that were taken centuries ago for the purpose of establishing identity, although they were not nearly as sophisticated as they are today. The ancient Babylonians pressed their fingertips into the clay to record business transactions. However, fingerprints were not used as a method to identify criminals until the 19th century. In 1858, an Englishman named William Herschel worked as a chief judge in Hooghly County, India. In order to reduce fraud, he made it obligatory to record fingerprints when signing business documents. In 1901, Scotland Yard founded its first Fingerprint Bureau, and the following year, fingerprints were presented as evidence for the first time in English courts.
Modern biometric verification by using a fingerprint has become almost instantaneous and is becoming more accurate with the advent of computerized databases and the digitalization of analog data.
Modern fingerprint scanners rely on recording a unique arrangement of papillary lines that make up an individual’s fingerprints and comparing them to a previously recorded pattern in a database.
There are four types of fingerprint scanners: optical scanner, capacitive scanner, ultrasound scanner, and thermal scanner. The basic function of any type of scanner is to get a picture of a person’s fingerprint and find a match for it in its database.
Fingerprint scanners are one of the most common and affordable ways of biometric authentication, although versions that are more widely used, such as those found on smartphones, still have a false positive rating, newer versions of fingerprint scanners go beyond the edge of the fingerprint and penetrate under the skin to analyze vascular patterns in human fingers, and can therefore be considered more reliable.
Despite occasional inaccuracies in the commercial sphere, the fingerprint scanner is among the most popular and used biometric technologies, both in everyday commercial consumption and as part of serious security systems such as those in banks and border crossings.
Iris scanner
The pupil of the eye is black because it is open to the dark, inner part of the eye. There is a ring-shaped iris around the pupil and in most cases it can be blue, green or brown. Individual irises are unique and structurally different, which enables their use for the purposes of recognizing and determining the identity of an individual.
The possibility of the iris being used for identification was first suggested by an ophthalmologist, and the reason for that is the large number of details that are unique and remain unchanged over time. In 1936, ophthalmologist Frank Burrch was the first to suggest the use of a board for personal identification, and in 1986. Aran Sapphire and Leonard Flom patented the idea. Dr. John Daugman, a professor at Harvard University, patented iris scanning algorithms in the mid-1990s.
The iris has over 200 details that can be used for comparison. Iris scanners use a video camera, so they do not require contact with the user, while the scanning of the iris is usually done with infrared light.
Iris scan is applied:
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as a replacement for passports and identification cards,
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for aviation security and safety,
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to control access to certain areas at the airport,
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to control access to databases and log on to computer networks,
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to control access to buildings and houses,
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for records and access control in hospitals,
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for identity verification at border crossings, etc.
One of the most significant applications of the iris scanning technology was realized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). All 17 air, land and sea entrances to the UAE recognize the iris of all passengers entering the country. An increasing number of airports around the world have installed identification systems based on iris recognition.
Speech recognition
Speech recognition and voice recognition are two separate technologies that use speech; the first has application in searches and dictation, and the second for user authentication.
Voice recognition as a biometric protection system is performed using software for recognizing sound waves and converting them into a digital recording, which is then compared with a previously recorded template. The system has proven to be a precise and phenomenal tool when it comes to security, while also saving time compared to entering codes or templates.
Biometric voice authentication reduces each spoken word to segments composed of several dominant frequencies called formants. Each segment has several tones that can be recorded in a digital format. Tones are analyzed and the unique speech imprint is collectively identified. Voice templates are stored in databases in a manner similar to the storage of fingerprints or other biometric data.
Voice checking includes an analysis of up to 100 unique characteristics of voice audio recordings and comparison of results with a stored voice pattern in the database. The result is a signaling of the results if the comparison of the voice was highly accurate (green), possibly correct (yellow) or very incorrect (red).
The biggest drawback of this system is the fact that people use voice not only to exchange information, but also to express emotions, which can interfere with the system in the degree of overlap of the recorded and saved pattern.
A person’s speech is subject to changes depending on health and emotional state. Voice print matching requires a person to speak in the normal voice used when the form was created when stored in the database. If a person suffers from a physical illness, such as a cold, or is unusually agitated or depressed, the reproduced voice pattern may differ from the recorded pattern, which will reflect the degree of concordance. Other factors, such as noise and clamor, also affect voice recognition results.
Palm vein scanner
Biometric authentication and identification of veins on the palms is a striking alternative to facial recognition technology. Palm vein authentication is the process of determining the specific arrangement of veins within a user’s palm and using them as a biometric feature to establish identity.
Since the veins on the palms are located under human skin, it is very difficult to copy or steal someone’s sample of veins, which means that forgery is very difficult under normal conditions.
Biometric authentication software turns a palm image into a unique “digital signature” that is impossible to fake. Unlike modern solutions such as face recognition systems, this system is not disturbed by different lighting conditions. Even dirty hands and scars will not prevent a proper match. As long as a part of the palm line is visible to the reader, the user can accurately confirm the identity in a few milliseconds.
In addition to machines that analyze the arrangement of veins in the palm by contact, contact-free systems have been developed that record the arrangement of veins by the user showing the palm to the camera. It is true that the efficiency of these systems may depend on the lighting conditions, but the information that is the subject of the analysis is certainly safer and harder to forge.
With the increasing degree of data digitalization, the need to protect this information and restrict access to it is growing, both in the private and business spheres, so there is a need to find the safest way to ensure that privacy. Individual characteristics, such as voice, fingerprint, and other biological traits, are the surest way to protect data. Their significance stems from their uniqueness in each individual. Of course some biological characteristics can be forged to a greater or lesser extent, but even this process is much more complex and difficult than bypassing more traditional protection systems such as the security code. In the future, we can certainly expect the simplification of biometric authentication systems and their mass application, as well as the presentation of new innovative ways to apply human biological individuality as a kind of security seal.
