Biometric Technology

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Nowadays, the information is the most treasured asset in an organization, due to it along with the experience represents the input necessary to take appropriate decisions and consequently to have success in the business. Almost all the information and knowledge related with the processes business, goods and services offered by a company, is processed, managed and stored through technology and information systems, thus the security of information has become increasingly important and plays a critical role in the enterprise government.

“The term -information security- means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction” (United States Code, 2008). In order to ensure the identity of who is trying to access the information, the concept of “Biometric Technology” has been developed in the last years. This essay will start explaining this concept and the characteristics of its development through the time. Then, the essay will offer a brief explanation of biometric systems operation and a description of different biometric systems developed until now. Finally, this research analyzes the current and future applications and the issues that surround it.

The purpose of biometrics is to identify a person based on the measure of his anatomical and physiological characteristics. This concept is not new, its history dates back to 14th century when Chinese used footprints to identify newborns and divorce records. In the 1880s, Henry Faulds, William Herschel and Francis Galton were the first who conceived the idea of using biometric identification to guaranty the security in civil areas, like using footprints for criminal identification and fingerprinting t...

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...m. These systems are simple and economic; however, the hand geometry can have changes and the devices to capture the images are not too small to be adapted in a laptop.

Iris recognition is very accurate and distinctive because iris has a complex texture that can produce a substantial amount of information to identify a person. Furthermore, the iris remains almost unchanged from childhood, only minuscule variations are presented. The biometric data is captured using a small and high definition camera that is able to recognize different characteristics of the iris. Moreover, the system can detect the use of contact lens with a fake iris and can realize with the natural movement of the eye if the sample object is a living being. Although initially iris recognition systems were expensive and complex to use, new technology developments have improved these weaknesses.

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