Biometric authentication is the use of unique personal features to prove you are you. The biometric authentication might control access to a door or your smart phone. Biometric authentication has evolved over the years, but advances in technology have made it more reliable and accessible. Let’s take a deep dive into biometric authentication.
Advances in Biometrics
Handprints have been used as a form of authentication. A special light might look at the pattern of veins inside the hand, something a scammer can’t fake like fingerprints copied to a laminate and attached to their hand. The cost of this technology made it unpopular, while fingerprint and thumbprint scans remain reliable enough for general use. For example, you may touch your smart device to authorize a payment. The device might be hacked to override the authentication or someone may copy their data file over yours, but they might use similar methods to steal your data anyway.
Facial recognition has made major advances in recent years. For example, artificial intelligence along with higher resolution cameras can now recognize people with greater accuracy as they’re walking down the sidewalk. It can also use information about facial geometry to somewhat accurately identify people despite wearing surgical masks, sunglasses or Black Block gear to hide themselves.
How Biometric Authentication Is Set Up
For some of us, getting to know biometric authentication was a necessity because we needed to teach our device how to recognize us. For example, facial recognition systems have to be trained to recognize your face. Furthermore, it has to work in various environmental conditions. This is why you may be asked to set the phone in training mode and then turn your face in a full circle. This allows it to see all of your face and build a 3D model of it. And it will then be able to recognize you if you’re looking at the camera from a slight angle. Biometric authentication setup may include smiling or making a duckface so that the camera can recognize you when you’re talking. Facial recognition systems need to be periodically updated so that it recognizes you as you age and as your appearance evolves.
Fingerprints, thumbprints and handprints are much simpler. The device is told this is the person who will be using it. You hold your finger or hand still on the scanner while it is scanned.
Practical Uses of Biometric Authentication
Biometric technology is one of the most popular methods for controlling access, though it may be combined with traditional methods like passwords. Fingerprint access has been standard for building access for years. It has more recently become routine for students. Then a child can’t give someone else their badge and be incorrectly logged as present when they’re actually skipping school.
Iris recognition has become commonplace in airports. Use of facial recognition required advances in both cameras and artificial intelligence. Biometric identification is often used to verify that someone is the rightful user of the device before money is sent to another’s account. Voice recognition is sometimes used to unlock vehicles, though this is far less common than giving a voice command to the car’s entertainment center.