Biometrics: Your Body and the Science of Security

Biometrics: Your Body and the Science of Security — page 3 — INTRODUCTION It’s a Fact There’s No One Like You You are one in a million Actually if we include all the people roaming the planet you’re more like one in 7 4 billion But who’s counting There are lots of things that make you stand out from the gigantic human crowd Your ideas values and beliefs are an important part of what make you an individual Your physical features play a big role in your uniqueness too Each day you’re recognized as you because of the way you look And you recognize those who are important in your life just the same way For instance when you spot a family member getting out of a car you know that person immediately based on his or her appearance And that person knows you just by glancing your way Now think about your fingerprints No one else in the world has prints that match yours The same goes for everyone else out there Since the late 1800s scientists have used fingerprints to accurately identify people BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS

Biometrics: Your Body and the Science of Security — page 4 — It doesn’t end with your physical appearance though You may recognize a friend from a distance based solely on the way he walks You’re familiar with the unique way he moves and know it almost instantly A person’s voice is also very distinctive If your best friend calls you on the phone chances are you’ll know it’s her as soon as you hear her voice We humans rely on our natural ability to recognize people by their many traits both physical ones and aspects of behavior Now we’ve entered a new era where computers are doing the same thing analyzing our bodies and behaviors to identify us This has turned the human body into a form of identification an ID that we never forget to carry with us Biometrics is the name for the science of using the body to identify a person The word biometrics comes from the Greek bio meaning life and metron meaning measure This technology measures unique physical traits such as our ear shape scent or vein patterns to identify us It can also ID us by analyzing how we perform a specific task such as talking or typing As you read through these pages you’ll learn about topics like faceprints voice recognition and iris scanning Yes it sounds a lot like science fiction But biometrics is really based on the age-old fact that there is no one else like you on Earth And that makes your body the ultimate ID biometrics AT A GLANCE Tablets like this throughout the book will give you a quick overview of each biometric The name of the biometric This gives you the level of difficulty involved in collecting information for the biometric This rates how secure or reliable the biometric is Method XXXXXX Type XXXXXX Collection EASY MODERATE DIFFICULT Security WEAK AVERAGE STRONG It’s a Fact XXXXXX There are two types of biometrics physiological and behavioral A physiological biometric measures a specific part of the body such as the hands or the face A behavioral biometric analyzes how a person performs a specific task such as talking This describes you guessed it a fact about the biometric BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS BIOMETRICS 5

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