Biometric Finger

Biometric Finger Printing For Identification

Thousands use fingerprint technology to access their PCs and networks and restricted areas and even to authorize some transactions. Biometric fingerprint scanning is extremely popular because of the ease, convenience and its reliability. Fingerprints are built-in ID cards that are unique and extremely advantageous in relation to individuality and personal identity. A fingerprint scanner collects a fingerprint sample and compares it to what it has on record.

The basic jobs of a biometric scanner are to get the image sample of the user's finger and then determine if the pattern of the valleys and ridges in the image is the exact match of the pattern in the image that was previously scanned, with methods like capacitance and optical scanning. The CCD which is a "charge coupled device" is the main part of the optical scanner which captures a very clear image. It can also reject a scan if the image is too light or too dark. In case of rejection the exposure period is adjusted by the scanner to allow the required light and then rescans the image.

Biometric fingerprint scanners have numerous advantages over other biometric authentication systems such as:

• A fingerprint cannot be faked or guessed like a password can
• A fingerprint is a physical characteristic that is more difficult to forge or fake than identity cards.
• Access cards can be misplaced where as voice, iris or fingerprints cannot.
• You don't have to memorize anything like a password etc.

However, some optical scanners cannot sometimes distinguish between the finger and a picture of the finger and some capacitive scanners can at times be fooled or taken in by a mold of the finger. Thus people can trick a scanner. Due to the possibility of a criminal actually using a dismembered finger of a person to go through a security scan, some scanners now are available that have extra heat and pulse sensors that can verify if the digit is "alive" instead of a dismembered finger or mold! Then again, it has been known that a gelatin mold that is used over a real finger has fooled the system. Hence, combining biometric analysis and conventional identification like a password makes the system more reliable.

Biometric finger printing for identification is one of the most used and oldest of methods that have been used successfully for numerous applications. Biometric fingerprint matching is usually placed in correlation based and minutiae based categories. It has been found that it is not easy to extract minutiae points in an accurate manner when the quality of the fingerprint is low. The correlation method overcomes these difficulties but is in turn affected by rotation and image translation.

Biometric fingerprint classification is where huge volumes of prints are stored daily in numerous applications that include access control, forensics and even registrations for driver's license. The FBI fingerprint database has approx. over 70 million prints. The technique of fingerprint classification is used to assign a particular fingerprint into any one of the many specified types that are established already in the available literature.

There are basic patterns in a fingerprint which are tented arch, arch, right loop, left loop and the whorl. 60% of fingerprints are made up of loops whereas arches and whorls account for the remaining 40%. In Biometric finger printing the most important technology that is used to capture the image of the fingerprint with detail is silicon, ultrasound and optical technology.