If we start by breaking down the word itself, biometrics is derived from the Greek words bio (life) and metrics (to measure), and so biometric relates to the application of statistical analysis to biological data.
Biometric verification is defined as the process by which someone can be uniquely identified by evaluating one (or more) distinguishing biological traits.
Unique identifiers typically used in the process of biometric verification include the following:
- Fingerprints
- Hand geometry
- Earlobe geometry
- Retina/iris patterns
- Voice (waves)
- DNA
- Signatures
For those of us who are Forensic Files fans, one of the oldest forms of biometric verification is fingerprinting. You can refer to the article in the following link for more details about how the first forensic files came into implementation: http://onin.com/fp/fphistory.html.
Biometric verification and authentication have advanced significantly with technology advancements, such as the digitization of analog data (not to mention IBM Watson!), which now allow for practically instantaneous personal identification to take place.
While it may be quite obvious that the biometric authentication process uses physical characteristics (fingerprinting) to digitally identify (or authenticate) a person, more advanced solutions may also utilize behavioral human traits (like voice cadence) as well.
Each of these (characteristics) is considered unique to a particular individual, and, therefore, they may be used in combination (more on combining identifiers a bit later on in this chapter) to ensure greater accuracy of identification.