Book Image

Identity Management with Biometrics

By : Lisa Bock
Book Image

Identity Management with Biometrics

By: Lisa Bock

Overview of this book

Biometric technologies provide a variety of robust and convenient methods to securely identify and authenticate an individual. Unlike a password or smart card, biometrics can identify an attribute that is not only unique to an individual, but also eliminates any possibility of duplication. Identity Management with Biometrics is a solid introduction for anyone who wants to explore biometric techniques, such as fingerprint, iris, voice, palm print, and facial recognition. Starting with an overview of biometrics, you’ll learn the various uses and applications of biometrics in fintech, buildings, border control, and many other fields. You’ll understand the characteristics of an optimal biometric system and then review different types of errors and discover the benefits of multi-factor authentication. You’ll also get to grips with analyzing a biometric system for usability and accuracy and understand the process of implementation, testing, and deployment, along with addressing privacy concerns. The book outlines the importance of protecting biometric data by using encryption and shows you which factors to consider and how to analyze them before investing in biometric technologies. By the end of this book, you’ll be well-versed with a variety of recognition processes and be able to make the right decisions when implementing biometric technologies.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Section 1 –Understanding Biometric Authentication
6
Section 2 – Applying Biometric Technologies
12
Section 3 – Deploying a Large-Scale Biometric System

Capturing and sensing iris images

Take a moment to look at your own iris. When examining your iris up close, you will see lines, waves, and dots, along with light and dark areas. All of these make a unique pattern that is used during iris recognition.

Obtaining an iris image goes through several phases, as shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 7.5 – Preparing the iris

As shown in the preceding screenshot, the process is as follows:

  1. The subject positions themselves in front of the capture device.
  2. The device captures the image.
  3. Algorithms isolate and detect the iris.
  4. The iris image is extracted.
  5. Any non-iris artifacts, such as eyelid and eyelashes, are removed.
  6. The image is normalized.
  7. The iris image is encoded into a template.
  8. The template is stored in the system database.

One of the first steps in iris recognition is obtaining a high-quality image, as we’ll learn in the next section.

Obtaining...