Picking and Choosing Biometrics

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By MICHAEL FICKES

“But you can do this with biometrics, which can provide single sign-on convenience with a fingerprint. It is also possible to store 20 or 20,000 passwords under that biometric. You can tell the system to randomize the passwords after every use, and you can eliminate thousands of password resets every month.”

Choosing the right biometric

All biometrics are not created equal. Some are better than others for particular applications. According to Jon Mooney, general manager of the biometrics business unit in the San Jose, Calif., offices of the Ingersoll Rand Co., the most widely-used biometrics today are hand geometry and fingerprint, both of which Ingersoll Rand offers.

“Hand geometry provides durability and speed of throughput for time-and-attendance applications,” Mooney says. “We have also adapted our hand geometry system for access control applications.”

Fingerprint applications work well in environments where speed of throughput isn't critical, continues Mooney. “Fingerprint systems are smaller than hand geometry systems,” he says. “People are more familiar with fingerprint technology, and it is more economical on the front end.”

Fingerprint applications require relatively clean fingers, which eliminates manufacturing plants and facilities handled by hand geometry systems. Fingerprints work well in service offices where everyone has clean hands.

An alternative to fingerprint and hand geometry systems is vascular pattern-matching. These systems extract a vascular pattern from below the skin on the back of the hand. According to Identica's Wheeler, vascular systems work well for time-and-attendance applications, while addressing some of the issues raised by hand geometry and fingerprint biometric users.

Some hand geometry users worry about hygiene with hand geometry readers, which require users to place their hands directly onto a reader. Whether this concern is valid or not, Identica's vascular system addresses it by requiring that a user only lightly touch the back of his or her hand to a reader with contacts coated with nano-silver, a coating used in hospital operating rooms to kill a bio-film material that causes bacteria to grow.

Fingerprint biometric systems raise questions about someone lifting an individual's fingerprint from one or another surface and using it to defeat a biometric fingerprint system. “Because a vascular system images a pattern under the skin, there is nothing for an individual to leave behind — as there is in the case of fingerprints,” Wheeler says.

The same is true of iris scanners, notes Wheeler. People cannot leave an impression of an iris behind for someone to use as a way to defeat a security system.

Joe Delaney, vice president of sales and marketing at Datastrip Inc. in Exton, Pa., recommends maintaining the ability to apply different biometric solutions to different access control problems.

Datastrip hardware does offer a range of capabilities. The device is a handheld, mobile card reader with multiple biometric capabilities. The device will read 2D barcode cards, magnetic stripe cards, proximity cards and smart cards — contact and contactless — as well as FIPS 201 cards. The device also works with multiple biometrics including fingerprint, facial recognition and, in the future, iris recognition.

Datastrip recently carried out an assignment in Iraq for the Department of Defense. The job was to deploy fingerprint access control systems. “That was fine for contractors from western countries, but the Iraqis consider fingerprinting to be intrusive because they had to touch the device,” Delaney says. “Facial recognition doesn't work well because of the headgear. So we went to iris, which the Iraqis approved.”

While one or another of the basic biometric options — hand geometry, fingerprint, facial recognition and iris scanning — will probably fit the application, it seems important today to remain open to options.

“It is also important,” Delaney says, “to think beyond a single application and to look to the future.”

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Upgrades its Biometric Live Scan Network

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (MN BCA) is upgrading its Live Scan Network used for criminal booking from a biometric system that scans just the fingerprint to one that scans and captures data from the entire hand. L-1 Identity Solutions Inc., Stamford Conn., a provider of identity solutions and services, has secured the state-wide contract to offer the MN BCA a more comprehensive system.

“The ability to capture the fine detail from a subject's entire hand can mean the difference between solving a crime and not solving a crime. It's that simple and that important,” says Tim O'Malley, superintendent of the MN BCA. “The MN BCA has enhanced the ability to match latent prints collected at crime scenes - it's now better than ever. Ultimately, the MN BCA selected a system that helps us to identify criminals quickly and accurately.”

The contract includes shipments of the L-1 TouchPrint High Definition 3800 Live Scan with integrated full hand scanner. The company began integration in the first quarter of 2008 and will continue throughout the year.

The TouchPrint Live Scan device captures all critical hand data from the fingerprint to the carpal crease in a single pass at 1,000-ppi (pixels per inch) resolution. It is FBI-certified and was introduced in 2006 to address the demand for live scan systems that focused on improving image quality and enhanced identification.

“This is important for us because it reinforces the trust that the Minnesota BCA has placed in our solutions, working in close partnership with L-1 companies over the past several years to solve a wide range of identity management-related challenges,” says Jim Moar, president of Identix, the biometric solutions division of L-1 Identity Solutions.

Indiana Blood Center Benefits From Biometric Authentication

The Indiana Blood Center, which supplies more than 550 units of blood to more than 60 Indiana hospitals every day, is deploying a biometric identification technology from BIO-key International Inc., Wall, N.J., to enhance the convenience and security of identifying blood donors.

BIO-key's large-scale identity assurance platform, WEB-key, is being incorporated into the blood center to provide a safe, secure and convenient means for donors to confirm their identity. When a donor is first enrolled, the software creates a template based on the person's fingerprint and associates that template with the record identifier for the donor. With each visit to an Indiana Blood Center donation site or mobile collection unit, a donor places his or her finger on the reader to re-establish their identity.

Currently at the blood center, a donor needs to present a state-issued photo ID, such as a driver's license. However, the touchpad identification replaces this as the biometric software encrypts the donor's fingerprint template to ensure privacy and guarantee that it cannot be recreated.

“Promising donor convenience, safety and security, our transition to BIO-key marks our continued commitment to donors who enable us to meet the continuous demand of hospitals throughout Indiana,” says Indiana Blood Center president and CEO, Byron Buhner.

Jim Sullivan, BIO-key's director of biometric sales, adds, “The accuracy and security of our software provides the Indiana Blood Center and their customers with a fast, convenient and more secure alternative to establish the identity of donors.”

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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