BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

Biometrics is not only well thought-out a more protected way to recognize an individual but also a more expedient technique whereby the personality does not essentially have to carry an supplementary device, such as an ID card. As defined by the organization for Biometrics (AFB) a biometric is "...a asses sable  unique physical characteristic or personal trait to identify the identity, or verify the claimed identity, of an enrollee." The technique is not a recent detection. There is confirmation to suggest that fingerprinting was used by the ancient Assyrians and Chinese at least since 7000 to 6000 BC. Over a thousand years ago, potters in East Asia, placed their fingerprints on their wares as an early form of brand individuality and in Egypt's Nile Valley, merchants were recognized by their physical characteristics. The perform of using fingerprints in place of signatures for legal contracts is hundreds of years old. It is believed that the first scientific studies investigating fingerprints were conducted sometime in the late sixteenth century.

In the nineteenth century Alphonse Bertillon in France urbanized anthropometrics as well as noting peculiar marks on a person such as scars or tattoos. It was as early as 1901 that Scotland Yard introduced the Galton-Henry system of fingerprint classification; Fuller et al. 1995, p. 14). Since that time fingerprints have traditionally been used in law enforcement. As early as 1960, the FBI Home Office in the UK and the Paris Police Department began auto-ID fingerprint studies. Until then limitations in computing power and storage had disallowed automated biometric checking systems from reaching their potential. Yet it was not until the late 1980s when personal computers and optical scanners became more reasonably priced that automated biometric checking had an opportunity to establish itself as an alternative to smart card or magnetic-stripe auto-ID technology.