Thursday, June 23, 2005Are you already using biometrics for security purposes? Well, if not, it probably won't be long before you do.

Biometrics is recorded measurements of a unique physical or behavioral characteristic of individuals and is thought to be more reliable than traditional ID cards, since the measurements are actually part of the person in question. Yep, rather than keeping up with a security pass, your identity will be verified by some part of you. Fingerprints, the most well-known biometric, have been used by law enforcement for many years. Now eyes, hand, face and voice biometrics are getting into the action.

Let's take a look at how all this sci-fi identification works! Iris recognition is based on the distinctly colored band that surrounds the pupil of the eye while, hand geometry is based on unique measurements of the width, height and length of the fingers, as well as the distance between joints and the shape of knuckles. Face recognition analyzes specific facial features, such as the upper outlines of the eye sockets or the sides of the mouth, while voice recognition measures and compares physiological differences and learned speaking habits.

There are other emerging technologies in biometrics, such as facial thermography, which is a technique for detecting and measuring variations in the heat emitted by various areas of the body and transforming them into visible signals that can be recorded photographically. Other biometrics are ear shape recognition, odor sensing, nail bed identification, palm scanning and more. Wow, it really is incredible. We've had DNA and fingerprint biometrics for a while, but nail beds and ears? I'm really blown away!

It all reminds me of the 2002 futuristic Tom Cruise film "Minority Report," where Cruise plays John Anderton, a year-2054 police chief who enlists the aid of "precogs" to arrest criminals before they commit an act of murder. The identity of the killers is verified through iris scanning. The only trouble is, the precogs finger Tom's character and to evade capture and save the day, he gets an eye transplant. Yep, hello, Future, I'd like you to meet Today.

Whoops, I lost track of my thoughts thinking about Cruise. Back to the subject at hand! Seriously, biometrics really is becoming the best way to provide security. For example, in some major airports, facial recognition technology is already at work. Cameras are scanning crowds on public sidewalks and comparing them to databases of … well, we don't know, people … criminals, citizens, nobody is really saying!

As you might expect, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is raising Cain over "widespread surveillance using facial recognition technology," likening it to "Big Brother technology." The ACLU doesn't have a problem with "authentication" — one-to-one biometrics such as fingerprint or iris scanning, which could be used to validate the identity of authorized personnel working in secure areas, especially where public safety is concerned, such as at airports.

Scanning of faces in a crowd and comparing them to a database is a form of biometrics considered "identification" — one-to-many matching. Experts say that only finger, face and iris biometrics is actually capable of performing such matches. Since the September 2001 terrorist attacks, privacy advocates, citizen groups, politicians and even those who sell the technology are debating whether one-to-many facial recognition technologies should be more widely deployed, and if used, how they should be regulated to protect the privacy of the public.

Public opinion has been mixed; the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services gave a $150,000 grant to the city of Virginia Beach in July 2001 to help the city obtain face-recognition cameras. The system compares the faces it scans with 2,500 facial images stored in a database. The stored images include runaways, missing persons and people with outstanding felony warrants.

To address community oversight issues, the police department formed an audit committee to act as a citizens' advisory group — helping to develop and oversee policies and procedures related to the system.

Traditional facial recognition systems use an algorithm to analyze the geometry of the face or the relative distance between features in a process called Local Feature Analysis. More recently, skin biometrics has added a new dimension to the process, which boosts accuracy significantly.

Those who provide the technology indicate that there are about 80 "landmarks" on a human face, referred to as nodal points. These nodal points include distance between the eyes, width of the nose, depth of eye sockets, cheekbones, jaw line and the chin. The points are measured to create a numerical code, or a faceprint, that represents the face in a database.

Some of the current and proposed uses of facial recognition technology include for eliminating voter fraud, for check-cashing and ATM identity verification and, obviously, for numerous security purposes. In the 2000 presidential election, Mexican government officials used the technology to weed out duplicate voter registrations. Cool!

It has been reported in a recent study that the Department of Homeland Security's spending on biometrics systems integration totaled $650 million in 2004 and is projected to reach $1.9 billion by 2011. In May 2005 the Real ID Act was passed as a rider on an appropriations bill to fund the Iraq war and tsunami relief. Under the act, each licensed driver will receive on their driver's license a national identification number, which he or she will have to provide to use any federally regulated service, such as airlines or banks. It has also been reported that biometrics will be used as part of the new federal identification process.

Proponents of the act say it is necessary to thwart terrorists and illegal immigrants, while critics say it imposes undue strain on states and gives the Department of Homeland Security carte blanche to do just about anything to "protect national security" and are calling the ID cards "Spy-D" cards! Isn't it their job to protect national security? Please! One thing is certain, there will be ample debate before the issue is settled and the dispute will likely be settled with compromises on both sides of the issue.

Frankly, I said back in the winter of 2001, I would be happy to have a chip embedded in my arm to identify me as a good guy and to help authorities locate me should I become missing. People raised their eyebrows and wondered what I might have been drinking. But why not? I'm not likely to misplace it or have my arm stolen!

I now think a scan of my eyes that could be matched to a biometric-enabled ID card sounds like a much better way to get through airport security expeditiously. It isn't as invasive as current security practices. I'm getting pretty tired of nearly disrobing to get through airport security; getting undressed in front of strangers feels like an invasion of my privacy — bring on the cards! I think I have pretty eyes; I wouldn't mind showing them to anyone who needed to see them for security purposes!