Types of Biometrics

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There are a variety of different scanning methods and devices used in biometric systems, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. An organization looking to use biometrics should consider the different types carefully according to their needs. One of the more common and well known biometric scanners is the fingerprint scanner. Fingerprint scanners work exactly the way their name suggests: they capture an image of an individual’s fingerprints, and compare key points to determine success or failure of a match. Fingerprint scanners can be very cheap; you can get them in the $100 or even lower range for use with a personal computer, and some newer laptops have them build in. These cheaper scanners often have problems with precision, generating false positives based on similar fingerprints, or false negatives based on either a change in how the user rolls their finger, or even simple grime on the user’s finger. Naturally, more expensive and/or complex systems can bring much greater reliability and greater security; they will suffer from fewer false positives and negatives. A similar type of scanner is a hand scanner; these function in much the same way, but can read additional characteristics such as finger length and general hand geometry. This does, however, require a larger and consequently more expensive scanning device. Another type of scanner, and probably the kind most often seen in movies, is a retinal or iris scanner. These function by either taking an image of a person’s eye (iris scanner,) or of the pattern of blood vessels on the back of the eye (retina scanner.) Retinal scanners offer a very secure identification method, nearing 100% accuracy and surpassing most other methods. However, retinal scans are considered very intrusive, and frequent exposure to the light used in a retina scanner can cause vision problems. In addition, retina scanning
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