The Times: Tech feature - The biometrics boom
By David Rowan
Forgive the overfamiliarity, but you have a rather special body. Unique, in fact - which is why the tech industry's latest growth area is biometrics, the means of identifying people electronically through physical attributes. From fingerprint scanners to software that analyses your lip movements, biometric technology will play an increasingly important role in the workplace, in the home and when you travel. It is catching on because, unlike a password or a credit-card number, your physical characteristics are the best way to prove that it is really you at the cash machine or the airport check-in counter.
Already scanners on the market can authenticate your identity through your iris patterns, fingerprints, hand shapes, facial features and voice patterns. You can even be identified by the way you walk, your typing rhythms and - apologies for the suggestion - your body odours.
Since the terrorist attacks of six months ago, the security industry has touted biometric software as the ultimate guarantee of passenger safety. This is why Heathrow airport, for one, is about to start identifying passengers by photographing their eyes. But even on a smaller scale, biometric devices are establishing a presence.
Computer manufacturers such as IBM and NEC are using fingerprint-recognition scanners in some of their newer models. Instead of logging on, you touch a pad that compares your fingerprint with a digital record in a central database. Fingerprint scanners are also being built into the standard computer mouse.
The Siemens ID Mouse fits the scanner between the two mouse buttons; the BogoCop Optic Mouse from Bogotech places it near the thumb. And if you are worried that an optical scanner might get confused by dirty hands, you could always choose the latest Touchpad by Synaptics, which uses radio frequency to detect the fingerprint.
For those of us who cannot seem to remember passwords, the benefits are clear: IT departments everywhere, which count password queries as their most annoying calls, must be rejoicing. And as a fingerprint is more difficult to steal than a password, there are fewer opportunities for hackers to access confidential information. But there are also wider benefits: a Swindon-based company, TSSI, has produced "Verid" readers, a means of preventing one worker clocking on for another. And in South Korea, the apartments are being fitted with fingerprint scanners instead of front-door locks.
The next step is shopping-by-fingerprint. Within a few weeks, customers at the Thrift Way supermarket in Seattle will be able to pay for groceries by touching a scanner and providing a personal identification number. Special software will then match their fingerprints with data held on a central computer and charge their credit cards as normal. Online retailers are watching with interest, as anything that minimises the need to send card details across the Internet will increase consumer confidence.
Iris patterns, though, are more distinctive than fingerprints. Researchers at Cambridge University have calculated that the chances of two people's irises being even two-thirds identical are one in ten million. The industry has been quick to take note. So look out for a new generation of iris scanners, often using a standard webcam to identify who you are. Panasonic has created its Authenticam, a small camera that uses iris-recognition software to confirm access for everything from the office network to an Internet bank.
And then there is lip-reading. BioID, a German company, has developed a system that uses a microphone and a digital camera to scan your face, listen to your voice and analyse your lip movements. Only when it is convinced that that it is you talking to your PC will it log you into the network.
Civil liberties groups fear that the rapid advance of biometric technology could allow our personal details to fall into the wrong hands. But with security ever more important to both policymakers and businesses, our biological differences may soon be the principal way of telling the world who we are.
(The Times, March 20 2002)
Forgive the overfamiliarity, but you have a rather special body. Unique, in fact - which is why the tech industry's latest growth area is biometrics, the means of identifying people electronically through physical attributes. From fingerprint scanners to software that analyses your lip movements, biometric technology will play an increasingly important role in the workplace, in the home and when you travel. It is catching on because, unlike a password or a credit-card number, your physical characteristics are the best way to prove that it is really you at the cash machine or the airport check-in counter.
Already scanners on the market can authenticate your identity through your iris patterns, fingerprints, hand shapes, facial features and voice patterns. You can even be identified by the way you walk, your typing rhythms and - apologies for the suggestion - your body odours.
Since the terrorist attacks of six months ago, the security industry has touted biometric software as the ultimate guarantee of passenger safety. This is why Heathrow airport, for one, is about to start identifying passengers by photographing their eyes. But even on a smaller scale, biometric devices are establishing a presence.
Computer manufacturers such as IBM and NEC are using fingerprint-recognition scanners in some of their newer models. Instead of logging on, you touch a pad that compares your fingerprint with a digital record in a central database. Fingerprint scanners are also being built into the standard computer mouse.
The Siemens ID Mouse fits the scanner between the two mouse buttons; the BogoCop Optic Mouse from Bogotech places it near the thumb. And if you are worried that an optical scanner might get confused by dirty hands, you could always choose the latest Touchpad by Synaptics, which uses radio frequency to detect the fingerprint.
For those of us who cannot seem to remember passwords, the benefits are clear: IT departments everywhere, which count password queries as their most annoying calls, must be rejoicing. And as a fingerprint is more difficult to steal than a password, there are fewer opportunities for hackers to access confidential information. But there are also wider benefits: a Swindon-based company, TSSI, has produced "Verid" readers, a means of preventing one worker clocking on for another. And in South Korea, the apartments are being fitted with fingerprint scanners instead of front-door locks.
The next step is shopping-by-fingerprint. Within a few weeks, customers at the Thrift Way supermarket in Seattle will be able to pay for groceries by touching a scanner and providing a personal identification number. Special software will then match their fingerprints with data held on a central computer and charge their credit cards as normal. Online retailers are watching with interest, as anything that minimises the need to send card details across the Internet will increase consumer confidence.
Iris patterns, though, are more distinctive than fingerprints. Researchers at Cambridge University have calculated that the chances of two people's irises being even two-thirds identical are one in ten million. The industry has been quick to take note. So look out for a new generation of iris scanners, often using a standard webcam to identify who you are. Panasonic has created its Authenticam, a small camera that uses iris-recognition software to confirm access for everything from the office network to an Internet bank.
And then there is lip-reading. BioID, a German company, has developed a system that uses a microphone and a digital camera to scan your face, listen to your voice and analyse your lip movements. Only when it is convinced that that it is you talking to your PC will it log you into the network.
Civil liberties groups fear that the rapid advance of biometric technology could allow our personal details to fall into the wrong hands. But with security ever more important to both policymakers and businesses, our biological differences may soon be the principal way of telling the world who we are.
(The Times, March 20 2002)
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