Handbook of Fingerprint Recognition

Overview Biometric recognition refers to the use of distinctive physiological and behavioral character- tics (e. g., fingerprints, face, hang geometry, iris, gait, signature), called biometric identifiers or simply biometrics, for automatically recognizing a person. Questions such as “Is this person authorized to enter the facility?”, “Is this individual entitled to access the privileged infor- tion?”, and “Did this person previously apply for a job?” are routinely asked in a variety of organizations in both public and private sectors. Because biometric identifiers cannot be easily misplaced, forged, or shared, they are considered more reliable for person recognition than traditional token- (e. g., keys) or knowledge- (e. g., password) based methods. Biometric recognition can provide better security, higher efficiency, and increased user convenience. It is for these reasons that biometric systems are being either increasingly deployed or evaluated in a large number of government (e. g., welfare disbursement, national ID card, issuing of driver's license) and civilian (e. g., computer network logon, automatic teller machine, cellular phone, Web access, smartcard) applications. A number of biometric technologies have been developed and several of them are being used in a variety of applications. Among these, fingerprints, face, iris, speech, and hand - ometry are the ones that are most commonly used. Each biometric has its strengths and we- nesses and the choice of a particular biometric typically depends on the requirements of an application.