How Biometrics will change society. (Security News).

"Biometrics" are coming - be sure of that. But the biometrics industry has had many false starts of its own making: not all the claims by biometric vendors have led to working systems that meet the original specification. In turn the industry has been tarnished as one where the product does not meet the end-user needs. Other implementations have been notable for all the wrong reasons: one installation, possibly apocryphal, where biometric security was installed, achieved the notable goal of making a senior Police Constable unable to enter his office. Francis Toye, from biometrics specialist Unilink Computers, looks at the practical issues involved in making biometries a feasible reality.

Some expectations are certainly being raised too high today. For example can facial recognition systems pick out the terrorist "face in the crowd"? To date tests have not shown the degree of accuracy required to avoid detaining large numbers of innocent people. Perhaps the trials at some US airports since "911" will achieve better results, however previous attempts have not done so among large populations. That does not mean facial image systems are useless: far from it. With good facial images, high quality cameras properly placed and manually validated database image templates they have valuable application, such as reducing street crime and identifying football hooligans. The banking industry does not yet regard biometrics as having sufficient accuracy. Imagine the scenario: you put your card into the machine and instead of a PIN number you place your thumb on the reader. The print is verified against the data stored on the card and if matched you are allowed to proceed. Sounds good unless you are one of t he small percentage of false rejects or false accepts. Can the public accept having their request turned down; certainly UK banks have yet to take that step.

But it does work today in installations where correct identification is essential and not always easy. At the Immigration Detention Centre near Heathrow, a system has recently been implemented to run the centre receiving new detainees by recording biometric data (fingerprints and facial image capture). The system then identifies each individual throughout the facility e.g. at library, medical, shop etc. to ensure that identities are never confused. This is particularly important when it comes to visits, as visitors and detainees intermingle, and it is vital that the right people are allowed to leave. After six months in operation the biometrics have proved themselves to work time and time again. This same application has use in other forms of custody: particularly in prison to make sure that the right individual is detained or released and to prevent identity switching.

The system can be enhanced by including facial recognition of regular visitors allowing them to be fast-tracked into the system and avoid queues. A repeat visitor is a very different proposition to the 'face in the crowd' scenario. This development has similarities to the plan for regular airline travellers to be able to use iris scanning for identity verification to avoid long security checks.

Biometrics will become more commonplace as they move, gradually, into the mainstream. Cheap iris scanning and fingerprint units are being mass-produced today for laptops. These are designed for identity verification amongst small numbers of individuals. Perhaps they will come also to mobile phones and vehicles. More pervasive certainly will be the implementation of an entitlement smart card in the UK to identify whether the person right to receive services and benefits. Whether the card ends up with biometric data stored on it, as with would-be immigrants, who have begun to use a card with encoded thumbprint details, is open to with the pace of technology moving, it is certainly ims and/or fingerprint as well as facial image data will be used. Today we can certainly implement systems where fingerprints or iris scanning is used to allow controlled access e.g. to any high security installations where the records to record who is where and when. Other applications e.g. season tickets and club memberships will in creasingly use stored visual image data. Facial imaging is less invasive and will lead to automatic machine identity checks becoming increasingly common.

So biometrics are coming, certainly, but before they become universal, our industry has to get its act in order and avoid making extravagant claims that do not match reality. Unilink Computers plc exhibiting at this year's ACPO exhibition, which ran alongside the ACPO conference and features the latest in IT and communications technology for police buying and law enforcement. It ran alongside IFSEC, the world's largest annual security exhibition, devoting particular attention to the latest biometric technology. May l3th-l6th NEC Birmingham