e-Authentication Methods
Biometric Authentication
Biometrics is a method by which a person's authentication information is generated by digitizing measurements of a physiological or behavioral characteristic. Biometric authentication verifies user's claimed identity by comparing an encoded value with a stored value of the concerned biometric characteristic.
Common types of biometrics include:
- Fingerprint / Palmprint
recognizes the physical structure of a person's fingerprint / palmprint, e.g. the minutiae points that include bifurcations and ridge endings - Hand geometry
recognizes the shape of a person's hand - Retina Scan
recognizes the patterns of the blood vessels on the backside of the eyeball - Iris Scan
recognizes the unique patterns, rings, and corona in the iris, which is the colored portion of the eye - Signature dynamics
recognizes the electrical signals, pressure used, slant of the pen, the amount of time and patterns captured in creating a signature - Keyboard dynamics
recognizes the electrical signals when a person types a certain phrase on a keyboard, such as speed and movement - Voice print
recognizes the subtle difference in people's speech sounds and patterns - Facial scan
recognizes the attributes of a person's face, bone structure, nose ridges, and eye widths
The assurance level that can be met by a biometric authentication depends on the physical control and security of the biometric device. This method will be most useful for physical access control types of applications (e.g. entrance to a computer centre) where the biometric scanner can be secured and controlled by the business owner.
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