MINHAJ UNIVERSITY LAHORE

Artificial Intelligence
Biometrics

History Introduction Future Aspects

Name : Shahid Mushtaq

BS(IT) 6th
Date : 28-12-2018
 Biometrics
History of Biometrics
The earliest form of Biometrics appeared on the scene back in the 1800's. Alphonse Bertillon, a Perisian
anthropologist and police desk clerk, developed a method for identifying criminals that became known as
Bertillonage.

Bertillons system of identification was not without fault. For example, it relied heavily on precise
measurements for identification purposes, and yet two people working on measurements for the same
person would record different findings. The measurements taken were also only thought to be unique and
accurate in adulthood. Therefore, someone who committed a crime prior to adulthood would not have
their measurements on record. Additionally, it turned out to be the case that the features by which
Bertillon based his identification system were not unique to any one individual. This led to the possibility
of one person being convicted of another persons crimes. This possibility became abundantly clear in
1903 when a Will West was confused with a William West. Though it would later turn out to be the case
that the two were identical twins, the issues posed by the Bertillonage system of identification were clear.

Because of the amount of time and effort that went in to painstakingly collecting measurements and the
overall inaccuracy of the process, Bertillonage was quickly replaced when fingerprinting emerged on the
scene as a more efficient and accurate means of identification. Fingerprinting, as a means of
identification, proved to be infallable. It was accepted that each individual possessed a uniquely
identifiable and unchanging fingerprint. This new system of identification was accepted as more reliable
than Bertillonage.

Fingerprinting can be traced as far back as the 14th century in China. Though the use was most likely as a
signature and the unique identification abilities of the fingerprint not entirely known. Fingerprints were
first looked at as a form of criminal identification by Dr. Henry Faulds who noticed fingerprints on
ancient pottery while working in Tokyo. He first published his ideas about using fingerprints as a means
of identifying criminals in the scientific journal, Nature in 1880. William Herschel, while working in
colonial India, also recognized the unique qualities that fingerprints had to offer as a means of
identification in the late 1870's. He first began using fingerprints as a form of signature on contracts with
locals. Sir Francis Galton, who had been privy to Faulds research through his uncle, Charles Darwin,
would also be credited as making significant advancement to fingerprint identification. Galton ascertained
that no two fingerprints were alike, not even on a set of identical twins. He noted that differentiating
characteristics could be best observed in the ridge of a fingerprint and that this fingerprint would remain
reliable and unchanging and could be used for identification throughout an individuals life. However, it
had never been officially recognized as to which of these three men was the first to discover
fingerprinting as a means of identification.

The Henry Classification system, named after Edward Henry who developed and first implemented the
system in 1897 in India, was the first method of classification for fingerprint identification based on
physiological characteristics. The system assigns each individual finger a numerical value (starting with
the right thumb and ending with the left pinky) and divides fingerprint records into groupings based on
pattern types. The system makes it possible to search large numbers of fingerprint records by classifying
the prints according to whether they have an "arch," "whorl," or "loop" and the subsequently assigned
numerical value. In 1901 the Henry system was introduced in England. In 1902 the New York Civil
service began testing the Henry method of fingerprinting with the the Army, Navy, and Marines all
adopting the method by 1907. From this point on, the Henry System of fingerprinting became the system
most commonly used in English speaking countries.

Introduction to Biometric Systems

Biometric Systems are automated methods of verifying or recognizing the identity of a living person on
the basis of some physiological characteristics, like a fingerprint or face pattern, or some aspects of
behavior, like handwriting or keystroke patterns. Some of the most used biometric characteristics are
shown in the picture below. A biometric system based on physiological characteristics is more reliable
than one which adopts behavioral features, even if the latter may be easier to integrate within certain
specific applications.

Using biometric characteristics is the only way to guarantee the presence of the owner when a transaction
is made. In particular fingerprint-based systems have been proven to be effective in protecting
information and resources in a large area of applications. At present, the amount of applications

employing biometric systems to secure transactions is quite limited. On one side, some barriers are
determined by the lack of familiarity (and in some cases, of acceptability) of the people, but, probably, the
most important reasons of the underdevelopment of biometrics in the past were the cost of the required
hardware/software and the insufficient performance. Nowadays technology leads to design low-cost
systems whose performance makes them well-suited for a broad range of applications.

Generally, in the field of biometric systems, two different problems can be considered:

Identity verification (or simply verification) requires the person to declare his/her identity, for instance by
means of a PIN (personal identification number); the system directly matches (1:1) the person's current
biometric characteristic with a previously acquired one which is retrieved through the PIN.
Identification requires the system to scan a set of candidates, and decide whether one of them matches the
person to be identified. Obviously, this is a more difficult task since it requires a (1:N) match which can
be computationally very expensive on large database.

Before a biometric system can be used for verification/identification, all the users must be enrolled.
Enrollment involves the individual giving a sample of his/her biometric characteristic which is used by
the system to generate a compact model (or template) summarizing the discriminant features. Depending
on the specific application, models can be stored into a centralized database, can be distributed over a
network or can be stored in badges released to the users. Each time an individual requires a
verification/identification, he/she provides a new sample of his/her fingerprint and the system matches
this current instance with the stored model.

The Future
Traditional biometric solutions are not unerring and several factors rose during their use that may be

avoided with the technology of the future.

1. Traditional technologies require serious will from the user to cooperate with the system . A
solution for this is to expand the range of identification, for example, with camera systems.
2. Multi-factor authentication can circumvent the shortcomings of the individual technologies and
make the usage of the systems much easier.
3. An attacker, if able to pass through discrete identification locations may move freely within a
facility or network. Behavioral biometrics analyze people real time, and can force the users to re-
identify themselves if any suspicion rise.

One direction of development is to use behavioral biometric identification methods. These generally deal
with unique features which can be analyzed without cooperation from the user. Examples to these
technologies are signature identification, keystroke identification or gait analysis. Motion and gait based
systems can work by several ideas. The first – and commercially more feasible – solution is video based.
In this case, the gait and movement of the person are recorded by cameras and software based analysis
determines the identity. Another possible solution is to use sensors on the user (e.g. an accelerometer)
which are generally available in one or more smart devices already held by the user.

Gesture based identification is another type of behavioral biometrics. This is most feasible with
touchscreen devices. Algorithms analyze the characteristics of the motions of the user fingers (such as
length, strength, direction of strokes), which are unique to every user. A more basic version of this
technology is Google ReCaptcha, which protects websites from bots. The technology uses the gestures –
along with other parameters – to determine whether the visitor is a human or a program. If there is
sufficient data to verify identity, clicking the checkbox will automatically.
solve the challenge. If not, then the program will present a picture puzzle that is only solvable by humans
(e.g. select a type of animal out of 9 images). With the help of the solution, the required willingness
expected from the user can be lowered along with the complexity of the task. With the proper
amalgamation of the technologies, Continuous Authentication can be realized, which would allow to
identify a person continuously as long as they stay within a location.