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Physical Access
Biometrics is not a new technique for physical access to many high security buildings. It is still the case that the primary application of biometrics is in physical security: to control access to rooms or buildings. Unlike other techniques such as photo ID cards which need to be physically checked, fingerprint sensing permits unmanned access control which is particularly useful for high-volume traffic.
Virtual Access
It is predicted that virtual access will be the application that sees biometrics, and fingerprint technology, become widely accepted as the verification and ID technology of choice.
Passwords are currently the most popular way to protect data on a network. Biometrics, however, can increase a company's ability to protect its data by implementing a more secure key. Using biometrics also allows a hierarchical structure of data protection, making the data even more secure.
E-commerce
E-commerce developers are exploring the use of biometrics and smart cards to more accurately verify a trading party's identity. For example, many banks are interested in this combination to better authenticate customers and ensure non repudiation of online banking, trading, and purchasing transactions. Point-of-sales (POS) system vendors are working on the cardholder verification method, which would enlist smart cards and biometrics to replace signature verification.
Covert surveillance
One of the more challenging research areas involves using biometrics for covert surveillance. Using facial and body recognition technologies, researchers hope to use biometrics to automatically identify known suspects entering buildings or traversing crowded security areas such as airports. The use of biometrics for covert identification as opposed to authentication must overcome technical challenges such as simultaneously identifying multiple subjects in a crowd and working with uncooperative subjects.
HHT would like to thank Simon Liu, director of computer and communications systems at the National Library of Medicine and Mark Silverman, a technical advisor at the Center of Information Technology, National Institutes of Health for ideas on applications for biometrics.
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