Top 5 Methods for Biometric Identity Verification in 2023
From instantly unlocking smartphones to security checks in high-security facilities, biometric identity verification has already made its mark in a wide range of industries. It has become an essential part of our everyday lives. At PXL Vision, we saw the potential in this technology and have integrated biometric authentication into our identity verification solutions.
What is Biometric Identification?
Every person has unique physical characteristics that distinguish them from other people. These are extremely useful for identity verification. Worldwide, the use of biometric identification has increased significantly in recent years. The global biometric system market is expected to continue growing rapidly in the coming years, reaching approximately $83 billion by 2027.
Biometric identity verification is used in a number of fields already, including access control for buildings or accounts, for example. Biometric features are also of great importance for the department of justice and criminal investigation. Analyzing fingerprints, for instance, can be used to convict potential suspects.
Methods for Biometric Identity Verification
Humans exhibit a variety of unique characteristics that can be used for distinctive biometric authentication.
Facial Recognition
Facial recognition technology utilizes algorithms that capture and analyze facial features such as eyes, nose, mouth, and facial contours. These features are converted into a digital pattern, which is then used as a biometric reference to identify a person.
The pattern is created by measuring, the distance and relation between facial features - e.g., how far apart the eyes are, or how big the nose is as compared to the mouth.
This method is rather versatile. It can stretch or contract the generated facial grid to fit the actual face, which makes it possible to recognize a face even if it was captured from a different angle or under changing lighting conditions.
Fingerprint Recognition
Every fingerprint is unique and never changes over the course of a lifetime. This makes fingerprint recognition an extremely reliable method of biometric identity verification.
Everyone has minutiae on their fingers, which is what the lines of skin characteristic of fingerprints are called. For a smartphone fingerprint sensor, for example, 14 minutiae are sufficient to identify the user. A partial print is enough; it isn't even necessary to scan the entire fingertip.
Voice Recognition
Each person's individual voice also exists only once. To create a voiceprint, the user simply needs to speak a sentence or even just a single word. The sound waves and voice frequency are recorded in the process.
For speech recognition, the speed and the pronunciation of certain words can be factored in as well. To identify a person by voice, the speech is compared and checked against the existing voiceprint to see if the data matches.
Iris Recognition
An even more secure method of biometric identity verification is a retina or iris scan. Retina scans are primarily used in high-security facilities, such as nuclear power plants, because they are particularly secure and virtually impossible to tamper with.
However, the iris scan can already be used by private individuals on smartphones as well. It analyzes the patterns of the iris around the pupil. To do this, hold your smartphone about 12 inches away from your face while looking directly into the camera or the iris sensor. You can use this method in place of a PIN or an unlock pattern for your smartphone, for example.
Hand Geometry Recognition
The vein structure in the palm is another thing that is unique for each person. With infrared light, a scanner can detect the vein patterns in the palm of your hand. You simply hold your hand flat in front of the sensor without touching it.
As veins absorb the infrared light, the captured image will show them as dark lines. This image can be saved as a pattern to compare with a scan of the palm for identification purposes. Along with iris and retina scans, palm biometrics is one of the most secure methods of biometric identity verification.
Advantages of Biometric Identity Verification
Biometric methods for identity verification are particularly user-friendly. Instead of passwords or PINs, only a biometric feature, such as a fingerprint, needs to be verified, so users don't have to remember or write down passwords any longer, which can be lost, forgotten or decrypted by hackers.
Biometric identity verification takes just a few seconds, authenticating a person in real time. This is particularly helpful in situations that require rapid access, like entrance control to a high-security building, or online banking for private use.
Since every person is unique and no two people have the same fingerprint or retina, for instance, it is almostimpossible to forge these physical characteristics, making it much more challenging for potential fraudsters to outsmart biometric verification.
Conclusion
Biometric identity verification has been established as a highly reliable and efficient tool for authenticating individuals in recent years. It has become an integral standard in numerous industries.
Technology that relies on unique physical characteristics has a number of advantages: It is user-friendly, saves time, and is secure, because it is so difficult to counterfeit. As the demand for such identity checks continues to grow, they will become even more prevalent in everyday life in the coming years.
At PXL Vision, we understand the importance of biometric identity verification and have integrated it into our products. With PXL Ident, customers can be verified in less than 30 seconds using biometric facial recognition. Are you interested in testing it out as well? Contact us today to schedule a consultation.
FAQ
Biometric identification, or biometrics in short, refers to the method of verifying and authenticating the identity of a person based on their unique physical, or biometric, characteristics. Biometric identification makes it possible to identify a person virtually without a doubt using these features.
Biometric data is information derived from a person's unique physical or behavioral characteristics. Typical biometric data includes:
- fingerprints,
- hand geometry,
- facial structures,
- iris patterns,
- and voice.
When processing biometric data, companies must be careful to comply with data protection regulations and aren’t allowed to save this data without user consent. Users should always retain the right to have their data deleted at their request or when this data is no longer needed.