What is Biometrics?

According to Wikipedia "Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics. Biometrics authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used to identify individuals in groups that are under surveillance."

All the human has different Physiological characteristics, which belongs yo only one person, It can be his Face, Thumb Prints, Eye Scan, etc. 

And Passwords are often criticized for not being effective enough these days, that's when Biometrics came into the picture. Nowadays Biometrics is known by almost everyone, almost all smartphones come up with either finger or face authentication or both. So biometrics is being used by almost everyone and almost every place.

People are using biometrics authentication in their smartphones,  or at Hospitals, Airports, etc but Mostly people come to know about biometrics because of the Biometrics Devices being used widely for Authentication, attendance as well as Access control management purposes.

In short, biometrics is physical behavior that can be used to digitally identify a person to grant access to systems, devices, or data.

All the major bank's financial companies etc are using biometrics authentication to capture, store and manage the information of their clients, because it is was easy to manage through biometrics.

Types of Biometrics 

There are several types of biometrics but majorly and being used widely are the below ones......

• Finger
  

Finger Print is the most widely used Biometrics term all over the world, it usually appears as a series of dark lines that represent ridge skin. There are about 30 minutiae (specific points) in a fingerprint scan obtained by a live fingerprint reader. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has evidenced that no two individuals can ever have more than eight minutiae (specific points) in common.

• Face Recognition

Face recognition is the most natural mean of biometrics authentication. Face recognition systems use computer algorithms to pick out specific, distinctive details about a person’s face. These details, such as distance between the eyes or shape of the chin. It's also called the geometry of the face. Facial Recognition software measures the geometry of the face and collects the data, and an advanced algorithm transforms it into an encrypted facial signature which is actually uniques for everyone.

• Iris Recognition

The biggest advantage of iris scanning is its accuracy and reliability iris recognition is estimated to be at least ten times more accurate than fingerprinting. And According to Wikipedia Iris recognition is an automated method of biometric identification that uses mathematical pattern-recognition techniques on video images of one or both of the irises of an individual's eyes, whose complex patterns are unique, stable, and can be seen from some distance.

Unlike retina iris fine texture remains remarkably stable and it doesn't affect by disease.

• Retina Scan

A retinal scan is a biometric technique that uses unique patterns on a person's retina blood vessels. Retina template generation is typically one of the smallest of any biometric technology. By casting an unperceived beam of low-energy infrared light into a person's eye, a Retina Scanner device captures a retinal image. It's Highly reliable because no two people have the same retinal pattern but the issue with retina Scan is Retinal scan measurement accuracy can be affected by the disease. Sources say that Retinas scans are about 70 times more accurate than iris scans and 20,000 times more accurate than fingerprint-based methods. 

There are several more types of biometrics but the above are most commonly and widely used.

When it comes to Biometrics Attendance And access control there also fingers, Face, Password, Card,Iris, Retina are sued in Biometrics yeah Card and passwords can't be said as biometrics authentication but yes it's being used for authentication as the alternative of biometrics authentication.

Softwares for Biometrics

Softwares holds a very major part of biometrics data because It's the software that holds, encrypt, store, secure and make it available the biometrics scan pieces information into encrypted digital signature.