Biometrics Technology

An article published today in the University of Vermont’s campus newspaper The Vermont Cynic reported that the campus recreation center has adopted M2SYS finger vein technology for student member identification. Tim Lewis, associate director for campus recreation made the decision to use finger vein biometrics for member identification after brainstorming ideas on how to eliminate students carrying ID cards. Happy to see our finger vein biometric identification system used at the University of Vermont through a partnership we have with Vermont Systems, a recreation and parks software provider based in Essex Junction, VT. Modern-day membership management software is designed to help create efficiencies that antiquated methods simply can’t provide. In an effort to eliminate ID cards, prevent identity fraud, and create a more convenient user experience, many membership management facilities are evaluating vascular biometrics (finger vein) for identification because of the distinct ...

Several years ago, if you questioned most identity management professionals whether they imagined the use of biometrics for individual identification management would turn out to become mainstream for authentication security, a majority would have said that the technology could be used in some areas, but only few could have forecasted the tremendous scale and scope of some larger deployments developing all over the world. The reason behind adopting biometric technology is because traditional authentication tactics like the once thought to be ubiquitous password/username are insufficient for personal identity simply because they can only provide evidence of ownership or proof of knowledge whereas biometrics provides unique advantages as it relies on identifying someone by “who they are” compared to “what you know “or “what you have.” For those who have adopted or are considering adopting biometrics for identification, the most recent pre-deployment question due in part to the...

When You Think About Biometrics, You Think Fingerprint For those who are familiar with biometric technology, the first picture that probably pops into your head is a fingerprint scanner.  This makes sense as fingerprint technology is the most widely recognizable and the most frequently deployed biometric modality in the industry.  Fingerprint biometric technology is a solid technology but  not a one-size-fits-all biometric solution   and its effectiveness is impacted by fingerprint integrity which can be compromised under certain conditions (e.g. – dirt, grime, grease, cuts, scrapes scars) environments (e.g. – temperature) and age groups (especially older demographics).  In fact,  we recently wrote about questions to ask  before you choose the appropriate biometric system which you can review again. In addition, within the biometric industry it is often discussed that there is a small percentage of the population which simply have unreadable fin...

False reject rate   is a statistic used to measure biometric performance when operating in the verification task and it usually calculated as the percentage of times the system produces a false reject.  A false reject occurs when an individual is not matched to their own existing biometric template.  For example: John claims to be John, but the system incorrectly denies the verification.  This can be particularly frustrating for an end user who knows that they are enrolled in the system and should be recognized and verified, but for some reason the system is incorrectly rejecting their scan.  This can cause unnecessary logjams, affect service, frustrate staff and negatively impact productivity.