Biometric Scanners(Finger print scanners)

This post will be about biometrics and there use in fingerprint scanners.

But first

What is biometrics ??

Biometrics refers to metrics related to human characteristics and traits. 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!

Simply,

Biometrics are automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic. Among the features measured are face, fingerprints, hand geometry, handwriting, iris, retinal, vein, and voice. Biometric data are separate and distinct from personal information. Biometric templates cannot be reverse-engineered to recreate personal information and they cannot be stolen and used to access personal information.

Using a unique, physical attribute of your body, such as your fingerprint or iris, to effortlessly identify and verify that you are who you claim to be, is the best and easiest solution in the market today. That is the simple truth and power of Biometrics Technology today. Although biometric technology has been around for many years, modern advances in this emerging technology, coupled with big reductions in cost, now make biometrics readily available and affordable to consumers, small business owner, larger corporations and public sector agencies alike.

It's pretty obvious why we have fingerprints—the tiny friction ridges on the ends of our fingers and thumbs make it easier to grip things. By making our fingers rougher, these ridges increase the force of friction between our hands and the objects we hold, making it harder to drop things. You have fingerprints even before you're born. In fact, fingerprints are completely formed by the time you're seven months old in the womb. Unless you have accidents with your hands, your fingerprints remain the same throughout your life.

Fingerprint scanner 

Computerized fingerprint scanners have been a mainstay of spy thrillers for decades, but up until recently, they were pretty exotic technology in the real world. Then the introduction of finger print scanner in iPhone 5s 

That was a cool and very attractive 

Well I am using an iPhone 5s and the fingerprint scanner is the best (tech) thing I liked in this phone !

I really liked the concept 

(But then the thoughts of someone cutting your finger at night to unlock your iPhone :P )

Fact- Motorola Atrix had a fingerprint scanner 2 years before iPhone 5s!

However, scanners have started popping up all over the place -- in police stations, high-security buildings and even on PC keyboards

Well biometrics is not only used for security but even for attendance, in schools(cool), institutes, banks, hotels, etc etc !

So how do a fingerprint scanner actually works??

Let's find out !!

A fingerprint scanner system has two basic jobs -- it needs to get an image of your finger, and it needs to determine whether the pattern of ridges and valleys in this image matches the pattern of ridges and valleys in pre-scanned images.

Looks simple ?

Yes it does 

But there's a lot of electronics and science behind it

Only specific characteristics, which are unique to every fingerprint, are filtered and saved as an encrypted biometric key or mathematical representation. No image of a fingerprint is ever saved, only a series of numbers (a binary code), which is used for verification. The algorithm cannot be reconverted to an image, so no one can duplicate your fingerprints.

(So it's all as 01010010101010100101010100 :P)

Fingerprint scanning is the most popular biometric technology (used in over half of all biometric security systems)—and it's easy to see why. We store more and more information on our computers and share it, online, in ever more risky ways. Much of the time, our bank information and personal details are protected by just the few hastily thought-out numbers in our passwords. Anyone can use your credit or debit card to get money from an ATM (automated teller machine or "cashpoint") if they know just four numbers! 

In future, it will be much more common to have to confirm your identity with biometric information: either your fingerprint, a scan of the iris or retina in your eye, or a scan of your face. Already, some laptop computers have built-in fingerprint recognition scanners to make them more secure. Soon we could be seeing these scanners on ATMs and cellphones in airport security scanners, on checkouts in grocery stores, and perhaps even replacing the keys in our automobiles!

Types of scanner

Photo- A typical optical fingerprint scanner—it's a bit like photocopying your hand or placing it on a computer scanner.

There are two main ways of scanning fingers. An optical scanner works by shining a bright light over your fingerprint and taking what is effectively a digital photograph. If you've ever photocopied your hand (ummm I have tried it and yes you can too ;-P ), you'll know exactly how this works. Instead of producing a dirty black photocopy, the image feeds into a computer scanner. 

The scanner uses a light-sensitive chip called a CCD (charge-coupled device) to produce a digital image. The computer analyses the image automatically, selecting just the fingerprint, and then uses sophisticated pattern-matching software to turn it into a code.

Another type of scanner, known as a capacitive scanner(used in phones and are faster methods of scanning), measures your finger electrically. When your finger rests on a surface, the ridges in your fingerprints touch the surface while the hollows between the ridges stand slightly clear of it. In other words, there are varying distances between each part of your finger and the surface below. A capacitive scanner builds up a picture of your fingerprint by measuring these distances. Scanners like this are a bit like the touchscreen on things like iPhones and iPads.

Few years before fingerprint scanners were awesome and rare and something hiFi . But now with all the new technology it has become common and we are using it for security purposes in our phones !!

Ahhhh that old days when I used to ask the tech guy to show me how does that fingerprint scanner worked at his office 

(Want to know more about touchscreen ?

View my earlier posts in this blog)