Biometric recognition, or simply biometrics, is the science of establishing the identity of a person based on physical or behavioral attributes. It is a rapidly evolving field with applications ranging from securely accessing one’s computer to gaining entry into a country. While the deployment of large-scale biometric systems in both commercial and government applications has increased the public awareness of this technology, "Introduction to Biometrics" is the first textbook to introduce the fundamentals of Biometrics to undergraduate/graduate students. The three commonly used modalities in the biometrics field, namely, fingerprint, face, and iris are covered in detail in this book. Few other modalities like hand geometry, ear, and gait are also discussed briefly along with advanced topics such as multibiometric systems and security of biometric systems. Exercises for each chapter will be available on the book website to help students gain a better understanding of the topics and obtain practical experience in designing computer programs for biometric applications. These can be found at: http://www.csee.wvu.edu/~ross/BiometricsTextBook/. Designed for undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and electrical engineering, "Introduction to Biometrics" is also suitable for researchers and biometric and computer security professionals.

Biometric Systems provides practitioners with an overview of the principles and methods needed to build reliable biometric systems. It covers three main topics: key biometric technologies, design and management issues, and the performance evaluation of biometric systems for personal verification/identification. The four most widely used technologies are focused on - speech, fingerprint, iris and face recognition. Key features include: in-depth coverage of the technical and practical obstacles which are often neglected by application developers and system integrators and which result in shortfalls between expected and actual performance; and protocols and benchmarks which will allow developers to compare performance and track system improvements.

Biometrics is a rapidly evolving field with applications ranging from accessing one’s computer to gaining entry into a country. The deployment of large-scale biometric systems in both commercial and government applications has increased public awareness of this technology. Recent years have seen significant growth in biometric research resulting in the development of innovative sensors, new algorithms, enhanced test methodologies and novel applications. This book addresses this void by inviting some of the prominent researchers in Biometrics to contribute chapters describing the fundamentals as well as the latest innovations in their respective areas of expertise.

Starting with fingerprints more than a hundred years ago, there has been ongoing research in biometrics. Within the last forty years face and speaker recognition have emerged as research topics. However, as recently as a decade ago, biometrics itself did not exist as an independent field. Each of the biometric-related topics grew out of different disciplines. For example, the study of fingerprints came from forensics and pattern recognition, speaker recognition evolved from signal processing, the beginnings of face recognition were in computer vision, and privacy concerns arose from the public policy arena. One of the challenges of any new field is to state what the core ideas are that define the field in order to provide a research agenda for the field and identify key research problems. Biometrics has been grappling with this challenge since the late 1990s. With the matu ration of biometrics, the separate biometrics areas are coalescing into the new discipline of biometrics. The establishment of biometrics as a recognized field of inquiry allows the research community to identify problems that are common to biometrics in general. It is this identification of common problems that will define biometrics as a field and allow for broad advancement.

This book examines the proliferation of surveillance technologies&—such as facial recognition software and digital fingerprinting&—that have come to pervade our everyday lives. Often developed as methods to ensure "national security," these technologies are also routinely employed to regulate our personal information, our work lives, what we buy, and how we live.

With an A–Z format, this encyclopedia provides easy access to relevant information on all aspects of biometrics. It features approximately 250 overview entries and 800 definitional entries. Each entry includes a definition, key words, list of synonyms, list of related entries, illustration(s), applications, and a bibliography. Most entries include useful literature references providing the reader with a portal to more detailed information.

Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society is a comprehensive and accessible source of state-of-the-art information on all existing and emerging biometrics: the science of automatically identifying individuals based on their physiological or behavior characteristics. In particular, the book covers: *General principles and ideas of designing biometric-based systems and their underlying tradeoffs *Identification of important issues in the evaluation of biometrics-based systems *Integration of biometric cues, and the integration of biometrics with other existing technologies *Assessment of the capabilities and limitations of different biometrics *The comprehensive examination of biometric methods in commercial use and in research development *Exploration of some of the numerous privacy and security implications of biometrics. Also included are chapters on face and eye identification, speaker recognition, networking, and other timely technology-related issues. All chapters are written by leading internationally recognized experts from academia and industry. Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society is an invaluable work for scientists, engineers, application developers, systems integrators, and others working in biometrics.

We live in a society which is increasingly interconnected, in which communication between individuals is mostly mediated via some electronic platform, and transactions are often carried out remotely. In such a world, traditional notions of trust and confidence in the identity of those with whom we are interacting, taken for granted in the past, can be much less reliable. Biometrics - the scientific discipline of identifying individuals by means of the measurement of unique personal attributes - provides a reliable means of establishing or confirming an individual's identity. These attributes include facial appearance, fingerprints, iris patterning, the voice, the way we write, or even the way we walk. The new technologies of biometrics have a wide range of practical applications, from securing mobile phones and laptops to establishing identity in bank transactions, travel documents, and national identity cards. This Very Short Introduction considers the capabilities of biometrics-based identity checking, from first principles to the practicalities of using different types of identification data. Michael Fairhurst looks at the basic techniques in use today, ongoing developments in system design, and emerging technologies, all aimed at improving precision in identification, and providing solutions to an increasingly wide range of practical problems. Considering how they may continue to develop in the future, Fairhurst explores the benefits and limitations of these pervasive and powerful technologies, and how they can effectively support our increasingly interconnected society. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Biometrics-based authentication and identification are emerging as the most reliable method to authenticate and identify individuals. Biometrics requires that the person to be identified be physically present at the point-of-identification and relies on `something which you are or you do' to provide better security, increased efficiency, and improved accuracy. Automated biometrics deals with physiological or behavioral characteristics such as fingerprints, signature, palmprint, iris, hand, voice and face that can be used to authenticate a person's identity or establish an identity from a database. With rapid progress in electronic and Internet commerce, there is also a growing need to authenticate the identity of a person for secure transaction processing. Designing an automated biometrics system to handle large population identification, accuracy and reliability of authentication are challenging tasks. Currently, there are over ten different biometrics systems that are either widely used or under development. Some automated biometrics, such as fingerprint identification and speaker verification, have received considerable attention over the past 25 years, and some issues like face recognition and iris-based authentication have been studied extensively resulting in successful development of biometrics systems in commercial applications. However, very few books are exclusively devoted to such issues of automated biometrics. Automated Biometrics: Technologies and Systems systematically introduces the technologies and systems, and explores how to design the corresponding systems with in-depth discussion. The issues addressed in this book are highly relevant to many fundamental concerns of both researchers and practitioners of automated biometrics in computer and system security.

Biometric recognition-the automated recognition of individuals based on their behavioral and biological characteristic-is promoted as a way to help identify terrorists, provide better control of access to physical facilities and financial accounts, and increase the efficiency of access to services and their utilization. Biometric recognition has been applied to identification of criminals, patient tracking in medical informatics, and the personalization of social services, among other things. In spite of substantial effort, however, there remain unresolved questions about the effectiveness and management of systems for biometric recognition, as well as the appropriateness and societal impact of their use. Moreover, the general public has been exposed to biometrics largely as high-technology gadgets in spy thrillers or as fear-instilling instruments of state or corporate surveillance in speculative fiction. Now, as biometric technologies appear poised for broader use, increased concerns about national security and the tracking of individuals as they cross borders have caused passports, visas, and border-crossing records to be linked to biometric data. A focus on fighting insurgencies and terrorism has led to the military deployment of biometric tools to enable recognition of individuals as friend or foe. Commercially, finger-imaging sensors, whose cost and physical size have been reduced, now appear on many laptop personal computers, handheld devices, mobile phones, and other consumer devices. Biometric Recognition: Challenges and Opportunities addresses the issues surrounding broader implementation of this technology, making two main points: first, biometric recognition systems are incredibly complex, and need to be addressed as such. Second, biometric recognition is an inherently probabilistic endeavor. Consequently, even when the technology and the system in which it is embedded are behaving as designed, there is inevitable uncertainty and risk of error. This book elaborates on these themes in detail to provide policy makers, developers, and researchers a comprehensive assessment of biometric recognition that examines current capabilities, future possibilities, and the role of government in technology and system development.