Biometrics for Personal Identification

BIOMETRICS FOR PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION. In modern§life, authorization and authentication of§individuals have become vital components of§day-to-day activities. As of today, most methods of§identification rely on things we know or possess,§for instance passwords or identification cards. Since§documents may be lost, forged or stolen and passwords§may be forgotten or compromised, traditional methods§of identification are merely insufficient. A§promising technology that offers solutions to the§current limitations is based on biometrics. By§nature, biometric features are extremely difficult to§reproduce or imitate, hence the potential of reducing§identity misuse. The fact that we are naturally§guided to identifying individuals through visual§information gives face recognition a wide range of§applications.§§This book reports on an extensive analysis of the§face recognition technology. Its objectives, falling§under the umbrella of pattern recognition, are to§investigate current and new approaches to personal§identification, to identify strengths and weaknesses§of different methodologies, and to propose design§guidelines and systems that cope with current§limitations.