An introduction to evaluating biometric systems

On the basis of media hype alone, you might conclude that biometric passwor ds will soon replace their alphanumeric counterparts with versions that can not be stolen, forgotten, lost, or given to another person. But what if the actual performance of these systems falls short of the estimates? The authors designed this article to provide sufficient information to know what questions to ask when evaluating a biometric system, and to assist in determining whether performance levels meet the requirements of an applica tion. For example, a low-performance biometric is probably sufficient for r educing-as opposed to eliminating-fraud. Likewise, completely replacing an existing security system with a biometric-based one may require a high-perf ormance biometric system, or the required performance may be beyond what cu rrent technology can provide. Of the biometrics that the user some control over data acquisition, voice, face, and fingerprint systems have undergone the most study and testing-and therefore occupy the bulk of this discussion. This article also covers the tools and techniques of bio-metric testing.