What is the Best Form of Biometrics for Access Control Systems?

There might not be a single “best” form, but there sure are “different” methods. And if there is a best form of biometircs, it’s often someone’s opinion that determines this.

Pictured above is a time and attendance biometrics unit by Find Biometrics.

For example, in an article written in the August 2012 edition of the Security Systems News, Jim Pangburn, VP of Engineering at Big Sky, Inc. believes there is not only a better system now, but one that may be coming in the future as well.

For now, he prefers hand vascular technology, also called blood vessel authentication. Says the article, with hand vascular they don’t have problems found in more prevalent methods like fingerprint and iris scans, such as environmental conditions and false reads.

With the growing popularity and ease of use with megapixel cameras, it is now more possible to use them to scan eye patterns. Pangburn sees this as a future method of biometrics, as is written in the article.

Also, British researchers claim that iris recognition is the most accurate form of biometrics access control due to its low false rejection rate. The National Physical Laboratory representing the Communications Electronics Security Group conducted the study.

The main types of biometrics access control are:

Facial recognition: Can search through large groups of people who spent only a short time in front of a camera. Assigns numerical quantities based on facial characteristics to form a code for identification purposes. Non-intrusive.

Fingerprint: Completely unique; no two exist that are the same.

Hand geometry: Can work in harsh environments.

Retina and Iris Scans: Completely unique but take relatively longer to achieve the scan.

Signature and Voice analysis: Signature is easy to gather and not intrusive. Voice analysis can be done without the subject’s knowledge.

In terms of future forms of biometrics, in addition to the megapixel scanning of eye patterns mentioned above by Pangburn, two other methods may present themselves down the road more often.

While it is mentioned as a subject of controversy at this point, DNA sampling may be an option. Cost and portability are two obstacles as of now.

And another body part being studied as a possible use for biometric reading is the tongue. Laser scanning would be used to achieve a 3-D picture of the tongue, says an article published on cnn.com on December 13, 2008.

Speaking of tongues, we wanted to give you a taste of the common methods of biometric access control systems, what some consider better forms and a touch of future incarnations that may be on the horizon.

We hope you gained a little from our article today. Thanks for spending some time with us.