The ancient Egyptians and the Chinese played an important role in the history of biometrics. Although biometric technology seems to belong to the 21st century, the history of biometrics goes back thousands of years. Today, the focus is on the use of biometric face recognition and feature identification to stop terrorism and improve security measures. Once an individual is matched against a template or sample in the database, a security alert is sent to authorities. The space between a person’s eyes, ears, and nose provides the most identifying information.

The ACLU and other civil liberties groups are against the widespread use of these biometric technologies, although they recognize the need for their presence at airports and after the London bombings. Biometric technologies also need to achieve further standardization and technological innovations to be recognized as a reliable identity authentication solution.

A timeline of biometric technology

o European explorer Joao de Barros recorded the earliest known example of fingerprinting, which is a form of biometrics, in China during the 14th century. Chinese merchants used ink to fingerprint children for identification purposes.

o In 1890, Alphonse Bertillon, a Parisian police department, studied body mechanics and measurements to help identify criminals. The police used his method, the Bertillonage method, until he falsely identified some subjects. The Bertillonage method was quickly abandoned in favor of fingerprinting, which was brought back to use by Richard Edward Henry of Scotland Yard.

o Karl Pearson, an applied mathematician, studied biometric research in the early 20th century at University College London. He made important discoveries in the field of biometrics by studying statistical history and correlation, which he applied to animal evolution. His historical work included the method of moments, the Pearson curve system, correlation, and the chi-square test.

o In the 1960s and 1970s, biometric signature authentication procedures were developed, but the biometric field remained fixed until military and security agencies researched and developed biometric technology beyond fingerprints.

o 2001 Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida: Every facial image of the 100,000 fans passing through the stadium was recorded by video security cameras and electronically compared to Tampa police mugshots. No criminals were identified, and video surveillance led many civil liberties advocates to denounce biometric identification technologies.

o Post 9/11: After the attacks, authorities installed biometric technologies at airports to identify suspected terrorists, but some airports, such as Palm Beach International, never reached full installation status due to system costs. surveillance.

o July 7, 2005 London, England — British law enforcement is using facial recognition biometric technologies and 360-degree “fisheye” video cameras to identify terrorists after four bombings in the subway and on a double-decker bus. In fact, London has over 200,000 security cameras and surveillance cameras that have been in use since the 1960s.

Today and looking forward

Biometrics is a growing and controversial field in which civil liberties groups are raising concerns about privacy and identity issues. Today, biometric laws and regulations are in the works and biometric industry standards are being tested. Facial recognition biometrics have not reached the mainstream of fingerprinting, but with constant technological advances and the threat of terrorism, biometric researchers and developers will perfect this security technology for the 21st century.

Copyright © 2005 Evaluateek Publishing.