Biometry

Introduction

Biometry is the statistical analysis of biological observations and phenomena([1]). Biometry is coupled with the measurement of biometrics: measurable, physical characteristic or personal behavioral traits used to recognize the identity, or verify the claimed identity of a person.

In the context of Security Engineering there are traditionally two links between a person and her identity:

• Something I know (Passwords)
• Something I have (tokens)

With biometry it should —in theory— possible to establish a third link:

• Something I am

Therefore biometric systems can play an important role in authenticating a user.

References

• Ashbourn, J. (2000). Biometrics: Advanced identity verification: The complete guide. London: Springer.
• Bhanu, B., & Tan, X. (2004). Computational algorithms for fingerprint recognition. Boston / Dordrecht/ London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
• Thalheim, L., Krissler, J., & Ziegler, P.-M. (2002). Koerperkontrolle [Body check]. In c’t 11/2002. Hannover: Heise. (English version at heise online)

Also see the slides at [2] (PDF format, 5.5 MB).