What Is Biometrics and Why Is It Useful?

We’re sure you’ve heard of voice or facial recognition, but did you know these are just examples of a certain type of technology present in many aspects of our daily lives? We’ve compiled a lot of helpful information on biometrics and why it’s so useful in the first place.

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Moving on, here’s what you need to know about biometrics: 

Overview: What Is Biometrics? 

To keep it simple, biometrics refers to technology that can measure biological characteristics. They exist for a number of reasons, but one of the main reasons is security. Biometric-driven technology can detect and recognize faces, fingerprints, voices, and even eyes. Let’s get into more detail.

There are many types of technology that measure all kinds of elements, from DNA to fingerprints to even the way someone walks. Biometrics is a very broad spectrum of all technology. We will go through them in this article and hopefully cover most of what’s relevant. 

1. Types of Biometrics

When it comes to biometrics, we can categorize two main types:

• Morphological biometrics: This measures a person’s physical characteristics. As we’ve stated, there is tech that measures and analyzes your fingerprints, eye, or face. 
• Behavioral biometrics: These measure indicators other than the body, such as actions like walking or talking. 
• Biological biometrics: These measure traits at a genetic level. They can measure elements like blood, DNA, or bodily fluids. 

1. Specific Examples

Now we know the categorizations of this technology. Now let’s look at some specifics. These examples are tech that you probably already heard of or even have come in contact with in your daily life.

• Face recognition: This technology can measure an individual’s face through facial contours. Your phone actually has a facial recognition feature that comes with it. Some people use facial recognition to unlock their phones. 
• Voice recognition: Biometrics that analyzes voices does so through the measurement of sound waves. Everyone produces unique sound waves when they use their voice, and the tech can detect these differences.
• Behavioral recognition: Biometrics that measure behavioral patterns can do so in a number of ways. Tech exists that measures handwriting, the way someone walks, and even keyboard strokes. 

The omnipresence of this technology is no joke. While it does wonders for practicality and security measures, is having data on everything and measuring everything good for us? It’s always good to really think if we’re taking it too far or not. 

1. The Usefulness of Biometrics

The strong presence of biometrics is directly related to our use of technology. The more complex our systems become, the more complex our security measures become. The more data there is online, the more ways we need to protect that data. And so on. 

So, how come biometrics is such a useful technology? Let’s get into it.

Better Security & Profitable For Companies 

Passwords can be compromised, especially if that data is stored online. Biometrics gives people a chance to secure their data with something unique like their facial features or their fingerprints. This is why it gives better security. For example, a robot would have quite a hard time mimicking the uniqueness of your eye’s iris. 

On the flip side, we should be aware that the data we are storing in our phones, such as our facial data and our fingerprints, can also be easily stored and collected by the companies that sell these phones. We must be aware of all the consequences of our actions.

Biometric systems are also quite profitable for companies to use. Once they install some sort of biometric system in place, they typically don’t need follow-up capital for extra costs.

Non-Transferable Data

Another thumbs up for security; biometric authentication can’t be replicated or transferred. It needs physical application, which is a big plus for keeping fraud at bay.

Not Easily Replicated

The elements that biometrics measure, such as fingerprints, iris scans, and face patterns, are nearly impossible to copy and use for fraudulent activities. Features like fingerprints are so unique to every individual that there’s only a 1 in a 64 billion chance that your fingerprint could match some other person’s fingerprint. 

Fast & Accurate 

A lot of times, we don’t note a copy of our passwords and forget it. We need to send a ‘reset request’ to our emails or our phones, and we’ll need to make a new password. This can be troubling and very inconvenient at points in time. The good thing about using biometrics is that it’s swift and accurate. 

With the click of a button on your phone, you can use your face at any given moment to unlock your phone, or you can use your fingerprint. Scanning is definitely easier and faster than using a password. 

Easy To Operate 

Biometrics systems can measure elements accurately and efficiently but are also very easy to operate. Every other individual can successfully operate the biometric measure on their phone, for example. It just needs a tiny bit of practice to get used to it. There’s not much intervention or education needed. 

This is probably why the growing use of this technology isn’t slowing down. People love fast systems that are convenient since most people are in a rush in their daily lives—especially those who live in cities. 

Final Thoughts

From the looks of it, our technology for biometrics is going to keep evolving. We’re now living in a time where keystrokes and eyes can be measured; imagine the other possibilities that loom beyond the horizon. We hope this article has shed some light on this particular topic, and as always, we hope our readers learned something new.

sophia cook