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What are the different kinds of biometrics?
Fingerprint, voice, signature, hand geometry, face geometry and iris or retinal scans are all in use today. Each different type has its advantages and disadvantages, making each suitable for different types of applications. Fingerprint is the most mature and most commonly used type for most applications. Fingerprint readers have matured and practical to deploy, Every major laptop manufacturer offers embedded readers in their standard offerings.  BIO-key works with every major fingerprint reader manufactuer, giving you the flexibility to choose the best reader for each application. You can even install a variety of readers for different purposes, such as desktops, laptops, public portals, PDAs, wireless devices and doors (entry access), all with a single enrollment!

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What is the difference between "biometric identification" and "biometric verification"?
BIO-key employs fingerprint biometrics to perform true user identification. When exploring biometric security or any other form of security, it is important to understand the difference between identification and verification .

Biometric identification technology allows users to prove their identity by submitting a biometric sample, such as a fingerprint, iris scan or voice pattern. No other identification data is provided; identification is achieved through biometrics alone.

Non-biometric technologies authorize users via a key, card or identification code such as a PIN or password. Biometric verification technology adds a biometric sample to the mix, along with the identification code or key. These systems can be defeated easily by obtaining or counterfeiting the key, card or password.

Among automated biometric systems, only those that are capable of real-time identification can eliminate the possibility of duplicates in a database.
Biometric identification compares a biometric "signature" to all the records stored in a database to determine if there is a match. Because it requires comparing each existing record in the database against the new biometric characteristic, it can be slow and is usually not suitable for real-time applications such as access control or time and attendance.

You'll find biometric identification used most frequently in such applications as law enforcement — for instance, the comparison of a fingerprint from a crime scene to a database of prints collected from convicted criminals.

Biometric verification compares a newly-scanned biometric characteristic to a measurement previously collected from that same person to verify that individual's identity. For instance, when an employee is hired, that employee's fingerprint will be enrolled into the company's biometric time and attendance system. When that employee attempts to clock in the next day, her newly-scanned fingerprint will be compared to the fingerprint scan collected when she was enrolled into the system. If there is a match, the employee's punch will be recorded.

Because of this one-to-one comparison, biometric verification systems are generally much faster than biometric identification systems. Most commercial applications of biometrics for time and attendance or access control use biometric verification.

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What is a "false acceptance"? What is a "false reject"?
You will often hear biometric system vendors touting their system's low false-acceptance or false-reject rate. These refer to how accurate and reliable the system is in correctly identifying people.

A false acceptance occurs when the system identifies a person when someone else's biometric (finger, iris, hand, ...) is presented for validation. In this case, the software falsely identified a person as another individual. 
A false reject occurs when the system refuses to accept the person's fingerprint or hand as valid. In this case, the software is unable to match the biometric with any of the biometric credentials that the software is comparing the credential to. 

Biometric systems all strive to have rates of false acceptances and false rejects as low as possible. False acceptances may allow instances of buddy punching to "slip through the cracks." False rejects can lead to employee frustration when they aren't able to clock in and out successfully using their own hands or fingerprints.

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What is the equal error rate?
When discussing the accuracy of a biometric system, it is often beneficial to talk about the equal-error rate, which s the "cross over point" for a system where the false acceptance rate equals the false rejection rate. For many systems, the "acceptance" threshold can be set by the application software to meet the applications' requirements.  For example, the threshold can be adjusted to ensure that virtually no impostors will be accepted. Unfortunately, this often means an unreasonably high number of authorized users will be rejected.  In designing the biometric implementation

A good biometric system is one that is low cost, fast, accurate, and easy to use.

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How does fingerprint biometrics work?
When someone is first enrolled in a fingerprint-based biometric system, the software records a template of the person's fingerprint and associates that template with the record identifier for that enrollment. This template measures the relationship between various points in the fingerprint.

Each time the person attempts to access the application that utilizes the biometric software, the algorithm verifies that the newly scanned fingerprint matches the template originally stored for that individual.

Occasionally, people have privacy concerns about having their fingerprint scanned. The fingerprint templates used for BIO-key’s biometric authentication and verification, when stored in encrypted format, cannot be used to re-create anyone's fingerprint.

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 What are the advantages of fingerprint biometrics?
Fingerprint biometric systems are more mature than other types of biometric systems and offer superior accuracy. They represent an easy and affordable way for applications to quickly and easily determine the identity of someone looking to access a facility, on-line account or database. BIO-key's fingerprint biometric identification software can be adopted into any existing or new application and improves system security while reducing the headaches and costs associated with supporting traditional password and/or token based security systems.

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