Finger-Pointing
Fingerprint scanning is the most widely used and inexpensive biometric technology. Law-enforcement applications must store the complete image of a finger pad.
But private-sector fingerprint systems store only a few dozen major landmarks ("minutiae") of a fingerprint and their spatial relationships to one another. It is impossible to reconstruct a complete fingerprint from this partial template, eliminating that privacy concern. Also, minutiae templates can be compared in less time than it takes to type a password, and can be stored in just 200 to 1,000 bytes.
"The average password costs US$200 to $300 per year to manage, according to analysts such as the Gartner Group," says Grant Evans, executive VP for Identix, a worldwide provider of biometric verification and live-scan systems. Many users have multiple passwords, compounding the administrative costs. By contrast, Identix's BioLogon server costs $999 per 25-user license, and its finger readers start at $99, including client software.
"We have eliminated 85 percent of our help-desk calls [since implementing Identix products on 1,500 workstations]," says Michael Sherwood, IT manager for the City of Oceanside.
Other government bodies are using the technology to ensure positive ID of their constituents (e.g., driver's licenses and welfare benefits eligibility cards).
Identix licenses its reader technology to such OEMs as Compaq, Dell and Toshiba. The company also works with large integrators, such as EDS and SAIC, providing them with software, training and leads.
"Service providers are now our special focus," says Evans. Those providers include banks, ISPs, wireless carriers and other companies operating on a subscription model. Also, Identix and Motorola are co-developing iTrust, an e-commerce solution that uses finger scanning to secure mobile devices, authenticate network connections, control users' access to network resources and provide an audit trail for non-repudiation purposes.
