What is
biometrics? It
is the science
of identifying
individuals by
their unique
biological
characteristics.
The best known
and earliest
example is
fingerprints,
used by ancient
Babylonians as a
signature and by
police since the
turn of the 20th
century to
identify
criminals.
But in the last
decade there has
been a boom in
more advanced
biometric
technology,
allowing people
to be
identified, and
sometimes
remotely
tracked, by
their voices,
the irises of
their eyes, the
geometry of
their faces, and
the way they
walk. The FBI is
currently
consolidating
existing
fingerprint
records, mug
shots, and other
biometric data
on more than 100
million
Americans into a
single $1.2
billion
database.
When it is
completed, in
2014, police
across the
country will
theoretically be
able to
instantly check
a suspect
against that
vast and growing
array of data.
Law-enforcement
officials are
enthusiastic
about this
growing power,
while civil
libertarians are
aghast. "A
society in which
everyone's
actions are
tracked is not,
in principle,
free,"
said William
Abernathy and
Lee Tien of the
Electronic
Frontier
Foundation. "It
may be a livable
society, but
would not be our
society."
Every person has
unique patterns
within the
colored part of
his or her eye.
A device scans
your iris and
compares it with
photos of irises
on record,
identifying
people with
accuracy rates
of 90 to 99
percent,
depending on the
conditions and
system used.
Iris scanners
are now widely
used on military
bases, in
federal
agencies, and at
border crossings
and airports. An
improved version
can remotely
assess up to 50
people per
minute, making
it possible to
scan crowds for
known criminals
or terrorists
whose iris
patterns are on
file.
Facial
recognition
technology,
which identifies
people through
such geometric
relationships as
the distance
between their
eyes, has also
come a long way.
The technology
is still only
about 92 percent
accurate, but
"the error rate
halves every two
years,"
said facial
recognition
expert Jonathon
Phillips.
The U.S.
military is
already
using radar that
can detect the
unique rhythm of
a person's
heartbeat from a
distance, and
even through
walls. That
technology is
being developed
for use in urban
battlefields,
but may one day
become a
law-enforcement
tool.
