Additionally, the passport includes an RFID chip that contains the bearer’s biometric data, which is encrypted to prevent identity theft, though authorized computers can read this data at a range of about 50 feet. These types of biometric chips are beginning to appear in airline boarding passes as well.
The EU’s goal is to ensure that highly accurate biometric systems can indeed work while allaying privacy fears. Though advances continue apace in all of these biometric modalities, the jury is still out on how rapidly and widely the application of the technology can be used, since there will always be doubters.
Critics point out that hackers have successfully compromised the e-passports, often as the result of software coding errors in the passport reader machine. Machine reader manufacturers, however, have stepped up efforts to safeguard against these unwarranted intrusions by more rigorously testing their software and by providing effective measures like “Faraday” shields.
Recent biometrics research is now looking at vein recognition, which captures a vein pattern via infrared light. Deoxidized hemoglobin, a blood component, absorbs the light and causes the veins to appear as black patterns that are then translated into a mathematical representation or a template.
Hitachi developed a grip-type fingervein authentication technology for door handles, enabling secure access control. Techsphere also offers hand vascular pattern recognition biometrics for secure access control. Fujitsu came up with a contactless palm-vein recognition unit that recognizes unique palm vein and contour images (Fig. 6). And, the Vascular Pattern Scanner from Identica scans a person’s veins below the skin on the back of the hand.
Ultimately, DNA can be the one “true” biometric identifier. In fact, strides are being made in DNA lab-ona- chip systems. But DNA analysis is a slow process, and it is ill-suited for present-day authentication and identification purposes like airport screening, financial transactions, and access control. However, DNA identification may not be all that far away.
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