Hand Geometry - Now and in the Future
by Recognition Systems Inc.
Some anthropologists suspect that human intelligence has evolved due in large part to the shape of the hand. While the hand hasn't changed much in a long time, it's now being put to a new use, to verify its owner's identity.
How it Works
Every hand is unique. Hand geometry scanners such as those made by Recognition Systems Inc. take over 90 measurements of the length, width, thickness, and surface area of the hand and four fingers--all in just 1 second. The technology uses a 32,000-pixel CCD digital camera to record the hand's three-dimensional shape from silhouetted images projected within the scanner. The scanner disregards surface details, such as fingerprints, lines, scars, and dirt, as well as fingernails, which may grow or be cut from day to day. When a person uses the scanner, it compares the shape of the user's hand to a template recorded during an enrollment session. If the template and the hand match, the scanner produces an output--it may unlock a door, transmit data to a computer, verify identification, or log the person's arrival or departure time. During enrollment, which takes approximately 30 seconds, the user places the right hand in the reader three times. The unit's internal processor and software convert the hand image to a 9-byte mathematical template, which is the average of the three readings. The user's template may reside in internal memory (capable of holding over 27,000 users), or on other media such as a hard disk or smart card chip.
Enhanced Biometric Technology
Recognition Systems Inc. significantly enhanced biometric technology for its hand scanners. By maintaining a low False Reject Rate (the probability that the device will reject an authorized user), while maintaining a high deterrent to unauthorized access, RSI's units process large numbers of people with minimal delays. The crossover of False Reject and False Accept rates for RSI's hand geometry readers is 0.1%. These optimal error rates were documented in independent testing at Sandia National Laboratories. Subsequent field results from thousands of users and hundreds of thousands of transactions confirmed the Sandia findings.
Highest User Acceptance
Among biometric technologies, Sandia reported that hand geometry had the highest user acceptance of all devices tested. With a high level of security, ease of use, and non-threatening technology, hand geometry has become the most widely accepted biometric technology in use today.
Applications
RSI hand geometry scanners verify identity at the front entrances of over half the nuclear power plants in the U.S. At the 1996 Olympic Games, RSI's units were integrated with the Olympic Village security system to process millions of transactions, with minimum delay. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) uses RSI hand geometry scanners to allow over 60,000 frequent travelers to bypass immigration lines (through the INSPASS program). The drastic reductions in cost of microprocessors in recent years has brought affordable hand geometry technology to the commercial market. Biometrics are no longer found only in nuclear power plants. Day care centers, athletic clubs, obstetrics wards, and police departments now use RSI's scanners. Tomorrow will find ever-expanding applications for this thoroughly time-tested technology--for financial transactions, ticket-less travel, and new business and residential applications where high security is a major concern.
