Biometrics

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Sat, Jun 05, 2004 at 11:27:53AM -0400, Kenneth Brody wrote:
> >  If it's based on a range of probable matches, then suddenly you
> > have a larger potential for overlapping false positive matches.  This
> > is starting to sound less like science and more like a gimmick with
> > each passing revelation.  Sounds like a more appropriate term would be
> > bioguesstricks.
> 
> How do you think the FBI does things?

Sloppily, and incredibly inaccurately.  

If your guys haven't gone back over the last 5 or 10 years of RISKS
before shipping this... then maybe you better.

>                                           You don't think that in today's
> world of computers, that they manually scan every fingerprint card for
> a match, do you?  (That's what they used to do in pre-computerized days.)
> Forty years ago, they came up with methods to categorize fingerprints,
> enter that data into the computer, narrow the field down to only a few
> possible hits, and then manually searched those few.  Over the decades,
> this technique has been refined to the point where the computer can now
> generate the biometric data itself, and narrow it down to either one or
> zero hits.

And the accuracy rate, IIRC, isn't better than 85 or 90 percent.

> > If anyone has pointers to particularly good articles on how it actually
> > works and why it should be deemed reliable in light of a statement like the
> > one Ken just put forth, I'm up for a little "light" reading.  I somehow
> > doubt that places would be using it if it doesn't work accurately, but so
> > far what's been presented here doesn't indicate that it should.
> [...]
> 
> Some possible resources:
> 
>     http://www.fbi.gov  -- search for "biometrics" gives 17 hits.
> 
>     http://biometrics.cse.msu.edu/
> 
>     http://www.cse.scu.edu/~tschwarz/coen350_03/Lectures/authentication.html

Go to risks.org, Mark, and search for biometrics, identification, or
fingerprint.  I believe you'll find it...

confirmatory.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
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