New means of Identification

For the longest time, identification systems have been using fingerprint recognition, tissue in the eye’s iris and a person’s voice to securely recognize someone. Although fairly secure, a new mean of recognition could soon be added to the list. Research has been done to use vascular patterns inside someone hands for identification and authentication. Up to now, technology only allowed to read and correctly pick out visible or audible patterns like mentioned above; fingerprint, eye and voice. This new type of biometric identification uses the network pattern of blood vessels in your hands to distinguish people from anyone else’s.

An infrared light source illuminates the back of the hand; as infrared light passes through body tissue, it is reflected by the haemoglobin in the blood. This reflected light picked up by the CCD reveals an image of the blood vessels.

Some businesses, schools, and apartment buildings have already adopted this technology. Companies are also beginning to use the technology to better manage access to their information technology infrastructures. In Japan, many banks have converted ATM machines to feature vascular sensor as an added security feature. Some of the reasons for utilizing vascular pattern over fingerprint are the fact that people don’t have to touch the sensor – a concern for countries where hygiene is of concern.

Unlike fingerprint, vein patterns are not visible to the naked eye and copies aren’t just left behind on surfaces for everyone to take them. This would make it very difficult for fooling the system. On top of things, the data is encrypted and converted to 1 and 0 which makes it practically useless for anyone to use or duplicate. Mathematical algorithms are used to pinpoint the position and center of each blood vessel.

Take it a step further, Hitachi introduced a system that makes it possible to unlock doors simply by grabbing hold of a handle with a vascular pattern sensor mounted on it. Unbelievable what people will think off!