An HS Daily Wire conversation with Walter Hamilton of the International Biometrics Industry Association (IBIA)
in terms of its statistical matching accuracy, there is little practical likelihood that an imposter could succeed in matching a biometric sample against a single reference biometric record using either technology, given the mathematical probabilities. Therefore, the business would need to factor cost as well as performance into the equation when making its decision.
DW: In favor of the fingerprint option, no doubt.
Hamilton: In this instance, yes. This is true primarily because we are attempting to match one record against one record. We call this one-to-one matching, or “verification.” This is quite different from the application that might need to identify a person based on his or her biometrics alone, with no assumed claim of identity. We call this one-to-many search matching, or “identification.”
A one-to-one example is when a user tries to log into a computer and types in a user name as the claim of identity. The system says, OK, let’s see about that. Put your finger on the sensor for scanning. A digital record is obtained and matched against the one previously stored in association with that user name. In the bank example above, with 10,000 machines to be equipped, would anyone want to buy an additional reader of the iris pattern just to have that further degree of protection? Obviously, it wouldn’t represent a good return on the security investment and would add to the complexity of the log-on process for the user.
But let’s examine a typical one-to-many search match application. What if I’m a law enforcement officer or a soldier in a war zone, and I encounter Jasper at the scene of an incident. I have a suspicion that Jasper may have been involved in planting an explosive device, but I have no proof of this. I’m going to detain him for a couple of hours. I’m going to interview him. I’m going to take his photograph. I’m going to get an image of his iris pattern. Then I’m going to take an image of all ten of his fingers. And I’m going to send the biometric data - along with the name and whatever other information I’ve been given - to a data base in West Virginia which has millions of records. And I will ask a different question, not “Is this Jasper?” Instead, I ask “Who is this person?”
The distinction between verification and identification applications for biometrics is important. In this example, the fingerprints are
