Biometrics Systems and Technologies: A survey

In a nutshell, a biometric security system requires a user to provide some biometric features which are then verified against some stored biometric templates. Nowadays, the traditional password based authentication method tends to be replaced by advanced biometrics technologies. Biometric based authentication is becoming increasingly appealing and common for most of the human-computer interaction devices. To give only one recent example, Microsoft augmented its brand new Windows 10 OS version with the capability of supporting face recognition when the user login in. This chapter does not intend to cover a comprehensive and detailed list of biometric techniques. The chapter rather aims at briefly discussing biometric related items, including principles, definitions, biometric modalities and technologies along with their advantages, disadvantages or limitations, and biometric standards, targeting unfamiliar readers. It also mentions the attributes of a biometric system as well as attacks on biometrics. Important reference sources are pointed out so that the interested reader may gain deeper in-depth knowledge by consulting them.