So now a question for the wise: How do they know the gallery print (the image established prior to the test) is the real deal and not an impostor also? The GMAT candidates in France surely don’t have an established longitudinal database of palm prints over the years that can be used to verify the authenticity of a given candidate. Well I suppose any effort helps in establishing a better lock on the authenticity so kudos GMAC! It’s good to know that the good people at the Graduate Management Admission Council are not afraid to use biometrics to protect the security of their test and save the world from the potential threat of dumb upper graduates, because we have enough of those running around already.

Biometrics measures each individual’s unique behavioral or physical characteristics to recognize or authenticate their identity. Some of the more common physical biometrics in use today are fingerprints, hand or palm geometry, pattern of blood vessels on a person’s retina, iris and facial characteristics. Behavioral biometrics include signature, voice, keystroke pattern and gait (or a manner of walking or moving on foot). Of the behavioral biometrics, signature and voice are the most widely used for applications in biometrics.

Of all the biometrics techniques, fingerprint-based identification is the oldest method which has been successfully used in many modern applications. Each individual has a unique and immutable set of fingerprints. A fingerprint consists of a series of ridges and furrows on the surface of the finger. The uniqueness of a fingerprint can be determined by the pattern of ridges and furrows as well as the minutiae points (determined typically by landmarks such as ridge endings or bifurcations).

While most modern biometric identification technologies have been developed in the past 10 to 15 years, fingerprints have been used by law enforcement to verify identity for the past century. There have been instances of fingerprinting that date back much further than this. Fingerprints have been found on ancient Babylonian clay tablets, and pottery as well as on the walls of Egyptian tombs, Chinese, Greek and Minoan pottery. While some of the fingerprints found on such medium were left unintentionally by workers during forming of the clay sometimes such fingerprints were impressed so deeply in the medium that they were most likely intended to serve as identification of a brand or fabricator tied back to that particular individual.

So now roll the clock forward!!! It is the future, we are in 2009! It’s time to get rid of those keys and carry something we all have, fingers. Imagine being able to sit in your car and instead of fumbling around for your keys to get in, you would have just pressed your finger on the handle. Then use your fingers to turn on the ignition. Then you drive home, you reach your house, do you pull out those old keys? Of course not, this is the future, you don’t need keys! You pull out your fingers, yes your trusty fingers with your very own unique pattern called a fingerprint will allow you to open your door and enter your house. It doesn’t stop there, you need to disarm your alarm system so do you go into the depths of your brain to pull out the numbers of your alarm code? Nope! This is the future, you pull out (you guessed it!) your fingers. You let your fingers disarm your alarm system. You have managed to do get through the day without carrying all those damn keys. How cool is that? Biometric fingerprint readers is technology from the future, but it is actually available to use today! Did you know that you can make use of it now? No more searching for keys and also you don’t have to worry if you have lost them, as you can’t lose your fingers! The only thing you need to do is keep ‘em out of your nose long enough and you’re all set! hah!

Now with all that good, there are some things to worry about… While biometric identification is good, it’s not without its weaknesses. As technology advances, biometrics are also becoming feasible to fake just as other methods of identification. To reduce the possibility of bypassing a biometric systems, certain techniques are employed such as using several biometric samples from the same modality (such as 10 fingerprints instead of one) or fusion of multiple modalities (face and fingerprints).