Additional Biometrics

Abstract

Advances in sensor technology and an increasing demand for biometrics is driving a burgeoning biometric industry to develop new technology. In the preceding chapter we have described the principal biometrics that have received most attention and which have been most widely deployed. However, as commercial incentives increase, many new technologies for person identification are being developed, each with its own strengths and weaknesses and a potential niche market. A recent book [96] includes papers describing most of the less well-known biometrics. We here review these other biometrics, though we do not claim that this list is exhaustive, and we do not attempt to cover several techniques that are unlikely to leave the domain of forensic investigation, such as footprint, bite mark, lip print, and hand print. (The latter can include both hand-geometric aspects and analyses of minutiae and creases as in fingerprints. Many police authorities keep databases of hand prints as well as fingerprints.) For completeness, however, we begin by briefly describing the Bertillon system that began the modern science of biometrics.