Identification: Biometrics, or a real-time ‘who is who’

Abstract

In this first chapter of the book’s second part, I argue that the best way to deal with terrorism is to nip a planned terrorist attack in the bud. One way to do so is by discerning innocent citizens who have a right to be at certain locations from those who have not, and whose intentions are dubious, via a swift and reliable but non-intrusive identification and verification process. I introduce the main biometrics that are used in this regard, first discussing physical biometrics such as facial recognition, iris scans, voice scans or fingerprints, to then move on to behavioural ones such as one’s gait. Since most of them are not (yet) fool proof, especially not as stand-alone technologies, I make the case for multimodal-based biometric systems which currently are under development.