Tracing back the History of Biometrics
After the advent of technology and massive advancements in computer processing capabilities, one of the automated techniques and solutions called biometrics has been created. When you study its etymology, you will come up with two Greek words— “bio” which means life, and “metrics” which means to measure. However, many pieces of evidence explained that biometrics was originated hundreds and thousands of years ago.
How did biometrics begin?
During 500 BC, there were already accounts of biometrics that can be seen in the Babylonian empire. Fingerprints were utilized on clay tablets during Babylonian economic transactions. Also in China, children's palms and footprints were employed in the fourteenth century to distinguish them. While traders in ancient Egypt were also distinguished by their physical traits.
In the 1800s, the first biometric identification system was recorded in Paris, France. Alphonse Bertillon devised a method for classifying and comparing criminals based on unique body measurements. While this technique was far from ideal, it was the first step toward leveraging unique biological traits to verify identity.
This devised method of Bertillon was adopted in the mid-1800s as it is necessary to identify the general public and even criminals. In the 1880s, fingerprinting follows which is not only used to identify criminals but also to use it as a form of signature on contracts. In which, this has given Edward Henry the idea to develop a fingerprinting standard called Henry Classification System.
This was the first technique for identification using fingerprints' unique structures. Law enforcement soon adopted the technique, which quickly replaced Bertillon's methods and became the industry standard for criminal identification.
From this day onward, lots of researches were conducted to further study biometrics. This has resulted in many notable highlights in the succeeding years.
The Biometrics’ Timeline
In the 1960s, different scientists and experts started studying the psychological components of acoustic speech and phonic sounds. Administrators created semi-automated facial recognition algorithms to examine facial traits inside an image and extract useable feature points. By 1969, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) supported fingerprint identification which sparked the development of increasingly advanced biometric capture and data extraction sensors.
During the 1980s, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) established a Voice group to research and advance speech recognition technology processes. This research constitutes the foundation for today's voice command and recognition systems.
By 1985, the idea that irises, like fingerprints, were unique to each individual was proposed, and the first iris identification algorithm was patented in 1994. Furthermore, it was revealed that blood vessel patterns in the eyes were unique to each individual and could be utilized for authentication.
In the USA during the 2000s, there are big numbers of functional and patented biometric authentication algorithms. During this time, biometrics is not only utilized and limited in government or corporation settings but is also sold commercially.
Ten years onward, the study on biometrics continued and it was evidently seen how this automated technique was applied in the everyday living of individuals like finger unlock and face recognition on their smartphones.
As the continuous advancement of technology is endless, further developments in biometrics in the coming years are expected. It is seen today that biometrics is merged in Artificial Intelligence to make the authentication experience easy and smooth.
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