Biometrics is the science of measurement and analysis of biological data. Mainly, biometrics refers to methods of measuring and analyzing certain characteristics of the human body such as fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, DNA, facial patterns, voice patterns, hand measurements etc. These characteristics of the human body are mostly unique in nature and are generally not the same for two different individuals. This uniqueness of the parameters helps in the successful implementation of biometrics in the process of authentication, verification and access control.
The success of biometrics in the authentication process has led to the coinage of a whole new term of “biometric security”. Biometric security involves the application of biometric access control to restrict access. The concept, which was mostly used by intelligence agencies to safeguard sensitive information even a few years ago, has found wide application in the everyday life of the common man today. In particular, fingerprint access control has gained wide-spread popularity due to ease of implementation and also because fingerprints are deemed to be most unique bodily characteristic of a human being.
From corporate offices to hospitals, from research labs to clubs and fitness centers biometric access control has entered almost every walk of life. For example, a fitness center faces the need of an enhanced access control system since it follows a strictly “members-only” policy. Needless to say, in such a scenario, a fingerprint access control system provides a faster and easier method of admission regulation and attendance calculation than manual checking of membership cards or pen-and-paper signing in methods. Thus it not only contributes to the conservation of paper and reduction of plastic wastage, but also eliminates the chances of harassment of a member in case he/she loses his/her membership card.
Fingerprint door lock systems mostly use a combination of a pre-assigned unique membership number and a fingerprint scan to allow access. In most cases up to three scans of index finger are required. To rule out rejection of a scan due to injury inflicted to one hand scans of both the left and right index are recorded. If a member wants to enter the gym all he/she needs to do is to place his/her finger on a fingerprint reader and upon acceptance of the fingerprint scan he/she has to enter the unique membership number. After evaluating both the scan and the number the access control system allows entry. The whole process takes less than a minute and saves valuable time for the member.
The new-age fingerprint door lock systems even rule out possibilities of fingerprint hacking. Unlike traditional fingerprint readers, these systems do not match an entry with a pre-stored fingerprint impression. Instead, they simply measure the distance between certain ridges of a fingerprint and converts the information to a binary code. This binary code is then matched with a previously encrypted one. Such enhanced fingerprint access control systems ensure maximum security. As a result more and more gyms and fitness clubs are ditching traditional access control measures to embrace the hassle-free and cost-effective biometric equivalents.
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