Design And Implementation Of An Attendance System Using Fingerprint Scanner

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
Alphonse Bertillon, a French police officer who applied anthological techniques in law enforcement more than a century ago, brought his idea of using body parts in his quest to solve all crimes. Since then, extensive research into many biometric recognition methods have been brought to light because of the increasing crime rate in the world. Soon, many security agencies developed biometric matching techniques for crime check.
Many studies that went into biometric studies were mainly because of authentication because it proved invaluable in checking the crime rate. However, advances in biometric study showed biometrics can be used for validation as well. This section of the study analyses existing theoretical contributions and findings with respect to the biometrics with special focus on fingerprint biometrics. This will help us get a better idea as to the approach chosen to deal with the problem identified.
2.1    Review of Biometric Identification Systems
A biometric identification system is a pattern matching system used in determining physical or behavioural characteristics of a unique individual. Biometric systems are used primarily for two reasons: Authentication and Validation.
Authentication is the verification of a person’s identity by cross checking previously captured biometric information of that person to determine a true identity.
Validation is the identification of a person by searching a registered database for a match.
A physical or behavioural characteristic can be used as a biometric identifier if it meets the following requirements:
1.    Distinctiveness: The biometric identifier should be unique
2.    Universality: Each person should have the said biometric identifier
3.    Permanence: The biometric identifier should be same over a period of time
2.1.1    Commonly Used Biometric Identifiers
This section discusses some of the commonly used biometric identifiers used in biometric systems.
1.    Ear: The structure and shape of the ear and the pinna’s cartilaginous tissue are distinctive. While all features in the ear structure are not exclusively distinct, the distance of points on the pinna which are always distinct make this a biometric identifier.
2.    Face: Facial features are largely distinct thus making this feature a very acceptable biometric feature. However, one disadvantage is facial disguise in automated unattended biometric applications.
3.    Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA): This is a unique code for an individual’s uniqueness. One disadvantage of this is identical twins have very similar DNA prints but this is still a very widely used biometric identifier.
4.    Retinal scan: Each individual’s eye has a unique retinal vasculature and very difficult to duplicate. Therefore, this is arguably one of the most secure biometric identifiers.
5.    Fingerprints: These are friction ridges of human fingers largely used in biometrics for law enforcements because they can easily be deposited on surfaces. This study focuses on this biometric identifier and will be discussed extensively.