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Sunday, 16 October 2022 12:23

The Importance of Biometric Devices

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The evolution of biometric devices, allowing for the most accurate method of identification, has come a long way in such a short time. There is such a wide array of use cases for biometric devices, benefitting industries in various ways whether that be from a security point of view or attendance monitoring in the work place.

 

This article will delve into the different types of biometric devices that are widely available on todays market and outline some of the most popular applications of these innovative devices.

What are the types of biometric devices? 

Biometric identification does not come in one form, instead there are numerous available devices. This is largely down to the fact that every individual has unique biometrics in the form of their fingerprint, iris, face and palm. This provides an opportunity to manufacture devices which can successfully identify one of the listed biometrics. 

You can typically find the following devices available: 

  • Fingerprint readers - Biometric fingerprint scanners do everything as the name suggests. There have been multiple devices engineered within this bracket to not only identify one fingerprint, but scan and gather the biometric information of more than one finger simultaneously. The most popular fingerprint readers are those which identify one digit, but you can find dual capture devices as well as 10 finger capture devices. Palm print readers are also distributed under the same category as fingerprint readers and together with a fingerprint biometric, provide a high level of accuracy for person identification.
  • Iris scanners - Iris scanners, also commonly known as eye scanners, are available as either a single or double iris capture device. 
  • Facial detection software - You can detect the identity of an individual using facial recognition software which scans the face, taking into account various key factors including; distance between the eyes, depth of the eye sockets, distance from forehead to chin, shape of the cheekbones and much more. 

Use cases

Now that we know the different types of biometric devices, we can discuss some of the popular use cases and see which industries are benefitting from this technology: 

  • Attendance monitoring: Keep track of your workforce with their clock in and clock out time courtesy of biometric identification. This also overcomes any potential barriers of employees attempting to falsely record their or someone else's attendance via buddy punching which is possible through other attendance monitoring methods. 
  • Access control: High security places can be locked and blocked off to those who are not permitted to be there. Instead, only those who are stored in the system will be able to gain access once they have correctly been identified using the biometric device. 
  • Policing: Records and the correct identity of an individual can be safely stored in the system by ensuring a fingerprint identification process is followed when someone who has been arrested enters the police station. Thereby, in future cases any repeating offenders can be quickly identified by matching their unique fingerprint records. 

These are just a few examples of how handy biometric identification can be in order to improve different industries in a simple and straightforward manner.