The hospital I work at is checking out biometric security devices. These things scan your fingerprint or your Retina and compare it to your recorded image in order log you in.
BUT, for some reason they refuse to build any of this software in such a way as it will Identify you, and log you in. You have to first identify yourself by typing in your user name. Then it will scan your biometric info and compare it to the biometric records in your file.
Why?? Why doesn’t it just use your biometric info to identify who you are.
One reason that just came to me: It would take a heck of a lot longer to compare a fingerprint to a database of say 1000 finger prints, rather than just identifying who you claim to be and comparing your finger print to the one fingerprint image on file. On the other hand, you should be able to quickly narrow it down by comparing the first 5 markers, and so on…
So one I think speed is part of the reason.
But my personal theory is that current biometric scanning technology cannot guarantee a unique biometric scan. I think they said they record about 250 unique markers in your fingerprint. So I am guessing if you have a database of 10,000 employees…there is a good chance you will have a number of people with identical biometric signatures. (Not necessarily identical fingerprints, but the exact same 250 markers.)
So my theory is they don’t offer to use biometrics as a means of identification, because of the embarrassing situations when you put your fingerprint down and it finds more than one match. So they use it for identity verification only.
So does anyone know the answer?