ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the basic concepts and definitions in biometrics are
introduced.
Biometric systems use a person’s physiological, behavioral, and
psychological characteristics to perform human identification. It
identifies a person by who he is (such as his face patterns,
fingerprints, voice, etc.), not what he has (username, password, key,
plastic card, etc.) [1−3]. Compared to the traditional identification and verification methods, biometrics is more convenient for users,
reduces fraud, and is more secure [4]. It is becoming an important
ally of security, intelligence, law enforcement, and e-commerce
[5-7]. It has been popularly featured in Hollywood movies (Fig. 1.1)
for access control and human identification.
