Griaule Biometrics

Historically, the term Biometry is related to biological sciences and consists in the application of statistical methods applied to a wide range of measurable characteristics in biology. It's also called biostatistics, with the difference that biometry refers particularly to medicine and agriculture. Nowadays it's more commonly related to Information Technology, consisting in electronic identification of human beings based on their physical or behavioral characteristics. To avoid confusion, the term Biometrics is used for IT systems, leaving biometry to be used for biostatistics.

The proposal of this book is to serve as a comprehensive source of information for people interested in Biometrics. This chapter is divided in:

• Authentication Technologies: a brief description of most common technologies available so far;
• History of Biometrics: the evolution of identification based on human characteristics;
• Types of Biometrics: biometrics systems compared;
• Biometric System Model: the biometrics model applied to Information Technology systems;
• Biometric Applications Characterization: (IT) how biometrics applications are deployed;
• Biometric Applications: where biometrics is commonly used;
• Biometric Domains: common biometrics categories;