Biometrics Perks in Access Control Systems: Face and Voice ID
Despite its screen-worthy characteristics, biometrics is a science based on precise mathematics. By using strict measuring procedures to make sense of a person’s identity, biometrics a trustworthy mechanism for access control systems.
In contrast to behaviometrics (measuring patterns in human’s physical activity), biometrics finds patterns in various body features. Some like to attribute voice recognition to behavioral measures, while connecting face recognition to the wider scope of general biometric measures.
Voice recognition and face recognition are now getting almost as accepted as fingerprints.
When you say that the access to your home or your company building is controlled by biometrics, it means that the readers measure face distortions, finger whorls or voice parameters to let the biometrics access control equipment know that the person requiring entrance is an individual with genuine access, and not an intruder.
Face Recognition and Voice Recognition in Biometrics
Simply put, novel biometric measures, such as face or voice recognition belong to the safety authentication measures related to what the user is. For comparison purposes, PINs and passwords are an authentication factor the user knows, while tokens and FOBs are something the user owns).
Biometrics access control systems can cement the weak spots of the former two factors or just provide an extra level of protection. Some banking industries rely heavily on biometrics, including it as a part of the 2-factor authentication. Without doubt, biometrics is an irreplaceable security mechanism for commercial and for residential application, particularly for large areas. It can be customized in dozens of ways to adjust to the nature of your business and your employee needs. This is equally important for different safety levels and for adaptation to the technical characteristics of the terrain.
How Safe is Biometrics in Access Control
An average person has about 25 accounts that require passwords. Hardly anyone uses the same one for each account. Even if it is only one, forgetting your password is downright annoying, not to mention dangerous. What if you forget your passcode and the building you need to exit from is on fire? Although not impossible, let’s put worst-case scenarios like these aside and concentrate on how biometrics works. This can help you decide between the appropriate access control models for your premises.
The blood vessels in your eyes and the whorls at the tip of your fingers make you one of a kind. No other person in the world shares exactly those peculiarities. The eye veins are just one measure a biometric reader can use to examine your unique features and provide access to a building. The shape of certain features of your body, including irises and retinas, palm print and veins, and even your heartbeat are all physiological aspects of your identity that can be biometrically measured.
Regardless of how undignified this may sound, you can be measured and labeled almost like an object. The distinct measurement mechanisms used in biometrics suppasses the forgetfulness and the sharing of traditional authentication systems. After all, you can’t forget or share your face or your voice, as you can do with a token or a passcode. The biometric data stored in the access control system is later used for authentication.
The Sense Behind Biometric Measures
Biometric measurement is more like mapping your face than like taking a photo of your face. The biometric scanner digitizes thousands of points, distances and proportions of your face distortions. For example, it will compare distances between your chin and your forehead or locate where exactly is your nose.
It will look for patterns in the finger whorls or, in the case of voice recognition, discover the unique shape of a person’s mouth or throat to confirm identity. Speaker or voice recognition can include an additional security benefit - text-dependent elements, such as a passphrase. This is not only discovering a speaking pattern, but also almost a second voice password.
Regardless of the method of data collection, biometric scanners make sense of a person’s identity by transforming the measures into numbers. The numbers are then run across a database of previously enrolled measures for authenticated users. So, yes, in a way, with biometrics, each person gets turned into a number, which, in terms of access control, is a good thing. Especially if you need setting unique identity authentication for large businesses with several physical or personal security layers. Here are just a few of the benefits of using biometrics to safeguard access at work:
- Increase productivity by eliminating system inaccuracies
- Enhance employee accountability
- Track excessive overtime
- Provide top-notch integration capacity
- Enable multifactor authentication with voice and face recognition
- Multimodal authentication with multiple data enrollments
Obviously, the advantages of biometrics in access control systems widely surpass the assumed vulnerabilities. You must admit that taking a photo of your face to use it for face recognition is a bit far-fetching. Without going overboard, we have to thank biometrics for enabling our modernly designed workplaces. Almost none of the alternative access control options are so versatile, universal and well-performing.
Biometric access control features are permanent and measurable, thus making the access control systems that use them super-applicable over space and time. While we are getting used to having our faces and voices measured, scientists are already working on expanding the biometrics potential to additional human modalities, such as EEG and ECG. It is a matter of a heartbeat.