Hand geometry is the 'granddaddy' of all biometric technology devices. It has been in existence for nearly 20 years where it debuted at Shearson Hamill investment bank on Wall Street. Since its introduction, there have been six different hand geometry devices brought to fruition (Industry Information: Biometrics, 1996). Hand geometry is essentially based on the fact that virtually every individual's hand is shaped differently than another individual's hand and which over the course of time the shape of the person's hand does not significantly change.
The basic principle of operation behind the use of hand geometry is to measure or record the physical geometric characteristics of an individual's hand. From these measurements a profile or 'template' is constructed which will be used to compare against subsequent hand readings by the user. Hand geometry reading (scanning) devices usually fall into one of two categories: mechanical or image-edge detection. Both methods are used to measure specific characteristics of a person's hand such as length of fingers and thumb, widths, and depth. According to Zunkel, hand geometry devices employed today take over 90 measurements of the length, width, thickness, and surface area of a persons hand and fingers. This process of capturing one's hand measurements occurs with amazing speed; within one second. To capture the measurements of a persons hand, a charge-coupled device (CCD) digital camera is used to record the hand's three-dimensional shape. Unlike fingerprint imaging systems, hand geometry readers do not take into account natural and environmental surface details, such as lines, scars, dirt, and fingernails (Zunkel, D. 1999). Hand geometry technology posses one of the smallest reference templates in the biometric field, generally under ten bytes. There are many benefits and/or advantages to using hand geometry as a solution to general security issues including speed of operation, reliability and accuracy, small template size, ease of integration into an existing system, and user-friendliness.
There are now thousands of locations all over the world that use hand geometry devices for access control and security purposes. There are two markets that are pushing the demand for hand geometry technology; private companies and government departments that want to ensure high-security access of sensitive areas and large companies that claim they are losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year through "buddy punching" and as a result want hand geometry devices to monitor the time and attendance of their employees (Computer Business Review, 1998). Another hot market that is interested in employing hand geometry devices is the social services. It has been reported that a California welfare agency experienced a 8.5 percent drop in general welfare assistance after it installed a hand geometry system (Computer Business Review, 1998). Recent applications of hand geometry systems include:
As microprocessor technology improves and prices fall, hand geometry applications will continue to grow. Hand geometry applications are finding their way into mainstream industries including child day care centers, health clubs, and universities. Other hand geometry applications will continue to surface where high security is a concern including financial transactions, ticket-less travel, and new business and residential applications (Zunkel, D. 1999).
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