biometrics

biometrics
n.
The identification of an individual based on biological traits, such as fingerprints, iris patterns, and facial features.
Example Citation:
"Magnetic cards and smartcards try to make it impractical to break a bank's systems. Biometrics takes this a stage further by making fraud almost impossible. Some part of an individual's body is used to verify that the correct person is making the transaction."
— Godfrey Nolan, "Playing cards for profit," The Irish Times, July 24, 1995
Earliest Citation:
"In contrast, some things are unique about an individual — voice, fingerprints, shape of a hand, signature (not only what it looks like but also how it is written). Scientists who are developing ways to measure these unique biological traits have created a new technology called biometrics that promises some useful tools for banking operations."
— Robert A. Reffelt, "Cost of Security Balances Risk," The American Banker, March 15, 1982
Notes:
This sense of biometrics should not be confused with the much older sense, which refers to the application of statistical and mathematical methods for data analysis in the biological sciences. Also known as biometry, this sense of the term has been in the language since the early 1900s.
I also found a much older citation that uses the adjectival form biometric:
"Besides the systems based on fingerprints, one other biometric identification system is on the market: Identimat, which is based on the geometry of the human hand."
— "The whole hand," Business Week, August 16, 1976
Related Words: Categories:
Biometrics (ancient Greek: bios ="life", metron ="measure") is the study of methods for uniquely recognizing humans based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioral traits. In information technology, biometric authentication refers to technologies that measure and analyze human physical and behavioural characteristics for authentication purposes.

New words. 2013.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • biometrics — bi‧o‧met‧rics [baɪəʊˈmetrɪks ǁ ˌbaɪoʊ ] noun [uncountable] COMPUTING technology that uses measurements of people s eyes, features, fingerprints etc. in order to identify them: • Biometrics is a method that automatically recognises or verifies… …   Financial and business terms

  • biometrics — application of mathematics to biology, 1902, from BIOMETRIC (Cf. biometric) (also see ICS (Cf. ics)); slightly earlier in this sense was biometry (1901), which was coined by Whewell and used by him and others with a sense of calculation of life… …   Etymology dictionary

  • biometrics — [bī΄ōme′triks] n. that branch of biology which deals with its data statistically and by mathematical analysis biometric adj. biometrical …   English World dictionary

  • Biometrics — For the academic journal of statistics in biology, see Biometrics (journal). For the application of statistics to topics in biology, see Biostatistics. At Walt Disney World, biometric measurements are taken from the fingers of guests to ensure… …   Wikipedia

  • biometrics —   n. calculation of length of human life; statistical biology.    ♦ biometric, a.    ♦ biometrician, n. student of biometrics …   Dictionary of difficult words

  • biometrics — The science of collecting and analyzing biologic or health data using statistical methods. Biometrics may be used to help learn the possible causes of a cancer or how often a cancer occurs in a certain group of people. Also called biostatistics… …   English dictionary of cancer terms

  • Biometrics in schools — Starting in the early 2000s, thousands of schools throughout the world have begun to establish biometric systems. A number of reasons are given for such practices, including struggling against truancy, replacing library cards or meal cards by… …   Wikipedia

  • Biometrics (journal) — Infobox Journal discipline = Statistics website = http://www.biometrics.tibs.org/ link1 = http://biomet.oxfordjournals.org/archive/ link1 name = Content archive publisher = International Biometric Society Blackwell Publishing country = USA… …   Wikipedia

  • Biometrics (single) — Infobox Single Name = Biometrics Artist = Death In Public from Album = B side(s) = Motion Sickness Released = December 24th 2007 Format = CD, Recorded = 2007 Genre = Indie rock Shoegaze Post rock Length = 9.28 (Overall) Label = RU Records Writer …   Wikipedia

  • Biometrics Institute — Das Biometrics Institute (deutsch: Institut der Biometrie) ist ein unabhängiger internationaler Verein, der Informationen, Training, Recherche und Tests über Biometrie anbietet. Der Verein ist eine Anwendergruppe, deren Mitglieder vorwiegend… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”