Biometrics is the use of a person's physical or behavioral characteristics for the purpose of identification and verification. Leading biometric technologies based on direct imaging, measurement, and analysis of physical patterns are fingerprint recognition, eye and retinal scans, face (facial) recognition, and hand geometry. Biometric technologies that identify a person based on behavioral characteristics are voice (speech) recognition and signature recognition. DNA, body odor, and stride are all considered biometrics; however they are not deployed due to technical challenges in quantitative measurement and analysis.

Development and Uses

The term biometrics or biometry actually has an older meaning from the early twentieth century referring to the development of statistical and mathematical methods for data analysis in the biological sciences. In this sense the term has been largely replaces by biostatistics.

The development of biometrics in the sense relevant here if not the precise term can be traced back to...