Though we have been listening the term “Biometrics” for quite some time and become aware of what this technology is all about, their uses and applications, and all that. But most of the people who are from non-technological background often find it very hard to understand the working principle and style of this technology and its products. In the subsequent paras we would try to understand the exact meaning of biometric.

Meaning of Biometrics
The term “Biometric” is made up of two different words BIO + METRIC. The word Bio means the biological traits or characteristics of human being and Metric means the measurement. Combining both the words it results in “the measurement of biological characteristics”. To put it simply Biometric is the measurement and identification of individual traits and characteristics.

Types of Biometric Characteristics
After becoming familiar with the term Biometric, we need to know what type of biological traits are studied under it. All the characteristics that uniquely signifies the identity of a person comes under biological traits. These characteristics can be classified in two major categories: Physiological & Behavioral.

• Physiological traits are related to the shape & structure of the body. It includes fingerprint, face recognition, iris recognition, DNA, hand and palm geometry, etc. The list is not limited and may include any characteristics that uniquely distinguish one person from the rest.
• Behavioral characteristics are related to the behavior of a person. It includes voice recognition, typing rhythm, gait, etc.

Now we knew sufficient about the biometric, the next important thing to understand is how these biological traits are used as the unique identity of individuals.

How Does Biometric Help us?
Let's us understand this from a simple example. When we try to access our email account or bank accounts, we need to feed password in order to get access. Password usually is combination of characters that can be stolen, hacked, and can be used for illegal purposes. In case our passwords are being stolen, it can lead to serious mischiefs. Here biometrics come to the fore to help us. Instead of passwords, biometric security systems and products enable us to access our accounts with the help of our unique biometric characteristics. And since these traits are unique no other person can access our accounts ever.

Like passwords, the biometric information of individual person is stored in the databases and when we feed our individual traits through the biometric devices, then it check the database and try to match with the previously stored one. If both the records matches it allows us the access and if not access is denied.