When dealing with biometrics, there are two types of matching to consider, verification and identification.
- Verification – A one-to-one comparison (1:1) of a biometric for a person for whom you wish to verify.
- Identification – A one-to-many comparison (1:N) of a biometric against a biometric database in attempt to identify an unknown individual.
Verification equates to Am I who I claim I am? When you enroll a customer for the first time, you also capture additional information such as name, phone number, or social security number. When the customer returns, they are identified through one of those pieces of information, then verified through the biometric match. Verification only proves that the person in front of you now is the one who originally enrolled.
Identification on the other hand, answers the question “Who am I?” . A customer is enrolled with fingerprint and additional information as noted in verification. The customer can then be identified from only their fingerprint because the system compares that fingerprint against an entire database (hence the expression one-to-many). This allows for prevention of enrollments with near-duplicate information or multiple IDs.
These performance criteria can only be met with a high-density fingerprint image and databases optimized to match large quantities.
Which is better?
If you have a single location and know all your customers personally, then you may not need the additional data organization and security that biometric identification provides.
However, if you want to do any of the following, identification may bring benefits to you.
- Match new customers against shared-negative databases
- Prevent duplicate enrollments across multiple locations
- Prevent fraud rings from hitting you multiple times with fake IDs
AllTrust Networks offers biometric identification services for check cashing and other retail applications.
For more information, contact Leslie Connelly at 703-467-8332 x303 or visit
http://www.alltrustnetworks.com or http://www.alltrustnetworks.com/Product/FingerprintDevice/tabid/390/Default.aspx
Related Article: Using Fingerprint Technology in Check Cashing
