Technologies in the EU

2001/07/18 Imaz Amiano, Eneko - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Adimen artifiziala
• Unibertsitateak

Once again, several courses and conferences have been prepared, but it is about making known all the impossible and addressing one of the departments of Informatics, the so-called 'Biometric Systems', elaborated by Jesús Ibáñez.

In the beginning, as far as people are concerned, he explained what biometry is and said that it is "the science that is responsible for analyzing and measuring people's physical characteristics and abilities." And how many of them are used to identify individuals (e.g. fingerprints). Then, the existing technologies have been explained to identify individuals automatically, that is, through machines (cards, passwords...) and the shortcomings of the most used have been highlighted. Finally, in line with his argument, he has affirmed that biometric keys to these deficiencies can be an alternative and, of course, he has talked about what are the biometric keys, their advantages, the existing biometric keys, their comparison, etc.

There are several biometric keys: fingerprints, hand geometry, retina map, face, iris, voice, signature, rhythm and keyboard trends, wrist veins, nails and body odor. Most can already be used, even if they are in different stages of development, and some of them is for the moment an intention. With the right tool, database and level of reliability we will be able to speak in the future in front of home and open the door; or, we will be able to take the steering wheel of the car and use a device that no one can use; or when arriving at the health center present the hand and the doctor will collect our history on your table; neither will we need phone cards, since we will identify with the voice; and the money will be useless, since in the stores will analyze (or purchase).

But will it be a trap, or not? All this means creating amazing databases and that almost all of our movements can be known to someone. That is, it can serve for a concrete control of individuals. Once again, as in many other occasions, the answer would be in the hands of users and the uses of technology, which can be very varied. For example, "cost and feasibility estimates have been made to store biometric iris data for the entire world population, obtaining rather "optimistic" results.