Identica Holdings Corporation

fingers (index, middle, and ring fingers in both hands) from each of fifty subjects. The subjects were 42 males (average age of 36.7) and 8 females (average age of 27.5). All the combinations (90,000 cases in all) were tested and the identification rates were analyzed. The researchers used two parameters in the analysis. One was the rejection-error rate — or the rate of acceptance of individuals who should have been rejected; the second was the acceptance-error rate — or the rate of rejection of individuals who should have been accepted. As the two figures immediately below show, these rates change with the change of the correlation threshold. As the threshold increases, the rejection-error rate decreases and the acceptance-error rate increases. The figures thus show the degree of the dependence of each error on the threshold. The researchers note that, in practice, we have to make a compromise between these two errors. They note further that, generally, there is over 10 percent clearance of correlation threshold between the minimum threshold of a sufficiently low acceptance-error and the maximum threshold of a sufficiently low rejection-error. “We can [thus] expect practically negligible rejection and acceptance errors by setting the correlation threshold between these two values,” they write. In some applications, rejection error is more serious than the acceptance error. In such a case, the correlation threshold should be chosen as a higher value, or closer to 1. In this way, we can control the errors by an appropriate choice of the threshold values according to the requirements of a specific application.

Implementation

Last summer Identica joined with Unisys Canada to deploy a biometric credentialing and access control database system (CACDS) in the Port of Halifax. The port is now using Identica’s Vascular Pattern scanners (VP-II) and HID iCLASS smart cards to secure access to the port which has more than 4,000 employees. The VP-II scanner, on the other hand, captures and encrypts individuals’ vascular patterns on the back of the hand. The individual presents his or her hand to the scanner and the live vascular pattern is matched to a stored template, identifying the individual practically instantaneously (0.1 sec/per). The port has the option of storing the encrypted personal template on media such as a smart card, and the scanner communicates with Identica’s proprietary Universal Controller (the UC-2) and biometrically verifies the user with the stored template on the media. Note that most VP-II units