Wouldn’t you love to replace password based access control to avoid having to reset forgotten password and worry about the integrity of your system? Wouldn’t you like to rest secure in comfort that your healthcare system does not merely on your social security number as proof of your identity for granting access to your medical records?

Because each of these questions is becoming more and more important, access to a reliable personal identification is becoming increasingly essential. Conventional method of identification based on possession of ID cards or exclusive knowledge like a social security number or a password are not all together reliable. ID cards can be lost forged or misplaced; passwords can be forgotten or compromised. But a face is undeniably connected to its owner. It cannot be borrowed stolen or easily forged.

The information age is quickly revolutionising the way transactions are completed. Everyday actions are increasingly being handled electronically, instead of with pencil and paper or face to face. This growth in electronic transactions has resulted in a greater demand for fast and accurate user identification and authentication. Access codes for buildings, banks accounts and computer systems often use PIN's for identification and security clearances.

Using the proper PIN gains access, but the user of the PIN is not verified. When credit and ATM cards are lost or stolen, an unauthorized user can often come up with the correct personal codes. Despite warning, many people continue to choose easily guessed PIN's and passwords: birthdays, phone numbers and social security numbers. Recent cases of identity theft have hightened the nee for methods to prove that someone is truly who he/she claims to be.

Face recognition technology may solve this problem since a face is undeniably connected to its owner expect in the case of identical twins. Its nontransferable. The system can then compare scans to records stored in a central or local database or even on a smart card.

The Face :

The face is an important part of who you are and how people identify you. Except in the case of identical twins, the face is arguably a person's most unique physical characteristics. While humans have the innate ability to recognize and distinguish different faces for millions of years , computers are just now catching up.

Face recognition technology analyze the unique shape ,pattern and positioning of the facial features. Face recognition is very complex technology and is largely software based. This Biometric Methodology establishes the analysis framework with tailored algorithms for each type of biometric device. Face recognition starts with a picture, attempting to find a person in the image. This can be accomplished using several methods including movement, skin tones, or blurred human shapes. The face recognition system locates the head and finally the eyes of the individual. A matrix is then developed based on the characteristics of the individual’s face. The method of defining the matrix varies according to the algorithm (the mathematical process used by the computer to perform the comparison). This matrix is then compared to matrices that are in a database and a similarity score is generated for each comparison.