Biometrics gets down to business
For many people, "biometrics" conjures up images of a Big Brotherish surveillance society. But tell them they could save a few precious seconds at the supermarket checkout just by waving their fingers over a scanner, and they will sign up in their millions.
After more than a decade of hype, biometrics-the use of body measurements such as eye scans or fingerprints to determine or verify identity-is finally taking off. And all it took to convince the public of its merits, it seems, was the promise of shorter queues or a few extra loyalty points. In the past year there has been an explosion in the commercial use of biometrics, utterly eclipsing the uphill efforts of various governments to introduce identity cards and passports that store electronic signatures derived from facial images, fingerprints or eye scans.
For a long time it was assumed that biometrics would be a governmentled technology, says Sapna Capoor, an analyst at Frost and Sullivan, a consultancy. But in the past couple of years this has quietly started to change. "There has been a group of biometrics vendors who have shifted away from working with governments and focused instead on commercial products," she says.
One reason for this shift is that the technology has matured, says Michael Thieme of the International Biometric Group, an industry body based in New York. In the past many biometric technologies would not work on a broad section of the population. Some types of biometric scanners worked well in the laboratory, but ran into problems in realworld environments when scanning children, old people, people with small or sweaty hands, bricklayers or subjects with eye conditions. But the technology has since improved and is considerably more inclusive, says Mr Thieme.
New regulations in the financial sector have also boosted adoption, says Mark Upson, the boss of BioPassword in Issaquah, Washington, whose company has more than 400,000 onlinebanking users enrolled in its keystrokedynamics security scheme. In a bid to tighten security and reduce online fraud and identity theft in online banking, America’s Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council is pressing banks to adopt "two factor" authentication, says Mr Upson. Previously, account holders had to provide only a single means of identity verification, such as an account number and password. Twofactor systems rely not just on something you know, however, but also on something you have, such as an electronic token, or something you are, in the form of a biometric.
Those in the industry believe the banking and retail approaches to biometrics-one of which puts security above convenience, the other convenience above security-will eventually converge, opening up new applications in the process.
As governments grapple with schemes to introduce biometric passports and identity cards, companies are pushing ahead with biometrics on their own. And what is perhaps even more surprising than the commercial adoption of the technology is the speed and willingness with which the public is embracing it. This is unlikely to be because people trust big companies more than they trust governments. Instead, it is because the commercial applications of biometrics tend to place a greater emphasis on the benefits to the customer, so providing incentives for adoption. As governments start to foist biometrics on their citizens, they would do well to bear this in mind.
A recent survey found that air passengers would welcome biometric checkin procedures at airports if it meant less queuing. People will embrace biometrics, it seems, provided there’s something in it for them.
surveillance
n.監(jiān)視，監(jiān)督
[真題例句] A boom in neighborhood surveillance cameras will, for example, cause problems in 2010, while the arrival of synthetic lifelike robots will mean people may not be able to distinguish between their human friends and the droids.[2001年翻譯]
[例句精譯] 比如，住宅區(qū)附近監(jiān)視器的猛增在2010年會(huì)引發(fā)問(wèn)題;逼真的機(jī)器人將意味著人們可能無(wú)法區(qū)分人類朋友和仿真機(jī)器人。
identity
n.同一性，身份，一致，特性，恒等式
[真題例句] The Europe that is now forming cannot be anything other than its peoples, their cultures and national identities.[2005年翻譯]
[例句精譯] 現(xiàn)今的歐洲只能是不同的民族、文化和傳統(tǒng)所形成的歐洲。
explosion
n.爆炸，爆發(fā)
[真題例句] (75) Additional social stresses may also occur because of the population explosion or problems arising from mass migration movements- themselves made relatively easy nowadays by modern means of transport.[2000年翻譯]
[例句精譯] (75)由于人口的猛增或人口大量流動(dòng)(現(xiàn)代交通工具使這種流動(dòng)相對(duì)容易)造成的種種問(wèn)題也會(huì)對(duì)社會(huì)造成新的壓力。
signature
n.簽名，署名，簽字
enroll(l)
v.招收，登記，入學(xué)
[真題例句] The journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools.[2000年閱讀5]
[例句精譯] 倡導(dǎo)終生參與民主制的新聞?dòng)浾邊s把自己的子女送進(jìn)私立學(xué)校。
incentive
n.①動(dòng)機(jī);②激勵(lì)，鼓勵(lì);a.激勵(lì)的
[真題例句] A bill by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, which would offer financial incentives (n.②) for private industry, is a promising start.[2005年閱讀2]
[例句精譯] 西弗吉尼亞議員Robert Byrd提出議案，用資金去推動(dòng)私有企業(yè)進(jìn)行環(huán)保，這是一個(gè)良好的開端。
Little Tips：
生物識(shí)別技術(shù)是依靠人體的身體特征來(lái)進(jìn)行身份驗(yàn)證的一種解決方案。人體的生物特征包括指紋、聲音、臉孔、視網(wǎng)膜、掌紋、骨架等等。所謂的生物識(shí)別的核心在于如何獲取這些生物特征，并將之轉(zhuǎn)換為數(shù)字信息，存儲(chǔ)于計(jì)算機(jī)中，利用可靠的匹配算法來(lái)完成驗(yàn)證與識(shí)別個(gè)人身份的過(guò)程。由于人體特征具有人體所固有的不可復(fù)制的性，這一生物密鑰無(wú)法復(fù)制，失竊或被遺忘。而常見的口令、IC卡、條形碼、磁卡或鑰匙則存在著丟失、遺忘、復(fù)制及被盜用諸多不利因素。人類追尋文檔、交易及物品的安全保護(hù)的有效性與方便性經(jīng)歷了三個(gè)階段的發(fā)展。第一階段也就是最初始的方法，是采用大家早已熟悉的各種機(jī)械鑰匙。第二階段是由機(jī)械鑰匙發(fā)展到數(shù)字密鑰如密碼或條形碼等。第三階段是利用人體所固有的生物特征來(lái)辨識(shí)與驗(yàn)證身份。生物識(shí)別是當(dāng)今數(shù)字化生活中級(jí)別的安全密鑰系統(tǒng)。
生物識(shí)別技術(shù)開始應(yīng)用于商業(yè)領(lǐng)域
“生物識(shí)別技術(shù)”會(huì)讓許多人想起一個(gè)“老大哥式”的監(jiān)控社會(huì)。然而，如果他們得知只要在超市收銀臺(tái)前向掃描器揮揮手指就能完事，可以節(jié)省寶貴的幾秒鐘，他們也會(huì)加入到已經(jīng)接受“生物識(shí)別”的數(shù)百萬(wàn)人群中來(lái)的。
生物識(shí)別是指通過(guò)檢測(cè)人體的某部分(例如眼睛、指紋)來(lái)檢測(cè)或驗(yàn)證身份，經(jīng)過(guò)十幾年的大量宣傳，此技術(shù)應(yīng)用終于推廣開來(lái)。然而這項(xiàng)技術(shù)能給大眾帶來(lái)什么好處呢?大眾感受到的似乎只是能少排些隊(duì)、安全性更高一點(diǎn)。去年生物識(shí)別在商業(yè)領(lǐng)域的運(yùn)用出現(xiàn)了爆炸性的增長(zhǎng)，讓各國(guó)政府在這方面的舉措顯得黯然失色，各國(guó)政府也在竭力引入新型身份證與護(hù)照，這些新型證件可以存儲(chǔ)根據(jù)臉部圖像、指紋、眼睛制作的“電子標(biāo)識(shí)”。
在咨詢公司Frost&Sullivan工作的分析師Sapna Capoor說(shuō)，大家一直以為生物識(shí)別技術(shù)是個(gè)由政府主導(dǎo)的技術(shù)。但近兩年情況已悄然改變。她說(shuō)，“以前售賣生物識(shí)別產(chǎn)品的公司都主要做政府生意，但現(xiàn)在已有不少公司轉(zhuǎn)而把重點(diǎn)放在商用產(chǎn)品上了?！?BR> 這種轉(zhuǎn)變的其中一個(gè)原因是此技術(shù)已經(jīng)成熟了，設(shè)于紐約的行業(yè)協(xié)會(huì)國(guó)際生物識(shí)別組織的Michael Thieme這樣宣稱。過(guò)去生物識(shí)別技術(shù)從未廣泛應(yīng)用于大眾。有幾種生物識(shí)別掃描設(shè)備在實(shí)驗(yàn)室表現(xiàn)很好，但面對(duì)各種各樣的真實(shí)情況就會(huì)出現(xiàn)許多問(wèn)題，比如應(yīng)用于兒童、老年人、手特別小的人、多汗的手、磚匠的手、還有一些患眼病的人群。Thieme說(shuō)但后來(lái)此技術(shù)得到了很大改進(jìn)，因此應(yīng)用的人群也廣得多。生物識(shí)別技術(shù)的可靠性因此大大提高，能夠應(yīng)用于超市與筆記本電腦。
金融領(lǐng)域的新規(guī)則也推動(dòng)了此項(xiàng)技術(shù)的應(yīng)用，位于華盛頓的Issaquah的BioPassword公司的總裁Mark Upson說(shuō)，該公司已有超過(guò)40萬(wàn)的網(wǎng)上銀行用戶采用了該公司的“擊鍵力學(xué)”身份驗(yàn)證項(xiàng)目。Upson說(shuō)，為了增強(qiáng)網(wǎng)上銀行服務(wù)的安全性、減少服務(wù)過(guò)程中的詐騙與身份盜竊行為，美國(guó)聯(lián)邦金融機(jī)構(gòu)檢查委員會(huì)竭力要求銀行采用“雙重認(rèn)證”。以前，帳號(hào)持有者只需通過(guò)一重身份驗(yàn)證，比如帳號(hào)與密碼。要通過(guò)“雙重認(rèn)證系統(tǒng)”，不僅需要你提供你所知道的信息，而且還需要你攜帶的東西——比如某種電子信物，或者你身體的某部分：以生物識(shí)別形式。
這說(shuō)明什么呢?這說(shuō)明雖然生物識(shí)別技術(shù)能使系統(tǒng)獲得極高的安全性，但在實(shí)際應(yīng)用中并不一定要達(dá)到這么高的安全性。Thieme說(shuō)，在某些方面的應(yīng)用中較低的安全性完全可以容忍。
各國(guó)政府還在想盡辦法引入生物識(shí)別護(hù)照與身份證，各家公司卻已經(jīng)靠自己的力量推動(dòng)該技術(shù)的應(yīng)用了，這種情況十分出人意料，但比這更讓人吃驚的是公眾對(duì)其愿意接受，而且速度很快。其原因并不見得是公眾更相信大公司而不相信政府，而是因?yàn)樯虡I(yè)應(yīng)用過(guò)程中更強(qiáng)調(diào)生物識(shí)別技術(shù)能給顧客帶來(lái)的好處，為顧客提供了某種“激勵(lì)”。各國(guó)政府想要讓民眾接受此技術(shù)在公共領(lǐng)域的應(yīng)用的話，記住這一點(diǎn)才能成功。
最近的一個(gè)調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果在登機(jī)手續(xù)中應(yīng)用生物識(shí)別技術(shù)能讓乘客少排些隊(duì)，乘客還是歡迎此項(xiàng)技術(shù)應(yīng)用在機(jī)場(chǎng)的?？雌饋?lái)情況似乎是這樣，如果在生物識(shí)別技術(shù)的推廣過(guò)程中能給大家?guī)?lái)好處，大家還是會(huì)接收此項(xiàng)技術(shù)的。
For many people, "biometrics" conjures up images of a Big Brotherish surveillance society. But tell them they could save a few precious seconds at the supermarket checkout just by waving their fingers over a scanner, and they will sign up in their millions.
After more than a decade of hype, biometrics-the use of body measurements such as eye scans or fingerprints to determine or verify identity-is finally taking off. And all it took to convince the public of its merits, it seems, was the promise of shorter queues or a few extra loyalty points. In the past year there has been an explosion in the commercial use of biometrics, utterly eclipsing the uphill efforts of various governments to introduce identity cards and passports that store electronic signatures derived from facial images, fingerprints or eye scans.
For a long time it was assumed that biometrics would be a governmentled technology, says Sapna Capoor, an analyst at Frost and Sullivan, a consultancy. But in the past couple of years this has quietly started to change. "There has been a group of biometrics vendors who have shifted away from working with governments and focused instead on commercial products," she says.
One reason for this shift is that the technology has matured, says Michael Thieme of the International Biometric Group, an industry body based in New York. In the past many biometric technologies would not work on a broad section of the population. Some types of biometric scanners worked well in the laboratory, but ran into problems in realworld environments when scanning children, old people, people with small or sweaty hands, bricklayers or subjects with eye conditions. But the technology has since improved and is considerably more inclusive, says Mr Thieme.
New regulations in the financial sector have also boosted adoption, says Mark Upson, the boss of BioPassword in Issaquah, Washington, whose company has more than 400,000 onlinebanking users enrolled in its keystrokedynamics security scheme. In a bid to tighten security and reduce online fraud and identity theft in online banking, America’s Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council is pressing banks to adopt "two factor" authentication, says Mr Upson. Previously, account holders had to provide only a single means of identity verification, such as an account number and password. Twofactor systems rely not just on something you know, however, but also on something you have, such as an electronic token, or something you are, in the form of a biometric.
Those in the industry believe the banking and retail approaches to biometrics-one of which puts security above convenience, the other convenience above security-will eventually converge, opening up new applications in the process.
As governments grapple with schemes to introduce biometric passports and identity cards, companies are pushing ahead with biometrics on their own. And what is perhaps even more surprising than the commercial adoption of the technology is the speed and willingness with which the public is embracing it. This is unlikely to be because people trust big companies more than they trust governments. Instead, it is because the commercial applications of biometrics tend to place a greater emphasis on the benefits to the customer, so providing incentives for adoption. As governments start to foist biometrics on their citizens, they would do well to bear this in mind.
A recent survey found that air passengers would welcome biometric checkin procedures at airports if it meant less queuing. People will embrace biometrics, it seems, provided there’s something in it for them.
surveillance
n.監(jiān)視，監(jiān)督
[真題例句] A boom in neighborhood surveillance cameras will, for example, cause problems in 2010, while the arrival of synthetic lifelike robots will mean people may not be able to distinguish between their human friends and the droids.[2001年翻譯]
[例句精譯] 比如，住宅區(qū)附近監(jiān)視器的猛增在2010年會(huì)引發(fā)問(wèn)題;逼真的機(jī)器人將意味著人們可能無(wú)法區(qū)分人類朋友和仿真機(jī)器人。
identity
n.同一性，身份，一致，特性，恒等式
[真題例句] The Europe that is now forming cannot be anything other than its peoples, their cultures and national identities.[2005年翻譯]
[例句精譯] 現(xiàn)今的歐洲只能是不同的民族、文化和傳統(tǒng)所形成的歐洲。
explosion
n.爆炸，爆發(fā)
[真題例句] (75) Additional social stresses may also occur because of the population explosion or problems arising from mass migration movements- themselves made relatively easy nowadays by modern means of transport.[2000年翻譯]
[例句精譯] (75)由于人口的猛增或人口大量流動(dòng)(現(xiàn)代交通工具使這種流動(dòng)相對(duì)容易)造成的種種問(wèn)題也會(huì)對(duì)社會(huì)造成新的壓力。
signature
n.簽名，署名，簽字
enroll(l)
v.招收，登記，入學(xué)
[真題例句] The journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools.[2000年閱讀5]
[例句精譯] 倡導(dǎo)終生參與民主制的新聞?dòng)浾邊s把自己的子女送進(jìn)私立學(xué)校。
incentive
n.①動(dòng)機(jī);②激勵(lì)，鼓勵(lì);a.激勵(lì)的
[真題例句] A bill by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, which would offer financial incentives (n.②) for private industry, is a promising start.[2005年閱讀2]
[例句精譯] 西弗吉尼亞議員Robert Byrd提出議案，用資金去推動(dòng)私有企業(yè)進(jìn)行環(huán)保，這是一個(gè)良好的開端。
Little Tips：
生物識(shí)別技術(shù)是依靠人體的身體特征來(lái)進(jìn)行身份驗(yàn)證的一種解決方案。人體的生物特征包括指紋、聲音、臉孔、視網(wǎng)膜、掌紋、骨架等等。所謂的生物識(shí)別的核心在于如何獲取這些生物特征，并將之轉(zhuǎn)換為數(shù)字信息，存儲(chǔ)于計(jì)算機(jī)中，利用可靠的匹配算法來(lái)完成驗(yàn)證與識(shí)別個(gè)人身份的過(guò)程。由于人體特征具有人體所固有的不可復(fù)制的性，這一生物密鑰無(wú)法復(fù)制，失竊或被遺忘。而常見的口令、IC卡、條形碼、磁卡或鑰匙則存在著丟失、遺忘、復(fù)制及被盜用諸多不利因素。人類追尋文檔、交易及物品的安全保護(hù)的有效性與方便性經(jīng)歷了三個(gè)階段的發(fā)展。第一階段也就是最初始的方法，是采用大家早已熟悉的各種機(jī)械鑰匙。第二階段是由機(jī)械鑰匙發(fā)展到數(shù)字密鑰如密碼或條形碼等。第三階段是利用人體所固有的生物特征來(lái)辨識(shí)與驗(yàn)證身份。生物識(shí)別是當(dāng)今數(shù)字化生活中級(jí)別的安全密鑰系統(tǒng)。
生物識(shí)別技術(shù)開始應(yīng)用于商業(yè)領(lǐng)域
“生物識(shí)別技術(shù)”會(huì)讓許多人想起一個(gè)“老大哥式”的監(jiān)控社會(huì)。然而，如果他們得知只要在超市收銀臺(tái)前向掃描器揮揮手指就能完事，可以節(jié)省寶貴的幾秒鐘，他們也會(huì)加入到已經(jīng)接受“生物識(shí)別”的數(shù)百萬(wàn)人群中來(lái)的。
生物識(shí)別是指通過(guò)檢測(cè)人體的某部分(例如眼睛、指紋)來(lái)檢測(cè)或驗(yàn)證身份，經(jīng)過(guò)十幾年的大量宣傳，此技術(shù)應(yīng)用終于推廣開來(lái)。然而這項(xiàng)技術(shù)能給大眾帶來(lái)什么好處呢?大眾感受到的似乎只是能少排些隊(duì)、安全性更高一點(diǎn)。去年生物識(shí)別在商業(yè)領(lǐng)域的運(yùn)用出現(xiàn)了爆炸性的增長(zhǎng)，讓各國(guó)政府在這方面的舉措顯得黯然失色，各國(guó)政府也在竭力引入新型身份證與護(hù)照，這些新型證件可以存儲(chǔ)根據(jù)臉部圖像、指紋、眼睛制作的“電子標(biāo)識(shí)”。
在咨詢公司Frost&Sullivan工作的分析師Sapna Capoor說(shuō)，大家一直以為生物識(shí)別技術(shù)是個(gè)由政府主導(dǎo)的技術(shù)。但近兩年情況已悄然改變。她說(shuō)，“以前售賣生物識(shí)別產(chǎn)品的公司都主要做政府生意，但現(xiàn)在已有不少公司轉(zhuǎn)而把重點(diǎn)放在商用產(chǎn)品上了?！?BR> 這種轉(zhuǎn)變的其中一個(gè)原因是此技術(shù)已經(jīng)成熟了，設(shè)于紐約的行業(yè)協(xié)會(huì)國(guó)際生物識(shí)別組織的Michael Thieme這樣宣稱。過(guò)去生物識(shí)別技術(shù)從未廣泛應(yīng)用于大眾。有幾種生物識(shí)別掃描設(shè)備在實(shí)驗(yàn)室表現(xiàn)很好，但面對(duì)各種各樣的真實(shí)情況就會(huì)出現(xiàn)許多問(wèn)題，比如應(yīng)用于兒童、老年人、手特別小的人、多汗的手、磚匠的手、還有一些患眼病的人群。Thieme說(shuō)但后來(lái)此技術(shù)得到了很大改進(jìn)，因此應(yīng)用的人群也廣得多。生物識(shí)別技術(shù)的可靠性因此大大提高，能夠應(yīng)用于超市與筆記本電腦。
金融領(lǐng)域的新規(guī)則也推動(dòng)了此項(xiàng)技術(shù)的應(yīng)用，位于華盛頓的Issaquah的BioPassword公司的總裁Mark Upson說(shuō)，該公司已有超過(guò)40萬(wàn)的網(wǎng)上銀行用戶采用了該公司的“擊鍵力學(xué)”身份驗(yàn)證項(xiàng)目。Upson說(shuō)，為了增強(qiáng)網(wǎng)上銀行服務(wù)的安全性、減少服務(wù)過(guò)程中的詐騙與身份盜竊行為，美國(guó)聯(lián)邦金融機(jī)構(gòu)檢查委員會(huì)竭力要求銀行采用“雙重認(rèn)證”。以前，帳號(hào)持有者只需通過(guò)一重身份驗(yàn)證，比如帳號(hào)與密碼。要通過(guò)“雙重認(rèn)證系統(tǒng)”，不僅需要你提供你所知道的信息，而且還需要你攜帶的東西——比如某種電子信物，或者你身體的某部分：以生物識(shí)別形式。
這說(shuō)明什么呢?這說(shuō)明雖然生物識(shí)別技術(shù)能使系統(tǒng)獲得極高的安全性，但在實(shí)際應(yīng)用中并不一定要達(dá)到這么高的安全性。Thieme說(shuō)，在某些方面的應(yīng)用中較低的安全性完全可以容忍。
各國(guó)政府還在想盡辦法引入生物識(shí)別護(hù)照與身份證，各家公司卻已經(jīng)靠自己的力量推動(dòng)該技術(shù)的應(yīng)用了，這種情況十分出人意料，但比這更讓人吃驚的是公眾對(duì)其愿意接受，而且速度很快。其原因并不見得是公眾更相信大公司而不相信政府，而是因?yàn)樯虡I(yè)應(yīng)用過(guò)程中更強(qiáng)調(diào)生物識(shí)別技術(shù)能給顧客帶來(lái)的好處，為顧客提供了某種“激勵(lì)”。各國(guó)政府想要讓民眾接受此技術(shù)在公共領(lǐng)域的應(yīng)用的話，記住這一點(diǎn)才能成功。
最近的一個(gè)調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果在登機(jī)手續(xù)中應(yīng)用生物識(shí)別技術(shù)能讓乘客少排些隊(duì)，乘客還是歡迎此項(xiàng)技術(shù)應(yīng)用在機(jī)場(chǎng)的?？雌饋?lái)情況似乎是這樣，如果在生物識(shí)別技術(shù)的推廣過(guò)程中能給大家?guī)?lái)好處，大家還是會(huì)接收此項(xiàng)技術(shù)的。