Biometrics, or biometrics for short, is an increasingly popular field that employs cutting-edge technologies to identify people. It is fascinating to learn about how the concept developed and how it has been reinvented over the years. The history of biometrics can be traced back to as far as 500 BC, when the Babylonians began to distinguish individuals by their fingerprints. Chinese merchants also began to use their children’s palm prints to make purchases in stores. The history of biometrics reaches all the way back to the mid-1800s, when the Bertillon system was invented to record the height, weight, and other characteristics of bodies.
In India, Sir William Herschel used employee handprints to write contracts. The Indian civil service sought to distinguish real employees from imposters. In the second half of the twentieth century, biometric technology began to be applied in the security industry. Today, the use of biometrics is widespread, and there are hundreds of biometric standards.
In 1879, Alphonse Bertillon Used A System Of Specific Body Measurements For Identifying Criminals. By The Late 1700s, The Use Of Biometrics Was Widely Implemented In Public Security And Commercial Settings. The Invention Of Fingerprint Scanning, And Other Biometric Systems Took Off, And The Concept Of A Standardized Identity Was Born.
In The Early 1900s, The Term Biometrics Was Coined After The Egyptians Began Using Fingerprints To Identify Traders. Moreover, The Term Biometrics Is Derived From The Greek Words “Bio” (Life) And “Metron” (Measure). The Word Was First Used To Describe The Technique Of Iris Scanning, Which Was Used To Verify The Authenticity Of A Wealthy Client. However, Biometrics Did Not Begin To Be Used In Government Until The Nineteenth Century, When The French Police Clerk Alphonse Bertillon Pioneered The Use Of Iris Scanning.
The advent of computers and mobile devices made digital biometrics possible. In the 1930s, Dr. Joseph Perkell proposed the idea of using the iris for identification. But it was not until 1994 that the first iris recognition algorithm was patented. It only took two decades for the technology to be commercially available. The technology is now used for identity verification in banks and other businesses. So far, biometrics has revolutionized the way we live and work today.