Vein patterns prove highly accurate and popular for pioneer vascular developer Identica
By Jennifer Slattery, Contributing Editor

Do you know what the back of your hand says about you? Or your finger or palm for that matter? Quite a bit … if you are looking beyond the surface to track the pattern of veins that can uniquely identify an individual.

Vascular biometrics uses infrared technology to identify an individual’s unique vascular pattern from below the surface of the skin. The process is fairly simple to use and considered one of the most accurate forms of biometrics because variations in skin (e.g. cuts, burns) and environment do not affect the reading. Once an image is captured, it can be encrypted as a template and stored for verification. Like other biometrics, vascular templates can be used in conjunction with other tokens such as smart cards, PINs or passwords and can be used in a variety of functions such as time and attendance, border control, physical access control, and banking applications.