Chapter 1 · Information and Communication Technology: World and Bangladesh Perspective
Information and Communication Technology · Classes 11-12 · Chapter 1 · 1.3.7 and 1.3.8
Biometrics and Bioinformatics.
Your phone opens with a fingerprint. Why does nobody else's print match yours? And why do exams ask why a cold stops voice recognition, or why a labourer's hand confuses the scanner? This note answers those, then ends with the four fields of bioinformatics.
1. What biometrics is, and its two types
Biometrics is the technology that identifies a person uniquely by measuring physical or behavioural characteristics. There are two kinds of characteristic, so there are two types of system: physiological and behavioural. What the body is like goes in one group. What a person does goes in the other.
2. The five physiological methods
Five examples of the physiological type: fingerprint, hand geometry, iris scanning, face recognition and DNA testing.
Every person's fingerprint is different, and one person's print never matches another's. A fingerprint reader builds its picture from the pattern of ridges, the skin tissue and the blood circulation under the skin, then stores it in a computer database.
Put a finger on the scanner. It reads the ridge pattern and compares it with the prints in the database.
match a printpick a finger
No print matches another
The names, patterns and eight points are made up for practice. The book says the picture is built from the ridge pattern and stored in a database.
Hand geometry analyses the size, thickness, palm lines and finger length of the hand. It is not effective for people who do manual work, especially labourers, and anything stuck to the hand gets in the way.
Iris scanning analyses the coloured ring around the pupil. It takes little time and is precise, but a contact lens can hamper it. Face recognition photographs the whole face and compares its shape with a sample stored earlier.
DNA testing is the most precise and trusted way to identify a person. A sample can come from any cell in hair, blood, saliva or nails. It is slow and costly, but it helps to identify dead bodies and to work at crime scenes.
3. Behavioural methods and uses
Three examples of the behavioural type: typing keystroke verification, signature verification and voice recognition. Voice recognition records the voice through a microphone, converts it to an electric signal and stores it in a database. A later recording is compared with it. A cold or cough disturbs the identification.
Keystroke verification measures how fast a password is typed and matches it with earlier records. Signature verification uses the writing speed, the stroke pattern and the pressure points.
sort themthink: body or behaviour?
Two types of biometrics
Pick up a chip, then drop it in a box.
Right. Next one.
Not yet. Ask: is the person known by the body's make, or by how they do something?
All in place. Fingerprint: the body's make. Hand geometry: the hand's size and lines. Iris: the coloured ring of the eye. Face: the shape of the face. DNA: the body's cells. Typing keystroke: how fast one types is behaviour. Signature: writing speed and pressure. Voice: pitch, tone and tempo.
Every method has a weakness, and exam scenarios are built on it. When a labourer's hand or a stuffy throat turns up, work out which method fails.
match themthe weakness, then the method
What goes wrong with each
Pick up a problem, then drop it in the box of the method it belongs to.
Right. Next one.
Not yet. Ask: is the problem about the hand, the eye, the throat or a cell sample?
All matched. Hand geometry fails on a labourer's hand, iris on a contact lens, voice on a cold, and DNA on time and cost.
The uses are many: identifying dead bodies and criminals, finding a child's parents, national ID, the biometric passport, driving licence, voter registration, ATM and online banking, access control and attendance, computer or mobile login, e-commerce and smart cards.
4. Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is a subject that combines biology, computer science, information engineering, mathematics and statistics. It was born from the need to collect, store, process and interpret the huge amount of data in biology.
The first big success was sequencing the human genome, after 13 years of effort, and publishing it online. Today a whole human genome can be sequenced within hours. Other important areas are cancer research, working out the structure of proteins and revealing the mysteries of how species evolved.
Bioinformatics works with the tools and methods of four fields. Each has one job, and exams like to swap them around. Flip the cards and check.
four fieldsflip to see the job
Four fields, four jobs
FieldMolecular biology and medicine
JobAnalysing data sources
FieldDatabase
JobSafe storage and retrieval of data
FieldProgram
JobAlgorithms for analysing data
FieldMathematics and statistics
JobChecking probabilities
The list of uses is long: electronic databases of genome and protein sequences, molecular medicine, gene therapy, drug making, waste management, climate change research, the search for alternative energy, biological warfare, DNA mapping and analysis, gene finding and watching how proteins interact.
5. Check yourself
The first question is about recognising a method.
check yourselfpick one answer
Question 1
Which technology identifies living beings by their features?
Nanotechnology works at a tiny scale; it does not identify people.
Genetic engineering changes genes. The correct option is: Biometrics.
Right. Biometrics identifies a person uniquely by measuring physical or behavioural traits.
Bioinformatics processes biological data; it does not identify people.
In the second, look for the weakness in the scenario.
check yourselfpick one answer
Question 2
Which technology is working to discover the causes of various complex diseases?
Right. Research into cancer and other complex diseases is an important field of bioinformatics.
Nanotechnology is tiny-scale technology.
Genetic engineering changes genes; it is not the one analysing causes of disease.
Cryosurgery is no longer a stand-alone topic and does not discover causes of disease.
The last one is on bioinformatics.
check yourselfpick one answer
Question 3
Which is a feature of bioinformatics?
Bioinformatics stores a huge amount of data, not a little.
Right. Bioinformatics deals with collecting, storing and processing huge biological data.
Using nanotechnology is not a feature of bioinformatics.
Security is the subject of biometrics. The correct option is: A collection of biological data.
The whole note on seven cards.
cut from the notetap to turn over
Seven cards
QuestionHow many types of biometrics are there?
AnswerTwo: physiological and behavioural.
QuestionName physiological biometric methods.
AnswerFingerprint, hand geometry, iris, face and DNA.
QuestionName behavioural biometric methods.
AnswerTyping keystroke, signature and voice recognition.
QuestionWhat does iris scanning analyse and what hampers it?
AnswerThe coloured ring around the pupil; a contact lens can hamper it.
QuestionWhat are the limits of DNA testing and where does it help?
AnswerSlow and costly; it helps identify dead bodies and crime scenes.
QuestionWhat was bioinformatics's first big success?
AnswerSequencing the human genome for the first time after 13 years and publishing it online.
QuestionOn which four fields does bioinformatics work?
AnswerMolecular biology and medicine, databases, programs, and mathematics and statistics.
Source: Information and Communication Technology, Classes 11-12 (NCTB), Chapter 1 “Information and Communication Technology: World and Bangladesh Perspective”, section 1.3.7 and 1.3.8.