Being a reliable and convenient method of access control, biometrics is widely being used throughout the world. Starting from unlocking your smartphone to authorizing identity cards of national or international importance, biometrics has an established use case everywhere. Biometrics refers to the data of measurements of unique biological features of individuals like fingerprint, iris, retina, face, voice recognition and DNA matching.
Biometric software is programmed to read the biometric factor, store it and subsequently use the database for verification when needed. DNA matching is usually not used for such purposes but it is helpful in certain legal matters.
Open-source biometrics are the software made available by the developer for usage and alterations by other entities. Developers who hold the copyright of the open source software also allow other users access to the source code. Such projects enjoy the benefit of boundless perspectives as developments in open-source biometrics have numerous contributors.
You taking your neighbour’s recipe and modifying it to make your own dish is a simple analogy to the system of open-source biometrics software. Similarly, programmers who procure the rights of the software from the original developers can make changes to the programming of the software. And they can integrate the software within their project as well.
Let’s discuss the pros and cons of these open-source biometrics software:
Pros
Budget-friendly: Generally, the developers provide open-source biometric software freely. This leads to a huge savings in terms of cost. Although maintenance and development costs are still there.
Personalisation: Programmers can alter the coding according to their requirement.
Community support: Along with the enterprise you can harness benefit from the community built around it. The experiences and expertise of others in the community may prove to be a great help.
Hassle-free: There is no worry of being locked out by a tech-vendor or expiry of the license. Forget about tracking your license compliance consistently.
Transparency: Starting from the source code, ongoing developments to the discussions within the community everything is publicly available.
Scalability: You have the power to change the programming of the original software. This makes the biometric system easily scalable.
Cons
Security concerns: Biometrics are generally used for access control and considered as sensitive data. That’s why a secure solution is vital but in this case the coding is freely accessible to all.
Risk factor: The easy availability of the source code makes the solution vulnerable.
Maintenance: There is an invisible cost of maintenance associated with this software.
‘Open-source biometrics is a new age technology.’ Like every other technology it has its perks and some limitations. Choose the right open source biometrics solution according to your specific requirements based on the size of the venture. For more information, please visit, www.trueid.in or write to us at info@trueid.in
