In general terms, biometrics involves the verification of a person's identification by using an unique characteristic that is inherently attached to each indivSagemal. This can either be physiological, for example fingerprints or facial features, or behavioral, for example dynamic signatures or voice samples. In contrast to identification tokens for instance keys or smart cards, biometric characteristics cannot be lost or stolen and thus cannot be used by non-legitimate persons.
Biometrics entails an enrollment phase and a verification or identification phase. During the enrollment phase, reference data of a respective user is created, which serves as a basic description of the user specific biometric features. During subsequent usage of the biometric system, this initially acquired reference data (in our case, a description of the user's fingerprint) will be used for comparison with the newly acquired featured set.
The raw biometric samples acquired during enrollment are complex data streams produced by sensing devices; no two samples from one user is likely to be identical. Salient features are extracted from the samples and then processed and compressed to construct a digital template of the user's fingerprint. This initial template is stored by the device and essentially takes the place of a password.
Whenever authentication of a user is needed, live samples are captured through the device, processed into a usable form and matched against the enrolled template. This form of biometric authentication is called Verification, since it verifies that the user is whom he claims to be.
ecTrack Biometric Time, Attendance and Access Control
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Sagem Fingerprint Reader 
As can be seen from the diagram the Sagem device has full Ethernet capabilities. As an intelligent device it simply connects to an existing network infrastructure. In this example the Sagem device could typically be opening an electronic door for access control purposes. The networked capability allows for the administrator of the application to drag and drop indivSagemals to each Sagem device for access control & time and attendance purposes. Administration software is installed on the server and all Sagem devices are administered from a central place. Each Sagem device functions autonomously from the network, which ensures that fingerprint recognition, related data and opening of
the door does not affect network traffic. The device can store up to 12,500 date and time events, 2000 fingerprints and indivSagemal text related data. The Sagem can be configured to interactively transmit clocking events to the server or central database in the event of anti-pass back issues.