Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine January 2020 | Page 112

Business / Outlook
outlook
Technology meets
business
How Are Businesses
Using Biometric
Technology?
The human body is packed full of unique
details, all of which combine to make us totally
individual. The study and use of these unique
identifiers, which are like barcodes for our body,
is collectively referred to as ‘biometrics’.
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Many of us come into contact with
biometric technology on a daily basis.
Fingerprint scanners, now common
in most new smartphones, are one
of the most ubiquitous examples
of biometrics in practice.
But although biometric technology
is often seen as ultra-futuristic, its
roots can be traced back 140 years to
a French police officer called Alphonse
Bertillon. Working for the Paris police
department in 1879, Bertillon began
developing what would later become
the Bertillon System, the first official
register of biometric data used by
law enforcement in the world.
Bertillon used these early biometric
measurements, which included skeletal
and head measurements, along with
photographs, to identify criminals.