A new biometric system, from the Hitachi Company, (Japan), which is able to identify people from the unique pattern of veins inside their fingers, has been introduced into security systems in Europe and Japan. It is the fastest, and most secure, biometric method of identifying people. A near infrared light penetrates the body tissue and is reflected in the haemoglobin of the blood. A special camera captures the vein pattern through the reflected light. Further processing enables this to be compared to a stored image of the user. Thus it is non-invasive, very quick – done in the blink of an eye – and secure as no one can see the vein pattern stored in the fingers, unless they use the equipment.

Biometrics is the science and technology of measuring and analyzing biological data. In information technology, biometrics refers to technologies that measure and analyze human body characteristics, such as fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns and hand measurements, for authentication purposes.