This textbook on Biometrics by leading experts in the field is very timely. After many decades of significant research advances, Biometrics has matured to its current state in which products deploying this technology have become a part of our daily lives. This book, written primarily at an introductory level, would be popular among not only educators, students, and practitioners but also among those in the technology industry who need to have an understanding of the basic principles, strengths, and limitations of various biometrics modalities.

Principal biometrics modalities of fingerprint, face, and iris recognition are covered in depth in their own chapters, whereas other evolving modalities based on traits such as gait, ear, and hand geometry are introduced in a single chapter. An excellent coverage of the topic of combining evidence from multiple modalities, indispensable in very large scale deployments such as those in national identity systems, is provided in the Multibiometrics chapter. The book concludes with a chapter on the security of biometric systems, an important concern for everyone, which includes an analysis of its vulnerabilities and available countermeasures.

While most chapters contain introductory material appropriate for upper level undergraduate students or for those who wish to learn on their own, advanced topics which are a significant part of some of the chapters require a good background in statistical pattern recognition and image analysis. I had used a draft of the book to teach a semester long first year graduate course in biometrics at my university last year. Not all of my students had taken formal courses in these background topics. While they had some difficulty following the advanced sections in the iris and face recognition chapters, they were quite comfortable in understanding the concepts presented in the rest of the book. I would recommend the authors to include necessary background material in appendices to such topics in a future edition of the book or on the book’s website to prepare such readers. I much enjoyed teaching this course and appreciated the value of having a book that covered all important biometrics topics. 

In summary, Introduction to Biometrics is an excellent contribution to the literature and would be of immense help to the large community of people working as researchers, designers, developers, and practitioners in this rapidly growing field.