Signature verification revisited: promoting practical exploitation of biometric technology

Despite research over a long period, biometric approaches to authenticating personal identity have not met with the degree of success in practical applications originally predicted. This paper discusses approaches to biometric testing, focusing particularly on automatic signature verification, and addresses some of the important issues which might help to promote the introduction of practical systems in the future. Examples associated with the adoption of an explicitly flexible approach to signature verification are used to illustrate the discussion, and it is argued that there is still considerable potential for practical exploitation of this type of technology.