All biometric systems operate on the simple concept of comparing a stored record of a user's biometric data (hand, eye, fingerprint, etc.) with data being supplied in real-time by the user requesting access. The real-time data is converted into a form which can be compared to the record, and if the two data sets match with enough certainty, the user is authenticated.
In Lumidigm’s case, the record contains a mathematical representation of a fingerprint, which is compared with a live fingerprint captured from a sensor attached to the device.
The process of first capturing the biometric data is called enrolling, while the action of authenticating the user is called identification/verification. During the enrolment process, the original fingerprint image is processed, highly compressed, and stored on the device flash memory (or another storage system like the PC) as a template such as a unique ID number, name, and other information is added to associate a person with the template.