Anatomy of the Hand 19 A
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Anatomy of the Hand
Amioy Kumar
1
, Tanvir Singh Mundra
1
,and
Ajay Kumar
2
1
Biometrics Research Laboratory, Department of
Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of
Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India
2
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Synonyms
Hand Geometry; Hand structure
Definition
The anatomy of the human hand is quite unique
and includes the configuration of bones, joints,
veins, and muscles. The physiological intercon-
nection and structure of these parts are responsi-
ble for the structure of the human hand. The func-
tional area of the hand includes the five fingers,
palm, and wrist. Among a number of biometric
modalities that are used for human identification,
hand-based modalities achieve high performance
and have very high user acceptance. A hand-
based biometric system integrates several physio-
logical and/or behavioral features that have their
individuality in the anatomy of the hand. The
prime focus of this study is on internal and
physiological structure of the human hand which
defines the uniqueness of various hand-related
biometric modalities.
Introduction
The anatomical study of the human hand is not
new; it dates back to prehistoric times, but it is
finding new applications in the field of biomet-
rics. The proper understanding of the structure
requires the knowledge of function in the liv-
ing organism. As one of the basic life sciences,
anatomy is closely related to medicine and to
other branches of biology. The hands of the hu-
man being are the two multi-fingered body parts
located at the end of each arm. It consists of a
broad palm with five fingers, each attached to
the joint called the wrist. The back of the hand
is formally called the dorsum of the hand. The
uniqueness of the human hand, as compared to
the other animals, comes from the fact that all
the fingers are independent of each other and the
thumb can make contact with each finger.
The anatomy of the hand is the key to ascertain
the individuality of hand-based biometrics. The
hand-geometry biometric largely represents the
anatomy of hand bones and muscles. The hand-
vein biometric represents the uniqueness in the
anatomy of hand veins, while the palmprint rep-
resents the epidermis on the palm. The behavioral
biometrics like signature is also highly dependent
on the anatomy of bones and muscles. There-
fore the study of hand anatomy is fundamen-
tal to ascertain the individuality of hand-based
biometrics.