BIOMETRICS

General Definition of Biometrics

This branch of technology has become particularly useful for safety purposes and to battle against identity theft. In order to achieve that Biometrics develops different methods to recognize individuals and to take care of their personal information.

Pre-reading activity

The teacher:




- Shows a picture of a hotel.







- Talks about the hotel giving a context to the following step:

“This is ‘Gibon’s Hotel’. It is a new hotel built in London and it is very special. Its owner is very concerned about the safety of his costumers, so he spent a lot of money in the latest technology to have the safeties hotel ever.”

- Tells a story introducing new vocabulary:

“Gibon’s Hotel hired an expert in Biometrics. Biometrics is the branch of technology that has to do with the different ways of recognizing people based on their particular and unique characteristics such as fingerprints, facial spots, voice, and eyes, among others. Gibon’s Hotel was presented as the safeties hotel and as the one that could provide full identity assurance. Identity assurance has to do with keeping safe your identity. Some thieves heard about this, and they thought it was a lie that the Hotel said to avoid robberies. These thieves decided to go there and prove that they could enter the Hotel without been recognized and steel without problems. Of course they failed because their faces, fingerprints, voices and even iris patterns were captured and recognized immediately by the machines that were installed by the experts. The thieves were taken by the police immediately because these machines proved using the database that the thieves were very dangerous. As we can see, new technology provide reliable identification, it means that you can trust without any doubts. Why? Because you don’t have to insert any number, password, PIN (that stands for Personal Identification Number) or anything, it works with unique characteristics that every human being posses and that cannot been modified or copied. ”

- Writes the new expressions on the board





- Provides the definitions again so students can clearly notice them.





The students:






- Hear the presentation of the teacher.





- Make notes (optional) of the definitions provided by the teacher.

While-reading activity.

The teacher:





- Give the student the following text to read:

Biometrics.

As we go about our daily lives, we often need to verify our identities or someone else’s identity, or otherwise determine who someone is. Reliable identification improves public safety by helping to distinguish benign members of the general public from recognized criminals and other threats. It also makes financial and business dealings safer and more efficient, if only by making the participants more accountable for their actions.As humans, we all use our natural abilities to recognize people through their voices, faces, and other characteristics. Machines, on the other hand, must be programmatically instructed how to use the same observable information to perform human recognition. Technology advances, particularly in biometrics, are helping to close the gap between human perception and machine recognition. A priority goal of the use of biometrics is to provide identity assurance- or the capability to accurately recognize individuals- with greater reliability, speed, and convenience, as well as lower cost. Biometric methods vary greatly and as the technology continues improving, new options will also come to the fore.

Why use biometrics?

There are several key reasons why biometrics is becoming increasingly popular:

- Convenient authentication: the convenience of quick-and-easy authentication makes for a smoother system of identity assurance than using keys, cards, or PINs. With biometric technology, there is nothing to lose or forget since the characteristics or traits of the person serve as the identifiers.

- Increased need for strong authentication: with today’s intense focus on greater security for logical (computer) and physical access, biometrics offers an attractive method for guarding against stolen or lost identifiers, such as cards or passwords.

- Decreased costs: over the years improvement in hardware and software technologies has brought down the costs of biometrics authentication to be affordable at the commercial market level.

Adapted from “BIOMETRICS. Identity Assurance in the Information Age” by John D. Woodward, Nicholas M. Orlans, Peter T. Higgins. http://books.google.cl/books?id=j-o_btaFK6wC&dq=biometrics&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=OKXWaY2SUj&sig=cEF1OdEcdfrXM9p8syLPuqAJ5IY&hl=es&ei=vnQJS6nQNc20tgf8p9DFCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBEQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=&f=false

- Ask the students to get the main ideas from every paragraph and to take notes of them.

The Students:

- Read the text.

- And write down the main ideas of every paragraph of the article.

Post-reading activity

The teacher:

- Give the following directions to the students:

o In pairs, the create a dialogue in which they represent a situation where Biometrics is required.

o This dialogue has to include some of the words highlighted above.

o This dialogue has to be handed in written and, afterwards it has to be played.

The Students:

- Elaborate the dialogue following the previous instructions.

Published by: - Amilka Escudero
- Pablo Vidal

IT

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

IT is the use of computers and software to manage information. This branch of technology is responsible for storing information, protecting information, processing the information, transmitting the information as necessary, and later retrieving information as necessary.
For this Lesson plan we wil focus on transmitting the information through Wi-FI internet.

HOW WI-FI WORKS

Activities:

1. The teacher will tell the following opening story:

Last weekend I moved house, and although the new place is bigger and has a big garden, it lacks one essential for modern living. There’s no broadband internet connection. In fact, there isn't even a working phone line at the moment, so I'm completely offline.
I've called my local cable company, and they promise that they will have me online by Thursday, but until then my computers can only talk to each other. I'm sure they are getting lonely, and I'm feeling deprived.
Fortunately, several of my best friends now have wireless networks at home, and my laptop has a wireless card. So I've been taking advantage of them all. Last night I went over to my friend's to watch a movie, laptop in hand. It only took a minute to connect to his wireless network, and then I could download all my e-mails while we relaxed. So now I´m thinking is much better for me to have Wi-Fi at home and so I beggan searching infromation about the subject.

• Which do you think are the advantages of Wi-Fi internet connection?
• Do you think wireless internet is better than broadband internet?
• How do you think Wi-Fi works?

2.Watch the video called “City-Wide Wi-Fi in Venice” taken from BBC news



After Video questions:

• What did you understand? What is the main idea of the video?
• Is Wi-Fi free for tourists?
• In which areas people is beneficiated for this technology?
• Why do you think Italians decided to implement Wi-Fi in Venice?
• In which way Wi-Fi can beneficiate tourism in the zone?

3.Read the following article:


How Wi-Fi Works

Wi-Fi uses antennas around which Wi-Fi "hotspots" are created. The hotspots are outlets equipped to receive the radio waves that power wireless networking. Until recently, Wi-Fi has been spread out in cafes, bars and airport lounges. But various projects are under way to set up city-wide zones, where a series of antennas are installed in the streets, on lampposts or street signs. The hotspots around them together create a much wider area of coverage. Norwich has a mesh network which links each lamppost antenna to the next creating a seamless Wi-Fi hotspot around the centre of the city.

What Is Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi is the acronym for Wireless Fidelity, essentially a set of standards for transmitting data over a wireless network. Wi-Fi allows you to connect to the net at broadband speeds without cables, as long as you have the right equipment and, in most cases, a regular internet service provider and a wi-fi account.
To understand the technology behind Wi-Fi, imagine using a walkie-talkie. Your voice is picked up by a microphone, encoded onto a radio frequency and transmitted with the antenna to another walkie-talkie, which decodes your voice. Wi-Fi works in broadly in the same way, but using a better radio that is capable of handling a lot more data per second. A wireless network uses radio waves, just like cell phones, televisions and radios do. In fact, communication across a wireless network is a lot like two-way radio communication. Here's what happens:

1. A computer's wireless adapter translates data into a radio signal and transmits it using an antenna.
2. A wireless router receives the signal and decodes it. The router sends the information to the Internet using a physical, wired Ethernet connection.

The process also works in reverse, with the router receiving information from the Internet, translating it into a radio signal and sending it to the computer's wireless adapter.
The radios used for Wi-Fi communication are very similar to the radios used for walkie-talkies, cell phones and other devices. They can transmit and receive radio waves. Several devices can use one router to connect to the Internet as long as they all have wireless adapters. This connection is convenient, virtually invisible and fairly reliable; however, if the router fails or if too many people try to use high-bandwidth applications at the same time, users can experience interference or lose their connections.

Wi-Fi Hotspots

If you want to take advantage of public Wi-Fi hotspots or start a wireless network in your home, the first thing you'll need to do is make sure your computer has wireless transmitters. Most new laptops and many new desktop computers come with built-in wireless transmitters. If your laptop doesn't, you can buy a wireless adapter that plugs into the PC card slot or USB port. Desktop computers can use USB adapters, or you can buy an adapter that plugs into the PCI slot inside the computer's case.
Once you've installed your wireless adapter and the drivers that allow it to operate, your computer should be able to automatically discover existing networks. This means that when you turn your computer on in a Wi-Fi hotspot, the computer will inform you that the network exists and ask whether you want to connect to it. If you have an older computer, you may need to use a software program to detect and connect to a wireless network.
Being able to connect to the Internet in public hotspots is extremely convenient. Wireless home networks are convenient as well. They allow you to easily connect multiple computers and to move them from place to place without disconnecting and reconnecting wires.

4.Comprehension questions:


1. How is the way in which Wi-Fi works?

2. What is Wi-Fi?

3. What is a Hotspot?


Click on the image below to continue with the activities:



5. In groups of 3 create a dialogue in which you will incorporate new vocabulary and be prepared for next class to perform it. Creativity will be assessed.

Paulina Salinas

Digital Television

by Anabel Montero and Katherine Miranda

Telecommunications

It consists of transmitting signals over a distance with the purpose of communication. Now, in modern times these transmissions can be held through electronic devices such as computers, radios, telephones and televisions.

Digital Television

Digital television is a new way to send out programmes on television (or broadcasting), using digital signals instead of analog signals. The use of digital signals allows broadcasters to offer programmes with better pictures, sounds and programming choices (multicasting).

ACTIVITIES

1. Warming up: Brainstorming

Only for teachers

You need to write on the white board the words “Television”. Then, elicit from the students concepts related to these words, and write them on the board. The purpose of this activity is to introduce the topic of Digital Television based on their previous knowledge.

2. Activity 1: Video

For teachers

Show the following video to your students:

For students

Pay attention to the video that your teacher is going to show you.

3. Activity 2: Reading a text

For teachers

Give your students the text “DTV” that is provided in our blog. Give them time to read it (about 7 minutes). Clarify students’ doubts about the text.

For students

Read the text that your teacher is going to give you. Ask him/her about the doubts you may have about the text.

4. Activity 3: Reading Comprehension

For teachers

Give your students a piece of paper with 2 questions about the text that they have already read. The questions are:

1. What does DTV stands for? And what is it?

2. What are the advantages of DTV?

For students

Answer the questions about the text that your teacher is going to provide. Remember that you have to answer according to what you read in the text.

5. Activity 4: Matching words

For teachers

Give your students the matching words exercise that is provided next in our blog.

For students

Your teacher is going to give a matching word exercise in which you will find two columns. In column A you will see some concepts, and in column B you will find their respective definitions, or features. You have to match the concepts with the correct definition/feature. Be careful! There are some distracters.

6. Activity 5: Using the Dictionary

For teachers

Tell your students to look up in the dictionaries the concepts that appear in the text that you have already given them and that they would like to make clearer.

For students

Look up in your dictionary the concepts that appear in the text that you have already read and that you would like to clarify.

7. Activity 6: Writing

For teachers

Ask your students to write their own opinions about DTV.

For students

Write down one paragraph about what you think about DTV (your OWN thoughts and opinions).

8. Closure: Revision

Summarize what has been done in the class.