1. A method of identifying a person, comprising: (a) imaging creases in the skin of a person to be identified with an imaging device; (b) processing images from the imaging device to extract contextual information and biometric characteristics from said images, wherein said processing is accomplished with a processor; (c) comparing the extracted contextual information with reference contextual information contained in a reference database; and (d) matching said extracted biometric characteristics with reference biometric characteristics contained in said reference database; wherein said compared information is used for a filter to constrain which of said reference biometric characteristics are used to match said extracted biometric characteristics, and wherein said creases are selected from the group consisting of creases of finger joints and creases on the forehead.