1. A noncontact biometric system comprising: an illumination source configured to illuminate a purported skin site of an individual with light having a first polarization condition, wherein the purported skin site is positioned to interact with the polarized light while not being in contact with any solid surface; a detection subsystem configured to collect light scattered from the purported skin site having a second polarization condition; and a computational unit interfaced with the detection subsystem configured to: derive a plurality of spatially distributed images of the purported skin site from the received light, and analyze the plurality of spatially distributed images to perform a biometric function.