Ok so this is not exactly a beginners project but can be done over the weekend for getting a hang of the image processing capabilities of Matlab.
This is not at all a good technique for biometry since it analyses the back of a person's hand and the uniqueness of that human attribute is not very high. Although it does work for a small sample size of persons, it still largely depends on the distance of the hand from the camera, and the prominence of the knuckles on a person's hand. (Yes, people with small knuckles do exist).
