Why It’s Time to Buy-In to Biometrics
Leading providers weigh in on the current climate of biometrics and opine how the technology has become more reliable and affordable. Learn of the myriad applications, unrivaled convenience and profitability opportunities.
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Host of Emerging Uses
Murad points to several growing markets for biometric applications. Worldwide, he is seeing countries turn to biometrics to authenticate identities at border crossings, voter registration polls and for national identification programs. Bank ATMs are another one of the fastest-growing emerging applications, he states.
“They provide authentication unmatched by the current card and PIN combination. Initially, the cards will still be used with a biometric replacing the PIN, but in the future banks may use the biometric alone.”
There’s no question biometrics leads the wave for adoption specifically where issues of identity fraud exist, Scarfo believes. He points to markets like Brazil where fraud is high and banks have no choice but to employ such technology.
“Identity fraud has been reduced on the ATM side and is also migrating to point-of-sale terminals so we’ve made a huge investment and had impact in the financial services markets in Latin America, South Africa and Mexico,” Scarfo says. “In these emerging markets where people are used to having biometric technologies used, they don’t see them as a threat to personal privacy but an impeder to theft.”
Folke singles out fingerprints as the market leader and biometric feature of choice but also sees increased interest in iris recognition. “It’s more expensive but has the advantage of being contactless, especially in healthcare applications.”
Fingerprint biometrics are becoming ubiquitous in consumer applications such as smartphones and
ATMs.
While Murad agrees that fingerprint technology is the oldest and most widely used biometric solution, he concurs with Folke that, as costs continue to drop, the accuracy, speed and scalability of iris recognition are making it a fast-growing solution. When fully deployed in a large system, iris-based systems can be as economical as a fingerprint solution, he says.
“The noncontact readers used by iris recognition systems are popular with medical centers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and other areas where the spread of disease is a concern,” says Murad. “Noncontact iris readers are also popular in labs and other clean facilities where employees routinely wear gloves.”
Still a Ground-Floor Opportunity
Dr. Anil Jain, a professor at Michigan State University, has done extensive research on pattern recognition, computer vision and biometric recognition. He points out that biometrics started in 1902 with fingerprints to ID people at a crime scene. That was the world of biometrics for about 100 years, he says, and only recently has it penetrated the commercial and consumer spaces. In the criminal and forensic arena, Jain sees an ongoing need for biometric technology because law enforcement relies on the prints at a crime scene.
But he notes that their focus is more on identification as opposed to commercial consumer applications where it’s more about authentication to ascertain a person is who they are supposed to be.
“The most significant changes are occurring in civil, commercial and consumer spaces,” Jain says. “The money to be made is in consumer applications. There are so many possible uses, but there has to be ROI. The amount of money spent buying a biometric security system has to be worth the payoff.”
Given the increased adoption of biometric technologies in recent years, the payoff seems to be real. “The train has left the station,” Scarfo says. “People realize biometric technologies can be useful and, much like mobile phones, are not going to go away.”
ERIN HARRINGTON is a PR specialist who can be reached at [email protected]
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