Hot Technologies: Biometrics: Security Gets Personal

Over the last few years, biometrics has been gradually gaining

prominence among the various security technologies, driven by access control

applications. Biometrics is touted by some as the future of the security

industry considering the fact that its coming up and is being recognized as

one of the most accurate identification technologies in the market. As compared

to traditional identification and verification methodologies, biometrics is more

convenient for users, reduces fraud, and is more secure.

Biometrics are technologies that automatically confirm the

identity of people by comparing patterns of physical or behavioral

characteristics in real time against enrolled computer records of those

patterns. Leading biometric technologies accomplish this task by scanning

patterns of the face, fingerprint, hand, iris, palm, signature, skin, or voice.

Not Just Thumb Scan



Contrary to popular belief biometrics is not just about finger print
scanners and face recognition systems anymore. Some of the existing biometrics

technologies, which have already found a foothold in the market in terms of

applications are finger scan, facial recognition, hand scan, iris scan, voice

recognition, signature verification, keystroke dynamics, retina scan, and

multimodal. Among the emerging technology areas in biometrics that are gradually

gaining momentum and finding niche applications are gait recognition, ear

biometrics, olfactory recognition, skin biometrics, vein check, lip biometrics,

nail biometrics and new hand biometrics.

Increasing Reach



Apart from security and law enforcement agencies, biometrics is slowly
making its way into a milieu of authentication products for the enterprise. For

instance, the usage of biometrics for access control is one of the key

applications in the enterprise segment. Biometrics driven access control is also

becoming common. Finger print technology based biometrics is used in laptops for

secure access. Though starting off with high-end laptops, this feature will

gradually become a default for even mid range to lower end laptops over the next

few years.

An emerging area in biometrics security is e-commerce. It will

also guard against unauthorized access to cars and cell phones. In the future,

biometric technology will further develop 3-D infrared facial recognition access

control, real-time facial recognition passive surveillance, and visitor

management authentication systems. Personal computers of the future might

include a fingerprint scanner. Access levels could include the ability to use

credit card information to make electronic purchases.

According to a study conducted by Unisys, a whopping 70% of

consumers worldwide support the use of biometrics administered by a trusted

organization (eg, a bank, healthcare provider or government organization) as a

way to verify an individuals identity. The Unisys research further found that

66% of consumers worldwide also favored biometrics as the ideal method to combat

fraud and identity theft as compared to other methods like smart cards and

tokens. Voice recognition emerged as the most favored authentication method,

cited by 32% of respondents, followed by fingerprints with 27%.

Shipra Malhotra



shipram@cybermedia.co.in