Tech Sizzlers : Body of Evidence

With security paramount on their checklist, enterprises are increasingly
eyeing new technology areas that can help tackle the growing complexity of the
threat landscape. There has especially been a rise in demand for technologies in
areas of secure identification and personal verification. This has resulted in
biometrics gaining prominence among the newer security technologies. The global
biometrics market is estimated to grow from $3.01 bn in 2007 to $7.41 bn in
2012, growing at a CAGR of 21.3%. As per Frost & Sullivan, in India
specifically, the market size of biometric solutions for industrial applications
is worth Rs 150 crore.

A Closer Look

Biometrics refers to the automated recognition of individuals based on their
behavior and biological characteristics. The technology measures and analyzes
human physical characteristics as well as behavioral characteristics for
security purposes. Among the physical characteristics are eye retinas, facial
patterns, and hand measurements, etc. Behavioral characteristics include
signature, gait, etc. Some of the biometrics technology areas that exist today
are fingerprints, voice recognition and verification, iris recognition, face
recognition, hand morphology, dynamic signature, DNA identification, middleware,
multi-modality, etc. In terms of usage, the global market is largely dominated
by fingerprint identification, followed by facial recognition. According to the
International Biometric Group (IBG), in 2006, fingerprint identification
accounted for almost 44% of the market, followed by facial recognition at 19%,
middleware at 11%, hand geometry at 9%, iris recognition at 7%, voice
verification at 4%, signature verification at 2%, and multi-modal verification
at 4%.

As per industry reports, fingerprint will continue to be the highest
contributor to revenues. Worldwide, revenue from fingerprint biometrics is
expected to grow from $1.3 bn in 2007 to $2.7 bn by 2012, a CAGR of 16.3% over
the next five years. On the other hand, revenue contribution from face
recognition is expected to go up from $459 mn in 2007 to $1.3 bn by 2012.
Thereby, growing faster than the fingerprint segment, at a CAGR, of 23.8% over
five years.

Key Verticals

While the Indian market is still nascent, its expected to be one of the
growth markets of the future in terms of adoption. This is going to be driven by
the need for more sophisticated, accurate, and robust security technologies to
counter the increasingly complex threats. The potential market segments include
banks, financial institutions, healthcare institutes, etc.

Globally, biometrics is finding its way into application areas like access
control, attendance system, national ID, ePassports, consumer ID, and
surveillance, with access control and attendance applications dominating the
lot. Presently, commercial applications with consumer applications like access
control for residential security are beginning to emerge. Within the worldwide
commercial space as well, the corporate market is fairly nascent as compared to
applications in sectors like defense, police, security agencies, and the
government. Access control and attendance lead the way for biometrics
applications in the enterprise segment. Future application areas include use of
biometrics in e-commerce and access control to more devices other than laptops.
This can include devices like mobile phones or assets like cars, etc. Using
biometrics for restricted access to data is also going to gain prominence for
the CIO.

One of the factors propelling the adoption of biometrics is the benefit that
it has over other identification and verification technologies. Some of the
other technologies available in the market include tokens and passwords, which
have their own limitations like counterfeit and theft of tokens, or stealing and
forgetting of passwords. In the case of biometrics these limitations are removed
since security clearance is linked to the person himself. This makes it more
accurate, secure, and fraud resistant as compared to the traditional
identification and verification technologies available in the market.

Shipra Malhotra

shipram@cybermedia.co.in