But what of the corporate security market? What opportunities do biometrics open up for businesses and other organisations’ security?
TechSci has projected 14% compound annual growth in the global biometrics market over the coming five years – which would see the market nearly doubling in size.
This growth, TechSci predicts, will be driven by increasing deployment of biometric technology in various government projects and consumer offerings. Examples include e-passports and digital transactions, and the integration of fingerprint, facial, hand, palm, iris and voice recognition technology into an ever-widening range of consumer products and services.
Biometrics are on the up, especially in the consumer sector, with enthusiastic adoption of fingerprint sensors, facial recognition technology and more.
But what of the corporate security market? What opportunities do biometrics open up for businesses and other organisations’ security?
Biometric security technologies are already popular, enjoying ever-more widespread adoption in consumer products. For example, fingerprint sensing capability, already available on devices such as laptops, saw a huge increase in popularity in 2013, with the launch of Apple’s iPhone 5s, and is now employed in a wide range of smartphones, tablets and other devices.
Meanwhile, iris recognition technology promises to augment mobile device security and improve user experiences. Various biometric APIs have been published, allowing developers to take advantage of biometric authentication capabilities in their products and services.
The corporate security world, though, has been slower to take up biometrics, with a few exceptions, such as airports. Many organisations have been waiting for solid progress and clear positioning from providers on biometric technologies, particularly in the area of facial recognition.
However, the potential for biometric technology to enhance corporate security systems is enormous.
Wearable technology, until now largely aimed at specific consumer sectors, also has much to offer in the corporate security arena
Smart cards offer extensive potential. Biometric sensors can be integrated into cards, stopping them working until they are biometrically activated by an authorised user. Alternatively, biometric information can be captured offline, and stored in digital form on the card.
Wearable technology, which has up to this point been largely aimed at specific consumer sectors such as sports and fitness, also has much to offer in the corporate security arena. Examples include access control, smoothing the movement of individuals in and out of, and through, secured estates, and the activation of equipment based on proximity of a wearable device, itself activated by the registered user’s biometrics.
Looking beyond device-based innovations, just as APIs have made biometric capabilities available to smartphone and tablet app developers, so biometric software technology is also enabling corporate security innovators to leverage existing hardware, such as cameras and microphones.
While the general corporate world has so far been slow to adopt biometrics, there was an expectation, for many years, that these technologies would ultimately offer a ‘silver bullet’ solution to the challenges of identity verification.
But it’s now generally accepted that a single biometric verification technology working alone will never be as strong as multiple verification systems. In such systems, though, biometrics have a significant role to play.
Reliance High-Tech’s access control solution for the London Olympic Park redevelopment was a good example of biometrics working in conjunction with other access control technologies. We provided human recognition systems, tightly integrated with the site’s other security and IT systems.
The challenges were significant: a geographically large estate with multiple individually secured areas, and some 300,000 contractors requiring diverse levels of access around the clock. Multiple verification provided a highly secure, yet fast and flexible solution.
Increasing numbers of our customers are now expressing interest in multiple verification access control, in most cases using fingerprint recognition to augment more traditional access control methods. In the current climate, with security a hot topic, such interest is only likely to grow.
Find out more about Reliance High-Tech, including its new facial and in-motion biometrics solution Reliance Biometrics.
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