Emerging Trends in Biometric Technology
When a person hears the word “biometrics,” the first thing that comes to their mind is facial recognition. If they are fans of sci-fi movies, some will think of iris scans and fingerprint scans. Well, biometric scanners include these identifiers and more.
Biometrics capture human behavioral and physical characteristics that an organization can use to identify a person digitally. Biometrics function like a key to grant access to data, devices or systems. The identifiers are unique to each person, and the system can use the identifiers in combination to make the identification more accurate.
The higher accuracy gives enterprise security a higher level of confidence in individual identification without putting the person through too much hassle.
What identifiers does the system collect?
Biometrics allow the proper identification and authentication according to unique verifiable and recognizable data. The system captures a variety of identifiers aside from what’s already mentioned.
It can scan veins in your hands and arms, which not only differ from person to person but also differ from right hand to left hand. Biometrics can also capture behavioral characteristics like your typing rhythm, handwriting, your voice, retina, and the shape of your hand, your DNA, and the way you walk.
Advanced systems may capture your DNA, saliva, urine, blood, the sound of your footsteps, and the way you walk. It will be able to capture how fast you write your signature, the way you use objects, and your usual gestures.
The collection of identifiers serves a variety of purposes. They use some in offices and businesses, others for police and security, and the rest for medical research. They store the collected data in secure servers of the company that runs biometrics systems.
However, for defense and security, like the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, will transfer their biometric data on 250 million people to the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) system, the successor of IDENT (Automated Biometric Identification System), and the legacy biometric analysis platform the Homeland Security used for many years.
They will store the data on HART on Amazon’s Web Services platform, the company’s cloud storage services, according to Next.gov.
Benefits of biometrics
Many people are wary of biometric data collection because they feel it is an invasion of their privacy. Despite this, biometrics provides many benefits to the offices and organizations that use the system. It guarantees a high level of accuracy and security. You cannot forge, steal, exchange or forget biometric data.
Electronic passports have biometric information. Law enforcement agencies use biometrics for civil and criminal identification and military access control.
Many sectors today are using biometrics, from mobile commerce to retail to banking. You can appreciate the usefulness of biometrics when authentication and identification are critical.
Typically, biometrics is useful in these sectors:
- Public security and law enforcement
- Military forces (identification of ally/enemy)
- Migration, travel and border control
- Voter, resident, and citizen identification
- Identification for healthcare and subsidies
- Logical and physical access
- Customer identification
Emerging trends in biometric systems
Several companies that are developing biometric technologies are creating more authentication methods to extend the use of biometrics.
They are developing voice recognition for vehicles. In a few years, we are likely to see cars responding to the human voice. The consumer can control various switches, dials, and buttons. This will allow the driver to focus on driving comfortably.
There will soon be mobile biometric technologies on mobile devices for instant confirmation of the consumer when making electronic payments.
Although not yet widely known, gait recognition will be beneficial to car owners. It’s a smart way to prevent vehicle theft. The system will recognize the way the person walks. If the person approaching the vehicle, even when holding the key, walks differently, the vehicle will automatically lock itself.
What’s new with facial recognition?
When the Covid-19 started, people wore face masks, obliterating most of their facial features. This wrecked havoc on facial recognition systems. Developers are quick to recognize the situation. They made various adjustments and experiments to the facial recognition algorithms to circumvent the difficulty of properly identifying individuals.
In May 2020, NEC announced it has already developed a device that can recognize individuals even if they have face masks. Aside from scanning the face, the device scans people’s irises.
The Tokyo-based company said that will take only two seconds to finish a scan, with a rate of error of under one in 10 billion. NEC said the full-scale device would be available by 2021.
NEC expects the device will be in high demand for managing entries into hospitals, factories and office buildings. They also foresee the use of the device on the payment systems of retailers and automated teller machines.
The demand for physical and digital security continues to increase. Biometrics may be one platform that can provide better control in data management, keeping things in order without too much fuss.