It has become the preferred option for identity and authentications. Traditionally the government projects used the technology for identity and authentications. However, its usage in commercial applications is rapidly growing. Financial Services, Retail, Healthcare, Industrial, IT and Telecom, Gaming, Hospitality, Education, and Manufacturing are increasingly using different modalities of biometric technology.
Globalization has been a key factor in driving the adoption of biometric technologies; border control applications are becoming vital in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Identity theft has been a key factor in the adoption of biometric technologies in national identification programs globally. The advent of mega corridors, cities, and regions driven by increasing urbanization is expected to attract considerable investments from governments toward intelligent biometric systems. This trend is expected to spur the growth of multimodal biometric systems. Retail is likely to adopt more biometrics technologies to ascertain customer buying patterns that will directly help in stock maintenance and provide customized services at all times.
Biometrics is likely to enable buying pattern recognition, while captured data can also be used for applications such as payments and tracking of health parameters.
Although fingerprint biometric technology is still the most preferred modality, face recognition, voice recognition, palm vein, and finger vein biometric technologies have high growth opportunities in the short and mid-term future. The biggest concern for fingerprint technology is hygiene, especially for healthcare applications. Iris has huge potential and is expected to gain prominence in healthcare, financial services, and automotive verticals. Demand for voice biometrics is expected in the financial services vertical. Face technology is used across public and commercial applications, but reliability issues exist.
Due to increasing identity theft and other fraudulent activities, hospitals and medical insurance companies are deploying biometrics for patient identification and for controlling hospital staff’s physical access to sensitive areas. Face and iris biometrics are gaining prominence. Closed-circuit TV technology is expected to work in tandem with face biometrics to counter fraud, especially in financial institutions and casinos. The convergence of security for physical and logical access control through the use of smart cards with embedded fingerprint biometrics technology is a major market driver that is likely to become the standard in many organizations for secure credential and identity management. Fingerprint and iris recognition, which are mainly used for time, attendance, and access control in bank headquarters and other financial institutions, are being deployed for employees and customers in regional branches.
Biometrics in ATMs, POS, hospitals, education, and gaming are the key growth areas and the market will primarily be driven by the need for enhanced security, safety, data protection, and fraud prevention. The convergence of various biometrics technologies will help cater to new applications while addressing existing opportunities. Focusing investment and development on next-generation biometrics technologies and greater accuracy in applications will enable a spectrum of services using data gathered while tracking customers who have adopted biometrics.
