Biometrics in healthcare, mobile authentication, Aadhaar, Biometrics2015 and more top stories

Here is a recap of the most popular biometrics industry news that appeared on BiometricUpdate.com this past week.

Biometrics 2015: Isabelle Moeller Q&A

One of the week’s most popular stories came in the form of a Q&A interview with Biometrics Institute CEO Isabelle Moeller, who discussed preparations and details about the upcoming Biometrics 2015: Secure Identity Solutions Now! conference, held October 13 – 15 at the QEII Centre in Westminster, London.

India bars national biometric identity usage

In a surprising twist, India’s Supreme Court placed a cease order on the national Indian government concerning the use of Aadhaar data. Last week, the Court barred the country’s Election Commission from linking electoral data to the Aadhaar system until the greater question of privacy and the use of the biometric system itself is settled.

DHS funds mobile authentication development

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology directorate has awarded HRL Laboratories, United Technologies Research Center, and Northrop Grumman nearly $5 million to research new mobile authentication technologies.

Analyst Reports

Several analyst reports surfaced this week, each providing their own unique take on the current and future forecast of the global biometrics market. First, Tractica published a report entitled “Biometrics in the Healthcare Industry”, which provides a 10-year forecasts for the period from 2015 through 2024 in which the worldwide healthcare biometrics market will reach a cumulative revenue of $12.5 billion by 2024.

Next, Future Market Insights announced it will publish a report entitled “Biometrics Services Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015 – 2020”, which predicts the market to undergo a double-digit growth rate by 2019 from its previous global market value of US$ 6,357.7 million in 2012.

Finally, research analyst group Sandler Research published the “Voice Recognition Biometrics Market 2015-2019 Report” in which it forecasts that the global voice recognition market will grow at 22.15% CAGR to 2019.

Law enforcement

Biometrics in law enforcement has always been a hot topic issue, particularly in respect to privacy concerns. This week saw a report from The New York Times which singled out The San Diego Police Department’s use of facial recognition software, albeit with few guidelines and little public disclosure, which has led to public concerns about privacy and potential misuse of the technology

A few days later, The New York Times published an editorial-opinion letter written by Amy Hess, executive assistant director of the FBI’s science and technology division. The letter was in response to some of the inaccuracies included in the previous Times report regarding the FBI’s Next Generation Identification technology’s use of facial recognition analysis.

FIDO certification

This was certainly a big week for the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance, as the organization announced there are 62 FIDO Certified products following the second round of FIDO Alliance testing of products for compliance to the FIDO 1.0 specifications.

In a separate announcement, South Korean payment service firm SK Planet announced that its biometric authentication solution passed the Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) Alliance’s interoperability test

Customs and borders

Indra announced it has successfully deployed approximately 124 automatic border control (ABC) biometric kiosks at five airports across Spain, including in Madrid, Barcelona, Girona, Palma de Mallorca and Alicante.

Turning over to India, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad announced it has implemented biometric border control technology to become the nation’s first airport to provide a completely paper-less e-boarding solution.

Financial

In the first of two financial stories, First Tech Federal Credit Union announced it has implemented a pilot program with MasterCard that will enable First Tech employees to authenticate and verify financial transactions using facial recognition and fingerprints.

Meanwhile, the Nymi Band, a wearable authentication device that uses electrocardiogram technology, has been used to make the world’s first credit card payment at a cash register verified by the user’s unique heartbeat.

Fingerprints

And finally, CrucialTec announced that its fingerprint module business will continue to grow throughout the remainder of the year as a result of the upward trajectory of the Chinese biometrics market.

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  biometrics  |  Biometrics 2015  |  Biometrics Institute  |  CrucialTec  |  DHS  |  FBI  |  FIDO Alliance  |  India  |  Indra  |  Isabelle Moeller  |  market report  |  Mastercard  |  NGI  |  Nymi  |  SK Planet