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2018 biometric predictions: advanced biometric technologies take off

Categories Industry Insights
 

This is a guest post by Arie Melamed, CMO of FST Biometrics.

2017 marked a turning point in the global acceptance of biometrics. We’ve seen adoption increase across industries, including mobile, airports, healthcare and corporate settings, and in the public sphere. But, there is one dynamic that has advanced consumer awareness of, and comfort with biometric technologies in everyday life: major technology leaders incorporating advanced biometrics into consumer devices.

Apple’s introduction of FaceID in the iPhone X release made headlines across the tech world when Tim Cook announced the new feature (even though other smartphones were already using such technologies). However, Apple, being the powerhouse and technology trendsetter, brought facial recognition acceptance to a new level – and through 2018, we are certain to see major players like Apple continue to influence the public’s biometrics consciousness.

Below are four trends we expect to see during 2018 in biometrics, including a much more rapid and widespread acceptance of facial recognition and other more advanced modalities in a variety of industries.

1) Biometrics will enter the mainstream consumer mind.

As mentioned above, we saw the spark of this trend in the final months of 2017. On mobile, in particular, many will follow Apple’s lead to provide facial recognition. These technologies will become more prominently used by consumers, and naturally, will continue to advance in their accuracy and security. Ultimately, we will see facial recognition become a mainstream method for mobile payments, retail applications, and secure access on-the-go.

2) Corporations will increase biometric adoption, with greater integration among access control industry players.

Within our own customer base, we have seen increasing interest from the corporate sector in deploying biometric identification systems as part of more comprehensive secure access systems. This has been coupled with increasing integration between various players within the biometrics and security industries. Driving this integration are IP and cloud-based solutions, which have proliferated and standardized over the past several years, including the standardization of interfaces in these solutions. This has enabled various solutions providers, including smart cameras, access control systems, biometrics and turnstile technologies (to name just a few), to interoperate in a unified interface.

Customers today demand fully integrated solutions that can be installed and managed simply. Vendors have realized that to meet the individual needs of each business, from aesthetic concerns, to customized clearance levels – they must collaborate on holistic solutions. No vendor will be able to play on its own in this competitive market, and to meet the increasing demand, we will continue to see companies working together to maximize the potential of new advanced technologies.

3) Biometrics will take off in healthcare settings.

According to Credence Research’s report on the use of biometrics in healthcare, the global healthcare biometrics market will grow at a CAGR of 22.9 percent.

The healthcare vertical is ripe for growth. While currently, biometrics in healthcare are being used for access control applications – identifying hospital personnel, identifying patients, restricting access to specific areas within hospitals and other healthcare institutions, as we move through this year and in the years ahead, applications will develop beyond access control to solve specific healthcare challenges.

For example, healthcare professionals will be able to use biometrics for identity verification, which will also grant access to patient records and medical histories in real-time. This will enable healthcare professionals to make more informed decisions for each patient to ensure they receive accurate treatment and medication dosages, and avoid any mix-ups such as wrong-site surgery.

Non-invasive and touch-free biometrics, such as facial recognition, gait recognition (or any fusion of non-invasive and touch-free biometrics), will become prevalent in healthcare and other environments where hygiene matters: hospitals, health clubs, and other wellness facilities. This will allow for accurate identification of employees, patients and club members, while protecting health and hygiene in the environment.

4) Airports will expand biometric use beyond passport control.

Presently, some 800 million biometric passports are in circulation. As such, biometric scanners as part of airport check-in processes are becoming more common. However, airports will optimize operations with more expansive biometric deployments through 2018. This will go beyond express lines in customs and check-in.

Current biometric solutions in airports only scratch the surface of the potential efficiencies they can create in airports. Biometrics – particularly in-motion biometrics that identify travelers on-the-go with no need to slow down or stop for identification – can be utilized to turn each traveler into a single token for identification.

What does this mean?

Normally, a passenger needs to show various forms of identification to various airport stakeholders throughout the airport process (airlines, security personnel, airport staff/duty free, customs agents, etc.). Rather than showing multiple identification tokens (passport and boarding card) at every step of the airport journey, in-motion biometrics will allow a traveler to move through each step of the process using themselves as their identification token.

Facial biometrics and beyond

I’m looking forward to seeing how 2018 plays out for biometrics – it’s an exciting time for everyone in this rapidly progressing industry.

DISCLAIMER: BiometricUpdate.com blogs are submitted content. The views expressed in this blog are that of the author, and don’t necessarily reflect the views of BiometricUpdate.com.

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