Taiwan biometrics suppliers optimistic as global markets balk at Chinese products

Concerns about relations with China and the security of products from the country is giving Taiwanese biometrics companies a boost, Taiwan Business TOPICS reports.

Startek produced its first fingerprint-based residential access control system for an apartment building in 1991, and that system ran without any major problems for two decades. Now the company’s founder and CEO Hsu Wen-Hsing says Startek is doing significant business in India.

“We have so far sold 1.5 million units of fingerprint-matching devices for the Aadhaar eco-system, and one factor behind India choosing us is the tensions between India and China,” Hsu says.

Startek biometric technology is also used by Thai police and the Philippines’ border control agency.

Chiyu Technology, which makes fingerprint, finger vein and facial recognition systems for access control and time and attendance says its revenue grew by 20 percent in 2018 in part due to the closer scrutiny of suppliers by American customers, as well as its products’ GDPR compliance.

Chiyu’s finger vein scanners have been integrated in ATMs operated by CTBC Bank in Taiwan to replace passwords and chip cards since 2017, and the company hopes to address the U.S. military market with a forthcoming 3D facial recognition product.

While Chinese companies dominated the University of Washington’s 2018 MegaFace Challenge, CyberLink’s FaceMe was one of two non-Chinese leaders with a 98.41 percent true acceptance rate.

ECG biometrics provider Instacardeal, founded by National Tsing Hua University Professor Wu Shun-chi, won Arm Holdings Arm Design Contest in late 2017, and Wu says more Taiwanese students are showing interest in biometrics.

Increasing demand for biometric identification chips is also expected to boost Taiwanese integrated chips makers in 2019.

Article Topics

banking  |  biometrics  |  border management  |  China  |  civil ID  |  CyberLink  |  Startek  |  Taiwan