Biometrics for payments and border control announcements suggest ongoing industry momentum

Surveys and analysts say the stage is set for biometric payment cards adoption in the emerging new normal, and that along with contactless technologies for supporting returns to relative normality was the focus of the most-read stories on Biometric Update this week. A major new border control biometrics contract was announced, and a startup funding round shows the continuing robustness of investment in the industry.

Consumers interest in using biometrics for payments has spiked, as they are using credit cards and contactless payment methods much more during lockdown conditions. Evidence collected by several market research firms shows that effects of the pandemic, such as higher payment amount limits and desire to conduct transactions without touch, have set the stage for fingerprint payment cards to hit commercial markets.

Counterpoint Market Research sees growth coming for biometric payment cards, and Fingerprint Cards in particular, in the years ahead. Ipsidy, ImageWare, Nice, Knightscope, Okta, De La Rue and Supercom all made announcements in a busy stretch for publicly traded biometrics and digital identity companies.

Okhiaofe Ivharue of Seamfix argues in a guest post that the comfort level of customers with fingerprint recognition matters even more than the safety of the modality, as the pandemic changes common attitudes. Contactless biometrics have matured to the point that it can serve applications in a wide range of sectors, according to Ivharue. Redrock Biometrics Co-founder and Chairman Lenny Kontsevich tells Biometric Update that the current push for contactless biometrics comes as vein biometrics has developed to the point where it is ready for mass adoption. Kontsevich discusses how Redrock’s technology works, its accuracy, and the company’s recent partnerships.

An editorial by Exabeam Federal Advisory Board Member Steve Grewal for GCN examines the landscape and requirements for digital voting as a way of alleviating the safety concerns around the U.S. election scheduled for November. User and Entity Behavior Analysis for detecting anomalous authentications is among a number of measures he proposes to secure such a process.

3D cameras can help the restaurant industry re-open by providing gesture recognition for ordering from kiosks, enabling robots to carry out food and drink delivery, and ensure occupancy complies with public health guidelines, Orbbec Co-founder and Director of Engineering David Chen writes for QSR Magazine. Facial recognition payments are also part of Chen’s plans for 3D technology to remake modern restaurants.

The need for stronger policy enforcement around the use of facial recognition is examined in a Forbes Brandvoice editorial by Jumio CTO and Chief Scientist Labhesh Patel. The key distinction is drawn between recognition and authentication, and Patel examines the technical differences between these biometric technologies.

The U.S. Commerce Department has announced that the restrictions imposed on 33 entities from China, some of which are biometrics providers included on an Entity List for involvement in alleged rights violations, are effective June 5, The New York Times reports.

Influential organization ID2020 Alliance lost a member of its Technical Advisory Committee, who split with the group citing differences of opinion on direction and transparency. Elizabeth Renieris and ID2020 Executive Director Dakota Gruenner each wrote white papers discussing risks and potential problems with digital health credentials, or “immunity passports,” earlier this year, prior to Renieris’ departure.

The digital identity market, meanwhile, has a significant new entry in AU10TIX INSTINCT, renowned digital identity expert David Birch told Biometric Update in an interview, as the company’s automated and networked approach to combatting synthetic identity fraud in payments comes to the general online space.

A blog post by Mobey Forum Executive Director Elina Mattila says tech giants are increasingly competing for a stake in the digital identity ecosystem, in something of a preview of the group’s forthcoming report on the role of digital ID in pandemic response and recovery. Mobey Forum will focus exclusively on the challenges posed by COVID-19, and if and how digital identity schemes can help.

B-North Founder and CEO Jonathan Thompson and TruNarrative CEO John Lord discuss the former’s mission to rewrite the rules for SME lending with a combination of cloud-native technologies and human interaction in a video “Chat with a Challenger.” The two companies partnered to bring facial recognition to B-North’s lending platform in May.

The contract for the EU’s huge sBMS biometric border control system has been awarded to Idemia and Sopra Steria. The system will serve a handful of major regional systems with what is expected to be one of the largest databases of fingerprint and face biometrics in the world. The biometric border control system Idemia developed for Australia’s Department of Home Affairs, in this case in collaboration with Unisys, has reached its operational launch. The companies won that contract two and a half years ago, and will serve visa and border processes for visitors to the country, which there were 9.5 million of last year.

Legal experts from across Africa weigh in on the continent’s fragmented and slow-moving data laws, arguing for a unified approach, which would support the Digital Economy Initiative for Africa. This year’s Mission Billion Challenge is open, with an additional West African component for 2020, and the identity push and pull in Nigeria are also among top continental headlines in the sector.

A pair of companies announced successful results in compliance testing for Presentation Attack Detection by iBeta Quality Assurance. FacePhi face recognition and IrisGuard’s iris recognition each achieved ISO/IEC 301907-compliance for their protection against spoof attacks from the leading independent test lab.

The rush for digital transformation in the aviation sector is on, more than two-thirds of those surveyed from the industry agree. That means automation and AI, according to a report from Fast Future, FTE and APEX. The WTTC went one further, calling for the deployment of biometrics in airports to accelerate to help the industry recover in protocols developed along with IATA and ACI.

Startup Oloid burst onto the facial recognition market with a $5 million funding round and an entrance in the contactless biometrics and temperature screening segment. NEC, Identiv and Zenatix also have new entries into that suddenly-packed application area, while a market in San Jose has adopted Alchera’s facial recognition for access control for illness spread-prevention.

Clearview has filed its response to a preliminary injunction request by the Attorney General of Vermont, claiming that as an interactive online service like social networks, it has no liability for content. That argument will not apply in at least some of the other lawsuits the company faces, but is yet to be ruled on in Vermont.

Nvidia has welcomed deep learning software developer Skymind Konduit as a partner to its accelerator program, giving startups access to both chips and deep-learning libraries that can support biometrics at the edge. With AI increasingly being implemented in cameras, smartphones and other devices, the partnership can help developers build applications to run on this new infrastructure.

Myths about biometric spoofs, the level of trust biometric authentication provides, its privacy ramifications, the stability of biometrics, and their scope of applicability are addressed by OneSpan’s Sam Bakken in a Biometric Update guest post.

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Article Topics

airports  |  biometric cards  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  biometrics at the edge  |  border control  |  contactless biometrics  |  digital identity  |  facial recognition  |  fever detection  |  gesture recognition  |  spoof detection