IT vendors need to provide clear examples of why and how biometrics can
benefit businesses if the technology is to become more widely adopted
according to industry experts.
Speaking at the Biometrics 2005 conference in London, Dr Jim Wayman,
director of the Biometric Test Centre at San Jose University, warned
that the market for biological based identity recognition would not
take off until suppliers began to clearly document and outline specific
cost savings to businesses and organisations.
“Biometric systems have to justify their cost -- saying 'added
security' is not enough. Vendors and integrators should be documenting
case studies and savings,” he said.
Companies need to justify spending money on technology, but when the
technology has no proven track record and is still considered
experimental, justification is much harder, added Wayman.
The future of the biometrics market looks promising, he said,
but he advised hardware makers to build products around realistic
identity needs:“The market
will not support non-proportional applications such as fingerprint
recognition to buy a coffee.”
Despite its relative infancy as a technology, public support for biometrics appears to be strong. Research conducted by Fujitsu revealed that one in three UK banking customers would like their bank to start using biometrics.
A lack of open standards is also holding back the adoption of the
technology, said Dr Jonathan Cave, senior lecturer in economics, at the
University of Warwick, also speaking at the event. “The system should
work with your other systems. Biometrics has to work with other
systems,” he added.
The biometric market is currently dominated by just a few key players
such as LG, Panasonic, and Oki, whose technologies are often not
interoperable, this ties users to a single vendor and stop investments
in the technology for fear of being left stranded with the wrong
system. “The market will be dominated by one or two large players which
will cause a fear of stranded investments in the wrong system,” said
Cave.
Dr John Daugman from Cambridge University, who developed the first
identification system that can scan and recognise the iris, agreed that
open standards were crucial to the development and adoption of the
technology. “Application integration within systems and an open
architecture are very important to biometrics,” he said.
Developments in biometric technology include Fujitsu’s Contactless Palm Vein Authentication System, which recognises the veins in a palm from a short distance with few restrictions on hand positioning.
Earlier this year the European Union called on the US to delay the deadline for the introduction of biometric passports for
visitors without a visa. Originally the US had set a deadline of
October 2005 for visitors entering the country under the visa waiver
scheme to hold a passport with a recognised biometric identifier held
on an electronic chip.
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