Biometric industry improving security through new tech and adoptions
15 March, 2011
category: Biometrics, Government
John Kendall, director of national security development for biometric technology developer Unisys, spoke on the new developments in the biometrics industry and how technology in conjunction with new trends in adoption are increasing the level of security by slowly edging out the easy-to-fool traditional fingerprint scanners, according to a ZDNet article.
Among the trends and developments are countries adopting new technologies for national ID programs such as fingerprint-based authentication moving towards newer, harder to fool systems such as subdermal and vascular authentication.
The technological developments in finger-based authentication that Kendall spoke of include subdermal and multispectral imaging, fingerprint scanners which scan below the surface of the fingerprint to get a more three-dimensional scan of the finger. Vascular biometrics use near infrared light to scan a user’s unique vein pattern in their finger or palm.
Among those adopting new technologies are India and Mexico, who are both incorporating iris-recognition into their national ID programs and using fingerprint as a secondary ID.
Bank of America, who is incorporating iris identification into its access control system. While iris recognition hasn’t been adopted at huge rates as of yet due to a higher price point than most other biometric, it is often hailed as among the most secure and accurate.
Kendall finished by noting that overall biometric acceptance is trending upwards as people are learning of the benefits of using the technology and he expects that costs will continue to drop as the acceptance continues to rise.
Read the full story here.
