OREANDA-NEWS. Biometrics have offered a fail-safe solution for businesses that are now empowered to address issues like unauthorized access, ID swapping, credential breach, manual badge checks, and more. This is because biometrics have advanced exponentially over the years offering more reliability at reduced costs. It offers a high level of identification management security solution that offers several advantages over traditional identification means at lower costs.

Biometrics technology identifies an individual on the basis of biological characteristics such as fingerprints and iris scans for convenient and secure authentication. With growing Internet-based services such as online banking, the need for foolproof verification while accessing accounts is imperative, wherein biometrics technology serves the purpose. Due to its measurable, universal, and unique features, biometrics ensures a high level of information security. These factors will result in exponential growth of the global biometrics technology market in the future, says a new report by Transparency Market Research.

Q. What lies in store for biometrics technology where national security projects are concerned?

A. Worldwide, the increasing threat of terrorism has necessitated a reliable identity verification system for security reasons. This is mainly to safeguard critical data that may be related to national security or defense capabilities of the nation. To address this, developed economies have already deployed biometrics technology at sensitive locations to combat terrorism and other threats to national security.

As biometrics technology uses biological characteristics, it offers significant advantages over other security measures.

Q. Which is the leading application segment in the global biometrics technology market?

A. Non-AFIS led the application segment of the market in 2012. This is mainly due to the ease of use and cost-effectiveness of this application segment. Moreover, non-AFIS systems are flexible and convenient in comparison to other application segments. Last but not the least, the lack of major maintenance requisites for non-AFIS systems adds to their advantage.

However, the iris application segment holds immense growth potential due to its suitability for high-end security and access control needs. This is because iris recognition is contact-free, unobtrusive, and is a safe identification method. Though small, iris recognition systems are robust and integrate into large electronic systems easily.

Q.  How do regional markets fare in the global biometrics technology market?

A. North America and Europe are the largest markets for biometrics technology as these regions are early adopters of technology. Due to the increasing concerns for terror attacks, security threats, and crime rates, governments in these regions are actively involved in the deployment of biometrics technology systems to prevent loss of critical data and for national security.

In Asia Pacific, the issuance of e-passports and introduction of national identification programs are major factors contributing to the growth of the biometrics technology market in this region. South Korea, India, China, and Indonesia have been expeditiously adopting these security measures.

In this regard, India is home to the largest biometrics database in the world, Aadhar, which has fingerprints, photos, and iris scans of more than 500 million citizens so far.