PRESENT SCENARIO

The bulk of biometric applications to date are probably in areas that you will never hear of. This is because there are a very large number of relatively small security related applications undertaken by specialist security systems suppliers. These systems account for the majority of unit sales as far as the device manufacturers are concerned and are often supplied via a third party distribution chain.

The applications that you will here of are those in the public domain. These include:

Prison visitor systems: where visitors to inmates are subject to verification procedures in order that identities may not be swapped during the visit - a familiar occurrence among prisons worldwide. Driver’s licenses: whereby some authorities found that drivers (particularly truck drivers) had multiple licenses or swapped licenses among themselves when crossing state lines or national borders.
Canteen administration: particularly on campus where subsidized meals are available to bona fide students, a system which was being heavily abused in some areas.
Benefit payment systems: In America, several states have saved significant amounts of money by implementing biometric verification procedures. Not surprisingly, the numbers of individuals claiming benefit has dropped dramatically in the process, validating the systems as an effective deterrent against multiple claims.
Border control: A notable example being the INSPASS trial in America where travelers were issued with a card enabling them to use the strategically based biometric terminals and bypass long immigration queues. There are other pilot systems operating in S.E. Asia and elsewhere in this respect.
Voting systems: where eligible politicians are required to verify their identity during a voting process. This is intended to stop ‘proxy’ voting where the vote may not go as expected.

In addition there are numerous applications in gold and diamond mines, bullion warehouses and bank vaults, as indeed you might expect, as well as the more commonplace physical access control applications in industry.

FUTURE SCENARIO

There are many views concerning potential biometric applications, some popular examples being;

ATM machine use: Most of the leading banks have been experimenting with biometrics for ATM machine use and as a general means of combating card fraud. Surprisingly, these experiments have rarely consisted of carefully integrated devices into a common process, as could easily be achieved with certain biometric devices. Comments in the user psychology section come to mind here and one wonders why we have not seen a more professional and carefully considered implementation from this sector. The banks will of course have a view concerning the level of fraud and the cost of combating it via a technology solution such as biometrics. They will also express concern about potentially alienating customers with such an approach. However, it still surprises many in the biometric industry that the banks and financial institutions have so far failed to embrace this technology with any enthusiasm.

Workstation and network access: For a long time this was an area often discussed but rarely implemented until recent developments saw the unit price of biometric devices fall dramatically as well as several designs aimed squarely at this application. In addition, with household names such as Sony, Compaq, Samsung and others entering the market, these devices appear almost as a standard computer peripheral. Many are viewing this as the application which will provide critical mass for the biometric industry and create the transition between sci-fi device to regular systems component, thus raising public awareness and lowering resistance to the use of biometrics in general.

Travel and tourism: There are many in this industry who have the vision of a multi application card for travelers which, incorporating a biometric, would enable them to participate in various frequent flyer and border control systems as well as paying for their air ticket, hotel room, hire care etc., all with one convenient token. Technically this is eminently possible, but from a political and commercial point of view there are still many issues to resolve, not the least being who would own the card, be responsible for administration and so on. These may not be insurmountable problems and perhaps we may see something along these lines emerge. A notable challenge in this respect would be packaging such an initiative in a way that would be truly attractive for users.

Internet transactions: Many immediately think of on line transactions as being an obvious area for biometrics, although there are some significant issues to consider in this context. Assuming device cost could be brought down to a level whereby a biometric (and perhaps chip card) reader could be easily incorporated into a standard build PC, we still have the problem of authenticated enrolment and template management, although there are several approaches one could take to that. Of course, if your credit card already incorporated a biometric this would simplify things considerably. It is interesting to note that certain device manufacturers have collaborated with key encryption providers to provide an enhancement to their existing services. Perhaps we shall see some interesting developments in this are in the near future.

Telephone transactions: No doubt many telesales and call centre managers have pondered the use of biometrics. It is an attractive possibility to consider, especially for automated processes. However, voice verification is a difficult area of biometrics, especially if one does not have direct control over the transducers, as indeed you wouldn’t when dealing with the general public. The variability of telephone handsets coupled to the variability of line quality and the variability of user environments presents a significant challenge to voice verification technology, and that is before you even consider the variability in understanding among users. The technology can work well in controlled closed loop conditions but is extraordinarily difficult to implement on anything approaching a large scale. Designing in the necessary error correction and fallback procedures to automated systems in a user friendly manner is also not a job for the faint hearted. Perhaps we shall see further developments which will largely overcome these problems. Certainly there is a commercial incentive to do so and I have no doubt that much research is under way in this respect.

Public identity cards: A biometric incorporated into a multi purpose public ID card would be useful in a number of scenarios if one could win public support for such a scheme. Unfortunately, in this country as in others there are huge numbers of individuals who definitely do not want to be identified. This ensures that any such proposal would quickly become a political hot potato and a nightmare for the minister concerned. You may consider this a shame or a good thing, depending on you point of view. From a dispassionate technology perspective it represents something of a lost opportunity, but this is of course nothing new. It’s interesting that certain local authorities in the UK have issued ‘citizen’ cards with which named cardholders can receive various benefits including discounts at local stores and on certain services. These do not seem to have been seriously challenged, even though they are in effect an ID card.