Biometric technology has been with us for over two decades, but how will it evolve over the next ten years?  John Davies, Managing Director of access control specialist TDSi, looks at the impact of biometrics and considers how future developments might shape the security industry.

Biometrics is quite rightly viewed to be at the cutting edge of security technology.  From the very first commercial application of a finger print reader in 1984, we have seen new systems and applications introduced to the market on a regular basis; some are still firmly in the development phase whilst others, like iris and facial recognition, are gradually being introduced into practical installations.

In many ways, it has taken the increased threat from global terrorism and organised crime to create an acceptance of biometric security, convincing an anxious and cynical public that systems do not necessarily pose a threat to civil liberties, provided they are properly controlled and effectively managed.

In a recent pan-European survey of consumer attitudes conducted by LogicaCMG, research showed that the general public were more concerned with their safety when travelling - and with the security of managing their financial affairs - than they were threatened by any potential privacy issues.  It seems that the debate has now moved on from questioning what is ethical and acceptable to asking what form of biometric technology is most effective and appropriate for particular applications.

Emerging biometric technologies

A growing number of installations are already in successful operation in the UK across a range of sectors - as diverse as school libraries and canteens; airport frequent flyer programmes and prisoner identification systems.  International applications cover airports, financial institutions and embassies.

Biometric information remains a topic high on many governments' agendas - with ID cards, visas, passport and border controls all key elements of national security debates.  Recent system developments have seen a significant change in both the biometric information being analysed and the quality of the reading and processing performance.  From the early finger print readers - which still carry with them an unfortunate association with criminal identification, as well as some lingering doubts over the users ability to fool the scanners - have come a range of iris, face, vein and voice technologies.

These emergent technologies are now providing specifiers and security managers with real choice, allowing them to select the most appropriate system for their particular needs - balancing the key variables of accuracy, quality, reliability, speed of performance and cost.

Whereas finger print readers are typically at the lower end of the biometric cost scale (partly resulting from the benefits of relatively high production levels, which in four years has seen the cost of readers practically halved), they also tend to be at the lower end of the accuracy scale and so are most appropriate for higher volume, lower risk applications.

Facial recognition systems are currently second to finger print readers in terms of global usage.  Although facial recognition systems have a higher relative unit cost, they do offer increased accuracy levels.  Inherently the technology has a number of advantages, most notably, that it is readily acceptable by the public and relatively easy to integrate with other security systems, particularly CCTV.  But development work still needs to be done to improve its performance.  It needs to make allowance for the changes that occur to the human face over time - aging, facial hair, skin tone, glasses, etc.  All of which could impede the recognition software.  And technically, the affect of prevailing light conditions and the angle of the image needs to be reduced, thereby allowing faster and more accurate processing.