Biometrics and identity security is here
Recent work for a client involved with iris scanning, recognition, and integration technologies has been eye opening ( bad pun intended.) In some form this technology and its early beginnings of an industry has been around for the last decade without gaining a lot of traction.
My sense is that a combination of factors has finally come together so the industry is now ready to grow. These factors include inexpensive high resolution cameras, high speed wireless networks, inexpensive yet scalable database tools, a scanning algorithm that is available for adoption, and ,of course, a world where identity security is becoming vital.
Most if not all biometric experts have come to the conclusion that iris scanning will become the superior form of identity management to fingerprinting. It is faster, better, cheaper and to most people less intrusive.
What is interesting about iris scanning is the array of potential security or identity management applications it can take over.
Criminal Justice has been the broadest early adopter in the United States. As a national iris database becomes available to local law enforcement departments one can envision officers with smartphone type cameras taking photos and looking for matches in real time. Airlines and airports will be another vertical targeted for adoption as a way to improve the check in process.
Healthcare is dealing with the challenges of patient safety due to patient record mixups as well as protecting the public from the misuse of prescription drugs. Both of these challenges can be improved with real time iris scanning.
Hospitality will see adoption as an improvement over room card keys and as a fast, low cost way to do employment checks. The ability to conduct fast, low cost employee identification will be seen as hugely important to any industry with high rates of staff transitions. One can see access control into secure institutions and campus environments being a growing market too.
The most ubiquitous usage for iris scanning may be the adoption of it in our consumer electronic devices as an alternative to user name/password entries.
It will be fascinating to watch the growth of this industry. My wild guess is that the consumerization of technology trend will provide an iris recognition functionality in a mass produced tablet or smartphone. Having consumers get comfortable with the technology will push the entire industry forward.
