TrendThe pace of development and adoption of biometric technologies accelerates

Biometrics is viewed to be at the cutting edge of security technology. From the first commercial application of a finger print reader in 1984, new systems and applications introduced to the market on a regular basis; some are still in the development phase while others, like iris and facial recognition, are gradually being introduced into practical installations. John Davies writes that it has taken the increased threat from global terrorism and organized 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.

A growing number of installations are already in successful operation in the United Kingdom 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 have come a range of iris, face, vein, and voice technologies. “These emergent technologies are now providing specifiers and security managers with real choice,” writes Davies, “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.” 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. 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 these could impede the recognition software. Technically, the affect of prevailing light conditions and the angle of the image needs to be reduced, thereby allowing faster and more accurate processing.

Two other emerging systems are vein pattern readers and iris recognition. Both offer a highly attractive