Will 2007 finally be the Year of Biometrics?

“If one were to conduct a survey of technology publications over the past decade or so, it’s a good bet there would be at least one instance in each of those years in which someone declared that ‘this is the year of biometrics,’” writes Katherine Noyes, explaining why she is hesistant to follow her predecessors and make the same declaration about 2007. “Full of promise but long constrained by a diverse set of obstacles, biometrics … has not yet lived up to the hype.” Yet despite her misgivings, Noyes sees a lot of traction in the industry, and of 2007 is anything like 2006, it seems likely that she’ll be much less reticent about 2008.

We have often reported on one of the biggest breakthrough’s of 2006: widespread adoption in the consumer market. “There’s a lot of activity going on, and the market is beginning to see some widespread adoption that will actually touch consumers,” said Walter Hamilton, chairman of the International Biometric Industry Association. Although there have been hiccups, many schools last year adopted fingerprint biometrics for their school lunch programs, and even an institution as staid as the Piggly Wiggly uses a similar system to let customers pay by providing a phone number and a fingerscan. Even Disneyland announced a plan to pair guests’ fingerprints with their entry tickets.

Readers may also recall that in 2006 Asia saw a growing interest in using fingerprints in lieu of ATM PIN numbers, and Middle Eastern countries took major steps towards completing biometric identifiction card systems. In fact, the market outside the United States is extremely lucrative, due in large part to cultural differences. “There are more than 30 million users out there using our technology, but about half of those are outside the United States,” said one vendor. “In places like Latin America, Europe and Africa, people don’t have this notion of Big Brother watching.”

-read more in Katherine Noyes’s TechNewsWorld report