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Home > The future of biometrics -- trends and emerging uses for biometric technology
August 17, 2005
By: Alice Osborn
The future of biometrics holds great promise for law
enforcement applications, as well for private industry uses.
By measuring facial geometry, surveillance systems can
identify suspects against characteristics stored in the
security system's database. "There is a popular tendency to
regard biometric products as sci-fi mythology, but the
reality is that biometrics is the future of the security
industry and is quickly becoming recognized as the most
accurate identification technology in the market," claims
Don Mihae who was recently hired by JAD Communication &
Safety Systems (JADCS) to lead its security division.
Biometrics' future will include e-commerce applications
for extra security on the checkout page, and biometrics will
guard against unauthorized access to cars and cell phones.
In the future, biometric technology will further develop 3-D
infrared facial recognition access control, real-time facial
recognition passive surveillance, and visitor management
authentication systems. Already
A4Vision,
a provider of 3-D facial scanning and identification
software uses specialized algorithms to interpret the
traditional 2-D camera image and transfer it into a 3-D
representation of a registered face. This makes it almost
impossible to deceive the biometric system with still photos
or other images.
Strengthening existing biometric innovations for
future growth
All of these security innovations will make biometric
technology more accurate and make its usage more widespread.
- Access control facial recognition -- Biometric
technologies will permit authorized users entry to a
property or to specific location in a building. Today,
A4Vision uses a 3-D infrared facial recognition system to
project subdued light onto a subject's face for optimal
identification. But in the future, this biometric
technology will be strengthened so that the subject will
not have to be a just few feet away from the video
surveillance cameras.
- Facial recognition passive surveillance --
Hidden surveillance cameras will be set up to monitor an
entranceway of any type of building to accurately identify
a potential suspect or terrorist against a database of
millions of images in less than one second. Alerts will
then transmitted to security personnel in real time.
- Alert management -- This is a fully
customizable command center to guard against potential
security breeches. The center uses real-time technologies
to deliver security alerts to multiple locations through
PDA (personal digital assistant) devices, and other mobile
technologies.
As the need increases for government bodies and large
firms to deploy hi-tech security systems to solve crimes or
protect employees, biometric technology will improve, as
investor confidence increases. Once the consumer confidence
is evident, biometric research will provide further
innovations, which will in turn strengthen future
performance, and this cycle will continue to build in a
positive direction.
But for the biometric technology field to grow, industry
standards must exist so that there is the greatest
compatibility between applications and hardware. The ISO/IEC
JTC1 is the governing body of international biometric
standards, but this standardization is still in progress. In
the future, fixed biometric standards will be in place to
guide vendors and developers in the areas of biometric
application profiles, interfaces, and system performance.
With such a young technology, biometric and
identification technology has everything to gain with
improved standards and accuracy. In probably a short time,
biometric developers will surpass the quality of their
current product so that the future of the biometric field
will be assured in the hi-tech marketplace.
About the Author
Alice Osborn is a successful freelance writer and
contributor to Video-Surveillance-Guide.com. Your
definitive guide to video surveillance equipment, CCTV
cameras and wireless security systems for home and business.
Also See:
[
Biometric Technologies in Video Surveillance Applications ]
[ Glossary of Video Surveillance Terms & Definitions ]
[
The History of Biometrics
from Past to Present ]
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