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Krishnan Thiagarajan

Soon, one can see a world in which people use credit cards or ATMs using an iris scanner, check into flights using face recognition technology, access the office PC using a fingerprint scanner, or get bank account balances using voice recognition technology.

HOW comfortable have you been travelling on a flight in recent times? A little jittery, I presume. Did the intense security procedures annoy you? I am sure they did. After the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, air travel and the elaborate security checks have left most passengers feeling uneasy and insecure.

With heightened security concerns all round us, there has been a growing sense of urgency to use technology to strengthen the arms of the law enforcement agencies and protect diverse businesses across the globe, specially the airline industry, and make travel safer.

Do you think passwords assigned to you to operate in an e-commerce environment are secure? Or how comfortable have you been in giving your credit card number for online shopping? Uncomfortable to say the least, I hope. It is becoming obvious that computer systems using mere passwords for access are among the least secure environments to be working in. Creating a secure environment for both "security and surveillance" and for the expected proliferation of "e-commerce" in the years to come, say in the field of e-banking or e-healthcare, are poised to remain the biggest challenges facing the IT industry.

But as always, IT professionals are rising to the occasion on both fronts. One such technology that has recorded a massive surge in interest in recent months is "biometric technology."

At the recent CeBIT 2002 fair at Hannover, Germany, this technology was on display everywhere — from the iris-scanning technology for credit-card verification by Korean company Senex Technologies to fingerprint-scanning sensor for identification in buildings, PCs, mobile phones or vehicles by a German company, Delsy Electronics Components AG.

There was face recognition/ identification with video cameras for surveillance applications by C-Vis Computer Vision and Automation GmbH to biometric software developed by the biometrics division of Siemens, Germany, which protects all documents in Excel, Word and Access against unauthorised access by fingerprint or its special centre which has integrated biometric authentication with e-commerce applications such as e-banking.

Biometrics — a snapshot

It is important to understand the rudiments of biometric technology first. According to the International Biometric Technology Association, an Industry group, biometric technology can be defined as automated methods of identifying and authenticating the identity of a living person based on physiological or behavioural characteristics. "Identification" and "Authentication" have become the two buzz words used often in the biometric lexicon.

Going by the simple explanations offered by the Association, identification is a "one to many search" which is used effectively in law-enforcement applications. Given the enhanced security awareness across the globe, the governments in different countries are beginning to show interest in different products falling in this category, even though they may continue to remain expensive for some time to come. For example, following the September 11 attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration in the US has earmarked nearly $50 million for the implementation of a biometrics programme in US airports. Unlike identification, authentication is a "one-to-one search" which is used mainly for physical or logical access control and time/attendance applications. Products under this category have traditionally found wider applications even in the past, but users have been deterred from buying them on less than beneficial cost-benefit considerations. But with the expected growth of e-commerce over the next few years and greater need for secure transactions, there is likely to be a massive resurgence of interest in this area in the near future.

The nuts and bolts

Although innovations in biometric technology have been taking place at a steady pace since the late seventies, this technology has reached the growth phase of its industry life-cycle only over the past year or so.

At present, products under seven biometric technologies using a combination of physiological and behavioural characteristics such as fingerprint, hand, eye (or iris), face, voice, signature and keystroke dynamics are commercially available.

Among these, fingerprint is probably the most widely used and accepted biometric. Displaying its finger-scanning stamp-size sensor using complentary metal oxide technology at CeBIT 2002, Delsy Components AG claimed that its product was a universally applicable biometric security system. It can basically be used for access control, e-commerce or firearm security eliminating the need for cumbersome keys or codes. Among the seven technologies, fingerprint accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the total market size and is probably the cheapest technology of them all.

The second most popular biometric is hand geometry. As the stigma attached to the use of fingerprint for authentication is fairly high, especially in the US and Europe, hand geometry has emerged as a healthy alternative. Substituting fingerprint, hand geometry has become quite popular in public places in the US and Europe such as airports, factories or security-conscious government offices. This accounts for nearly 30 per cent of the total market size.

Although not widely used so far, with the advancement of technology, voice or speech recognition is slated to become a widely acceptable biometric in the years to come. Major technical advancements in this field are removing the biggest bottleneck affecting developments in this area.

Among the remaining biometrics, the most promising one is the eye. In the eye biometric, iris-scanning is the most sought after, as the Korean-based Senex Technologies demonstrated at CeBIT with its iris-based credit card verification <147,1,0>system. This system enables recognition and authentication of cards as well as settlement of transactions by matching the cardholder's iris with the stored image. Although more expensive compared to other biometrics, it is also among the most secure and reliable technology medium for, say, credit-card authentication or at ATMs for cash transactions.

In the past, the three key hurdles that had retarded the growth of this technology were information privacy, physical privacy and religious objections. Since the September 11 attacks, as security concerns have overwhelmed the globe, it is becoming obvious that some of these hurdles may be set aside in favour of security. As long as an individual's privacy is not intruded through biometrics, consumers should have little cause for complaint.

Growth prospects

The creation of a mass market for biometrics hinges on its integration with other authentication technologies such as smart cards and public key infrastructure (as a part of digital signatures). As these three technologies complement each other and are being increasingly used in combination over the past year, the stage appears set for the growth of the biometrics market in the coming years.

According to conservative estimates by prominent investment bankers, the market for biometrics is slated to grow to over $400 million at a growth rate of 30-35 per cent by 2005. Other studies have taken a more bullish outlook, forecasting a growth to nearly $1 billion by 2005, at a growth rate of over 60 per cent. Present estimates show that there are over 200 companies in the biometrics market. As the competition in this market intensifies, there is the possibility of greater merger and acquisition activity in this arena.

In order to promote the growth of the biometrics market, around 50 organisations came together to create a BioAPI consortium in 1998. This consortium aims to create a single industry standard for Biometrics so that biometric solution developers, software developers and system integrators can work together to leverage the existing standards to support a broad range of applications.

With the massive surge in interest in biometrics in recent times, there has emerged the hope that the true vision of this technology may finally crystallise into reality in the foreseeable future. Sooner or later, one can imagine a world in which individuals may use credit cards or ATMs using an iris scanner or check into flights using the face recognition technology or access one's office PC using a fingerprint scanner or get bank account balances using voice recognition technology. Although all elements of this vision have already surfaced as commercially viable applications, it is likely that only some of these biometrics such as fingerprint or hand geometry or iris scanning will translate into a mass market. Even with the dramatic fall in hardware costs, the others may remain niche products, catering to a specialised segment of the population.

However, with the biometrics market still at a nascent stage, the churn in market rankings for these applications is just beginning.

maverick@thehindu.co.in

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