18-08-2012, 02:36 PM
Future of biometrics
[attachment=32056]
Abstract
Biometrics as a branch of industry, science and technology exists since about 20 years. Its size is about 1 billion Euros. Problems and questions having to do with automatic people recognition are attracting more and more scientists and technician. And, although many devices already exist and/or are being proposed, it is certain that biometrics is still in the early stages of its history. This paper will be an attempt to forecast the future of biometric technologies and applications.
As such, I will try to identify and describe both possible markets and new technologies that can already be predicted from present trends.
I. Why biometrics – possible future markets
Reading currently published papers and information about biometrics, one can think that the main reason for applying biometric solutions is security. This perspective is supported by politicians, spreading the message that biometric technologies can help in the fight against terrorism, help locate criminals, etc. This is not fundamentally wrong. Indeed, if automatic devices for identity recognition were more prevalent in locations such as airports, police stations and other areas that are sensitive or involve high concentrations of public activity, they would surely make the life of criminals and terrorists much more difficult.
However, there are many reasons to believe that biometrics will change the life of people in near future mostly because its use will be much more convenient than other techniques in use today for individual identity authentication. This is already apparent today, especially in connection with applications such as physical and logical access control, transportation, and also in the financial industry.
In this presentation I will try to specify new possible markets, with emphasis on markets that will – from my point of view – have the largest impact on future societies:
1. Authentication. It is reasonable to expect, that in a relatively short time, all personal documents will contain some form of biometric
data. Moreover, in time, we could expect that all such documents will no longer be needed, because, in every instance where this type of authentication would be necessary, biometric readers will be connected to the location via network. This would allow a comparison with stored data to be used in lieu of documentation.
2. Access and attendance control. In the relatively near future, biometrics will certainly gain increased acceptance in all kinds of access and attendance control applications. We can expect to see biometrics used for these applications in homes, offices, computers, machines, devices, etc. In fact, this will be probably the largest market for biometric technology in terms of the amount of devices installed. However, for the most part, the use of these devices will only replace existing access control methods and technologies, providing increased convenience and security. There will be no need to carry keys, identity cards, personal documents, etc. Furthermore, this implementation of biometrics will add to the overall security solution: precluding the possibility of theft or unauthorized use of equipment/technologies. Biometric devices will offer new quality to security solutions, but not necessarily new market opportunities or potential.
3. Travel control.
For a variety of reasons, there is an increasing requirement to have people traveling via planes, ferries, and even trains to be individually registered, with interim checks at multiple locations. Today these requirements are being driven mostly by security concerns, visa regulations and other such reasons. And, because the amount of people traveling is already large and predicted to increase at significant rates, all organizations involved in the management and control of mass transportation industries are very interested in the rationalization and automation of necessary procedures. This is especially the case in International Civil Aviation Organization. The pressure caused by the growing number of passengers is surely one of the largest reasons for the introduction of biometric passports, visas and other controls/documents. This organization recommends very clearly, that “Contracting States should incorporate biometric data in their machine readable passports, visas and other official travel documents, using one or more optional data storage technologies to supplement the machine readable zone, as specified in Doc 9303”1,
4. Financial and other transactions requiring authorization.
In applications having to do with money it is already apparent, that money in physical form (bank notes and coins) is being replaced more and more by virtual forms of financial transactions – digital transactions via data base entry. Today this happens in form of credit or bank cards, pocket electronic money, etc. However, it is clear that, in most cases, the physical card is not important, because money has an owner and can be
1 http://www.icao.int/cgi/goto_m.pl?/icao/...d.htm#Misc
directly connected to a person. Spreading of biometric authentication in the economic sector (i.e. banking and trade) will decrease the need for physical objects, such as cards – since virtual money can be directly connected to a person (or to the legal person). This will result in a significant change both in the behavior of people, but also in the abilities that governmental organizations will have in their surveillance of money movements (financial transactions).
I would expect two possible developments in response to this situation. First, the attitudes of people can be against the sole use of virtual money or they can also try to change the tax and economic systems to allow them to live exclusively with virtual money. The second development, or solution, will evolve over a longer period of time, but is significantly better. That is, the possibility to authorize all legal transactions through biometric mechanisms will make many of these operations much easier and more convenient.
5. Remote voting (authorization). Perhaps the most important change in the society will result from the creation of an entirely new market for biometric devices that I call remote authorization. The merging of existing and future networking developments with biometric solutions will allow people to have the opportunity to authorize a wide range of transactions (e.g. voting, purchasing, accessing, decision-making authorizations, etc.) via the network, from remote locations. No longer will they be required to personally present at a given location in order to authenticate a specific action. Indeed, this is a capability that is partially possible today. However, the viability of remote authorization on a large scale, such as public elections, will not be realistic until appropriate biometric solutions are operating without the major shortcomings that plague existing biometric solutions.
From my perspective, it will be necessary to develop new, more robust and capable devices. However, the same devices can also be used for many others purposes, such as computers accessories, access control devices, etc. Even so, it is certain that the existing devices that are in use today cannot provide the degree of accuracy necessary to recognize a person whose biometric identity is only available through a distributed network. The risk of betraying them through identity theft is much too large. However, after more accurate, reliable and cost-effective devices are developed that are not constrained by shortcomings associated with existing technologies, the potential for authenticating remote transactions, such as voting (decision making) can drive major changes in all democratic societies – that is, the idea that direct democratic participation by the public can be realized on a large scale and work at low cost.
Necessary democratic decisions can be made practically every day at minimal cost, even in large societies. The possibility of low cost remote voting by the public will not only open up the potential for increased
participation, but also for increased frequency in voting activities. It is only speculation today, but I would think that this perspective can lead to some of the largest changes in democratic societies – all facilitated by the introduction of accurate, reliable, high speed biometric technologies that enable remote authentication (voting, et al.) at minimal cost. The corresponding changes in political systems and power structures will provide the potential to have a more representative democracy.
In association with changes in banking and money transfer techniques remote voting and authorization can also significantly influence economy and tax system: the control of money transfers will be easier, it will be also easier to compete within the “black economy”, but this can also result in people with a much stronger interested in controlling politicians regarding the questions of spending taxes and lowering the cost incurred by the operation of their governments.
The possibility to authorize any transaction remotely will surely cause additional changes in other transactions that require such authorization, which currently implies a personal contact. This is also something that will have impact on life in the near future – it will minimize, or eliminate the need for many personal contacts. Such operations will be easier and can be done automatically (by machines – without clerks operating them, as it is done today).
[attachment=32056]
Abstract
Biometrics as a branch of industry, science and technology exists since about 20 years. Its size is about 1 billion Euros. Problems and questions having to do with automatic people recognition are attracting more and more scientists and technician. And, although many devices already exist and/or are being proposed, it is certain that biometrics is still in the early stages of its history. This paper will be an attempt to forecast the future of biometric technologies and applications.
As such, I will try to identify and describe both possible markets and new technologies that can already be predicted from present trends.
I. Why biometrics – possible future markets
Reading currently published papers and information about biometrics, one can think that the main reason for applying biometric solutions is security. This perspective is supported by politicians, spreading the message that biometric technologies can help in the fight against terrorism, help locate criminals, etc. This is not fundamentally wrong. Indeed, if automatic devices for identity recognition were more prevalent in locations such as airports, police stations and other areas that are sensitive or involve high concentrations of public activity, they would surely make the life of criminals and terrorists much more difficult.
However, there are many reasons to believe that biometrics will change the life of people in near future mostly because its use will be much more convenient than other techniques in use today for individual identity authentication. This is already apparent today, especially in connection with applications such as physical and logical access control, transportation, and also in the financial industry.
In this presentation I will try to specify new possible markets, with emphasis on markets that will – from my point of view – have the largest impact on future societies:
1. Authentication. It is reasonable to expect, that in a relatively short time, all personal documents will contain some form of biometric
data. Moreover, in time, we could expect that all such documents will no longer be needed, because, in every instance where this type of authentication would be necessary, biometric readers will be connected to the location via network. This would allow a comparison with stored data to be used in lieu of documentation.
2. Access and attendance control. In the relatively near future, biometrics will certainly gain increased acceptance in all kinds of access and attendance control applications. We can expect to see biometrics used for these applications in homes, offices, computers, machines, devices, etc. In fact, this will be probably the largest market for biometric technology in terms of the amount of devices installed. However, for the most part, the use of these devices will only replace existing access control methods and technologies, providing increased convenience and security. There will be no need to carry keys, identity cards, personal documents, etc. Furthermore, this implementation of biometrics will add to the overall security solution: precluding the possibility of theft or unauthorized use of equipment/technologies. Biometric devices will offer new quality to security solutions, but not necessarily new market opportunities or potential.
3. Travel control.
For a variety of reasons, there is an increasing requirement to have people traveling via planes, ferries, and even trains to be individually registered, with interim checks at multiple locations. Today these requirements are being driven mostly by security concerns, visa regulations and other such reasons. And, because the amount of people traveling is already large and predicted to increase at significant rates, all organizations involved in the management and control of mass transportation industries are very interested in the rationalization and automation of necessary procedures. This is especially the case in International Civil Aviation Organization. The pressure caused by the growing number of passengers is surely one of the largest reasons for the introduction of biometric passports, visas and other controls/documents. This organization recommends very clearly, that “Contracting States should incorporate biometric data in their machine readable passports, visas and other official travel documents, using one or more optional data storage technologies to supplement the machine readable zone, as specified in Doc 9303”1,
4. Financial and other transactions requiring authorization.
In applications having to do with money it is already apparent, that money in physical form (bank notes and coins) is being replaced more and more by virtual forms of financial transactions – digital transactions via data base entry. Today this happens in form of credit or bank cards, pocket electronic money, etc. However, it is clear that, in most cases, the physical card is not important, because money has an owner and can be
1 http://www.icao.int/cgi/goto_m.pl?/icao/...d.htm#Misc
directly connected to a person. Spreading of biometric authentication in the economic sector (i.e. banking and trade) will decrease the need for physical objects, such as cards – since virtual money can be directly connected to a person (or to the legal person). This will result in a significant change both in the behavior of people, but also in the abilities that governmental organizations will have in their surveillance of money movements (financial transactions).
I would expect two possible developments in response to this situation. First, the attitudes of people can be against the sole use of virtual money or they can also try to change the tax and economic systems to allow them to live exclusively with virtual money. The second development, or solution, will evolve over a longer period of time, but is significantly better. That is, the possibility to authorize all legal transactions through biometric mechanisms will make many of these operations much easier and more convenient.
5. Remote voting (authorization). Perhaps the most important change in the society will result from the creation of an entirely new market for biometric devices that I call remote authorization. The merging of existing and future networking developments with biometric solutions will allow people to have the opportunity to authorize a wide range of transactions (e.g. voting, purchasing, accessing, decision-making authorizations, etc.) via the network, from remote locations. No longer will they be required to personally present at a given location in order to authenticate a specific action. Indeed, this is a capability that is partially possible today. However, the viability of remote authorization on a large scale, such as public elections, will not be realistic until appropriate biometric solutions are operating without the major shortcomings that plague existing biometric solutions.
From my perspective, it will be necessary to develop new, more robust and capable devices. However, the same devices can also be used for many others purposes, such as computers accessories, access control devices, etc. Even so, it is certain that the existing devices that are in use today cannot provide the degree of accuracy necessary to recognize a person whose biometric identity is only available through a distributed network. The risk of betraying them through identity theft is much too large. However, after more accurate, reliable and cost-effective devices are developed that are not constrained by shortcomings associated with existing technologies, the potential for authenticating remote transactions, such as voting (decision making) can drive major changes in all democratic societies – that is, the idea that direct democratic participation by the public can be realized on a large scale and work at low cost.
Necessary democratic decisions can be made practically every day at minimal cost, even in large societies. The possibility of low cost remote voting by the public will not only open up the potential for increased
participation, but also for increased frequency in voting activities. It is only speculation today, but I would think that this perspective can lead to some of the largest changes in democratic societies – all facilitated by the introduction of accurate, reliable, high speed biometric technologies that enable remote authentication (voting, et al.) at minimal cost. The corresponding changes in political systems and power structures will provide the potential to have a more representative democracy.
In association with changes in banking and money transfer techniques remote voting and authorization can also significantly influence economy and tax system: the control of money transfers will be easier, it will be also easier to compete within the “black economy”, but this can also result in people with a much stronger interested in controlling politicians regarding the questions of spending taxes and lowering the cost incurred by the operation of their governments.
The possibility to authorize any transaction remotely will surely cause additional changes in other transactions that require such authorization, which currently implies a personal contact. This is also something that will have impact on life in the near future – it will minimize, or eliminate the need for many personal contacts. Such operations will be easier and can be done automatically (by machines – without clerks operating them, as it is done today).