Biometrics – using a physical characteristic such as an iris map, fingerprint, voice or hand geometry to verify identity – is going mainstream.
Driven by falling prices, rising performance and growing public willingness to pay more for biometric security, the potential market is huge, says John Ruffolo of Deloitte Consulting.
“Retina scans, especially when it comes to airport security, could be the biggest,” says Ruffolo, followed by fingerprint technology. Voice recognition is third but is still not as reliable as it needs to be, he says.
Two major issues remain privacy and the massive amount of storage required for such systems, but as long as security threats go up, and the price of technology goes down, the future of retina technology is assured.