Biometric security is rapidly gaining adoption among both private & public sectors worldwide as a precise, trustworthy and economic way to provide better and advanced security surveillance.

The continuously growing security concerns ranging from individual identity theft and corporate security to national security are driving the biometric market. According to a new research on the biometric sector, the global biometric market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of around 18% during the 2010-2012. This report discusses about the current and future scenario of biometric market across various regions, underlining the future potential areas and key issues crucial for the market development.

Europe & North America dominated the global biometric market, accounting for a combined market share of 62% in 2009. It was narrowly followed by the Asia-Pacific region. The African & Middle East region is also expected to emerge as a growing market for biometrics by 2012 as the Gulf and South African regions are taking several initiatives and starting various biometric programs.

As per the report, the financial sector has been emerging as a potential adopter in global biometric market. In particular, banks are leading the charge in oder to cut down on increasing frauds. The most interesting thing is that a number of banks in developing countries (specifically Asian nations, including India, China, Malaysia, etc.) are looking upon biometrics as a way to curb fraud and offer customers an easy and more convenient authentication alternative to cards and PINs for transactions like ATM withdrawals.

“Face Recognition Solutions” has developed a new generation face recognition system in effort to improve security system. This system is based on live face recognition. This new concept is developed by keeping “No Human Touch” concept in mind. It make it very crucial for security system.

The new face recognition system requires just 0.07 second for detecting face and 0.13 second for processing the face. So it performs in a fast manner and do accurate detection of face.

This face recognition system is used for the following applications

• Time attendance system: This system easily integrated with time attendance system. So give you face recognition based time attendance system. You can also generate payroll for your employee.
• Access control system: our face recognition system is integrated with access control system. You can install this system at your gate, door etc. this system give visual monitor facility with access control facility.
• Visitor management solutions: you get freedom from conventional pen-paper based visitor management system. Our system give face recognition based visitor management solutions.

Some major features of this system are:

Though we have been listening the term “Biometrics” for quite some time and become aware of what this technology is all about, their uses and applications, and all that. But most of the people who are from non-technological background often find it very hard to understand the working principle and style of this technology and its products. In the subsequent paras we would try to understand the exact meaning of biometric.

Meaning of Biometrics
The term “Biometric” is made up of two different words BIO + METRIC. The word Bio means the biological traits or characteristics of human being and Metric means the measurement. Combining both the words it results in “the measurement of biological characteristics”. To put it simply Biometric is the measurement and identification of individual traits and characteristics.

Types of Biometric Characteristics
After becoming familiar with the term Biometric, we need to know what type of biological traits are studied under it. All the characteristics that uniquely signifies the identity of a person comes under biological traits. These characteristics can be classified in two major categories: Physiological & Behavioral.

• Physiological traits are related to the shape & structure of the body. It includes fingerprint, face recognition, iris recognition, DNA, hand and palm geometry, etc. The list is not limited and may include any characteristics that uniquely distinguish one person from the rest.
• Behavioral characteristics are related to the behavior of a person. It includes voice recognition, typing rhythm, gait, etc.

Now we knew sufficient about the biometric, the next important thing to understand is how these biological traits are used as the unique identity of individuals.

How Does Biometric Help us?
Let's us understand this from a simple example. When we try to access our email account or bank accounts, we need to feed password in order to get access. Password usually is combination of characters that can be stolen, hacked, and can be used for illegal purposes. In case our passwords are being stolen, it can lead to serious mischiefs. Here biometrics come to the fore to help us. Instead of passwords, biometric security systems and products enable us to access our accounts with the help of our unique biometric characteristics. And since these traits are unique no other person can access our accounts ever.

Like passwords, the biometric information of individual person is stored in the databases and when we feed our individual traits through the biometric devices, then it check the database and try to match with the previously stored one. If both the records matches it allows us the access and if not access is denied.

The National Australia Bank (NAB) has decided to use biometric voice recognition software to identify the genuineness of telephone bankers. It is not the single bank harnessing biometric security technology. Sometime back HSBC started using biometric technology capable of recognizing over 2,500 different facial features to help it control access to data-centres.

Organizations requiring high security are either monitoring or using the development of the biometric security technology industry.

According to Bob McDowall, analyst at TowerGroup, biometrics is an option for banks, but he warned that there are uncertainties and challenges for banks that use it. "It is not 100% because people's voices and faces change. The banks will also have to ensure that the voice and facial data used is secured appropriately because people may see it as an invasion of their privacy," he said.

Healthcare is the another sector that demands very high security. According to Tracy Andrew, head of information and security at Berkshire Shared Services, the NHS Trust only uses biometrics in its nurseries to control parental access."We use fingerprint recognition and it has been 100% successful. It has also improved our efficiency by automating access."

Sagem Sécurité (SAFRAN group), world leader in biometric identification solutions, and Schneider Electric, a leading control and signalling components manufacturer, have come along to combine their expertise to create a new innovative security solution for industrial environments: the Harmony biometric switch. The Harmony biometric switch is a very innovative biometric device that perfectly suits the needs and stipulations of the industrial market, providing optimum access control to systems and equipment.

The biometrics integrated in the switch combine high level of protection (unique access using fingerprint recognition) with user-friendliness (no key, badge or password that can be lost, forgotten, stolen or copied). The switch offers the industrial sector increased productivity by minimizing maintenance and operating costs of the system and, at the same time, prevents unauthorised operation.

The switch is simple to set-up as both its registration/recording and parameterisation are quick and intuitive directly on the sensor. It is designed to operate entirely independently, without the need of any additional interface (PC). Regarding installation, its compactness enables it to be easily integrated in a control panel due to its compliance to the standard diameter 22 mm cut-out mounting method.

Gandhinagar, India: In order to check the rising cases of absenteeism among the students and teachers, the Gujarat government has decided to install biometric system in state-run primary schools to mark the attendance of teachers and students, announced an official in the chief minister's office on Sunday.

The decision was taken after a directive issued by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to the chiefs of all seven municipal corporations in the state. According to the official, it aims to entirely revamp the educational system.

It was mentioned in the directive that the schools have to start looking for a software that records the attendance of teachers and students using biometrics. However no deadline has been fixed for installing the software.

The attendance of teachers and students would be monitored by the state government on a daily basis, not only to check the dropout rate but also whether teachers are regularly present in schools. The biometric attendance data would have to be uploaded on to the websites by the municipal school authorities on a daily basis.

UPEK, the leader in enterprise and consumer biometric fingerprint solutions, today announced availability of fingerprint authentication solutions for manufacturers of netbooks and Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) to integrate into these new classes of portable, internet-connected computing devices. UPEK’s Fingerprint Authentication Solutions for netbooks and MIDs feature the latest generation TouchStrip® TCS5 Fingerprint Sensor optimized for compact, low-cost, low-power devices, and Fingerprint Suite™ Starter software that allows users to access password protected websites with the simple swipe of a finger.

As users of netbooks and MIDs take advantage of cloud computing applications and online storage of personal files, they are burdened by a growing number of different passwords to access their web accounts. To alleviate the pain of trying to remember these passwords, Fingerprint Suite Starter remembers and replays these numerous passwords with the simple swipe of a finger. The dedicated touch-based user interface offered by the UPEK TouchStrip Fingerprint sensor also provides a convenient user experience on these small platforms with limited or no keyboards.

”The sudden popularity of netbooks and MIDs underscores a shift in the way people interact with their devices and access the Internet,” said Vito Fabbrizio, Senior Director of OEM Marketing at UPEK. “Building on UPEK’s experience in making fingerprint sensors ubiquitous in laptop computers, we are also pleased to help OEMs and ODMs offer their netbook and MID customers with an innovative user experience that fits their new approach to computing.”

Fingerprint Suite Starter will be available starting in March 2009 with support for Windows® XP and planned support for Windows 7 Starter edition. In addition, Fingerprint Suite support for Linux will be available in the second half of 2009.
Source:www.businesswire.com