A closer introduction to biometric technology

Did you know that a KFC restaurant in China uses a facial recognition system that lets customers pay for their dinner with a smile. All this can be done thanks to biometric technology. This is an example of how biometric technology is increasingly finding many ways to make human life easier.

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Biometrics identify people, with unique physical characteristics such as facial features, fingerprints, irises, or in the way they behave as they walk, sign names or use slightly different keyboards.

This technology is commonly used in places that verify very important identities such as banks and airports. In Brazil, Banco Bradesco claims to have reduced ATM cheating by installing a palm vein scanner above 35,000 machines. At London City Airport, staff put up their fingerprints for the forbidden zone.

Now, biometrics is set to find a host of new home-based apps that use face recognition, fingerprint scanning, and object tracking under development for use on the London Underground.

The Cubic Transportation System aims to remove barriers to needs and reduce population density by monitoring each passenger as they pass through the station.

In the automotive sector, the German company Continental has launched a new level of security, where only locks are not enough to open vehicles, fingerprints are also required. In addition, facial recognition system by recognizing drivers with personnel such as sitting position and music.

A company founded by three Oxford graduates, Onfindo has collected USD60 million. Thanks to the success of its technology to help verify a site, with user identification through their photo ID and biometric faces.

The government considers biometrics seriously due to the September 11 attacks, but not until the introduction of biometric sensors such as fingerprints on mobile devices. However, this technology really makes public awareness and is only now beginning to be considered.

Dr Richard Guest, a biometric systems engineering reader at the University of Kent, leads the EU AMBER project that examines the use of mobile biometrics. He believes that mobile biometrics is the future. But it is reminded that this is not only a technical issue but also a privacy issue that must be addressed.

The Biometric Institute that promotes and is responsible for this technology, gives warning. Chief Executive Isabelle Moeller showed huge profits, but had to be serious in handling this issue.

It's easy to change a password if it's infiltrated, but what can be done when fingerprints are stolen and how the organization verifies the identity of the person providing the biometric sample.

In the end if the public wants to be totally dependent on technology, the industry needs to be transparent about the data they have, such as how it is managed, how it is used, and how safe it is. From the existing technology, privacy and security as well as ethics need to be developed.