By 2020, We’ll Be Making Over 800 Million Transactions On Biometric Devices

Biometric devices are proving to be more than just a fad. The latest market predictions are reinforcing that fact; by 2020, global revenues will reach $34.6 billion annually. Moreover, people will be so dependent on biometric devices that they’ll end up making $800 million transactions annually this way #biomagic

At the present, there are more than 750 million biometric-enabled smartphones in use, so are we really surprised by the report? Not at all. As hacking scandals show weekly that passwords cannot be trusted anymore, it’s normal to veer towards more secure ways of doing payments, accessing accounts and storing important files.

Biometrics can do that.  While fingerprints are starting to give signs of weakness in the face of hacking technologies, iris, voice or vein biometrics can replace them easily. Iris recognition algorithms are already at work in latest smartphones, like the Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7, being the easiest to embrace and enable by the end-user, after fingerprint and face authentication.

It’s no wonder that top consumer electronics manufacturers and computational imaging providers, like Fotonation, are working together to bring iris recognition technologies on the market. Liveness and spoof features makes it easy to see quickly if the camera is scanning a real, living eye, or a high resolution picture.

Why are experts convinced users will keep demanding for advanced biometric solutions? Not just because passwords are easy to forget and to hack, but also because they’re more convenient; instead of carrying around a card to make transactions you can simply open your eyes: “Customers are looking to remove the need for any kind of physical card or key fob and therefore, eliminate the associated life cycle costs such as card issue and lost or defective card replacement. “, believes Philippe Huysman, Global Portfolio Manager – Access Control, Siemens Building Technologies.

With that in mind, is not hard to imagine the future predicted by Martin George, Biometrics Consultant at FotoNation Limited, where cash is almost obsolete and payments are made with your ID, at the point of sale.