Planet Analog

Fingerprint ID usage slow to take off

December 11, 2002
By Spencer Chin

Though concerns over personal and system security have triggered greater interest in fingerprint biometrics in the last year, the rate of implementation continues to lag because of an absence of standards, varying product costs, and a lack of understanding as to the technology's benefits and pitfalls. The U.S. Department of Defense is evaluating fingerprint-based smartcard technology for military and civilian personnel, and the automotive and computer industries are interested in biometrics for product security. But suppliers of biometric systems say some OEMs are wary of the technology's cost and technical challenges.

"People are still trying to figure out how biometrics would fit large-scale applications," said Tim Corcoran, senior systems engineer for Northrop Grumman Information Technology, Herndon, Va. "And the industry hasn't helped demystify how these products perform."

In a tough economic climate, justifying biometrics investment is difficult since determining payback is elusive.

"On the whole, what's slowed biometrics implementation has been making a clear business proposition why you would go into biometrics," said Mike Thieme, a consultant for the International Biometric Group LLC, New York. "There's no clear way to substantiate the financial risk."

Still, analysts expect more government, finance, and transportation users to adopt biometrics over the next few years as they seek to protect their facilities and networks.

Total global biometrics revenue is expected to jump from $601 million in 2002 to $4.03 billion in 2007, according to the International Biometric Group. Finger-scan technologies make up more than half of total biometrics revenue since they are more widely accepted than iris- and facial-scan technologies.

The IBG expects government to be the leading biometric vertical market through 2007, when it will achieve global revenue of $1.2 billion.

"There's a great deal of testing going on at the government level," Thieme said. "They are beating the private sector in investigating the use of the technology."

IT systems supplier Northrop Grumman and fingerprint sensor supplier Identix Inc., Minnetonka, Minn., are evaluating an intelligent identification card that would incorporate fingerprint-based biometrics to authenticate military personnel trying to access buildings and computers. The technology, now undergoing field testing, is slated for 2005 implementation, according to Bob Wilberger, director of smartcard initiatives at Northrop Grumman.

The automotive industry is looking at fingerprint biometrics for both security and control of convenience functions like mirrors, according to a spokesman for Delphi Delco Electronics Corp., Kokomo, Ind. Delphi is teaming with AuthenTec Inc., a Melbourne, Fla., fingerprint sensor supplier, to develop a biometric system for vehicles.

However, mass-scale biometrics implementation won't happen until sensor costs come down, according to Frost and Sullivan analyst Prianka Chopra, San Antonio, Texas. Fingerprint-based sensors that use optical technology have been too expensive to help move the technology into the mainstream, Chopra said. Silicon advances, she noted, are now enabling fingerprint sensors small enough to be embedded in portable computers and wireless products. Such sensors are slated to come down in price from about $17 each now to $5 by 2005, she said.

Some suppliers, such as AuthenTec and Fujitsu Microelectronics America Inc., San Jose, appear headed in that direction already.

"AuthenTec's first product in 1999 cost $33," said Steve Mansfield, vice president of marketing. "Today, we have sensors that cost only $6."

Since March, Fujitsu Microelectronics has offered a sweep sensor for portables priced at $10.50 in 1,000s.

Cost aside, some biometrics companies say slow adoption stems from a lack of standards that allow biometric devices to easily exchange and read each other's data.

The BioAPI Consortium, an association of biometrics companies, has developed an interoperability standard called BioAPI that some suppliers and OEMs are starting to adopt. Organizations such as ANSI and ISO are also developing hardware and software interoperability standards that are expected soon, Mansfield said.

But systems integrators worry that some suppliers of biometric products may balk at standards they believe undermine their IP.

"Today's fingerscan technologies are largely proprietary," said Trevor Prout, director of marketing at the International Biometric Group.

"The issue for image data is how far you drive the interoperability of different vendors," Northrop's Corcoran said. "Whether imaging algorithms should be known by everyone is a question."

Retrofitting existing facilities for biometrics presents additional variable costs, Corcoran noted.

"The component and system costs may be within range, but what has to be done with the user's infrastructure to integrate biometrics varies by company and geographic region."