Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

Border control biometrics seeing large growth

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Despite the U.S. government’s initial reluctance in adopting biometrics in any federal programs, their eventual change of heart to implement and regulate different biometric systems is leading to a large growth in the market, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan.

Due to regulations such as the Visa Waiver, a program that requires certain travelers to have biometric based passports, more biometric developers are seeing growing interest in their products. Fingerprint technology is seeing the most of the growth as it is the cheapest and most readily available technology, however, researchers expect to see change in that trend.


As iris and face recognition biometrics have been moving ahead with new technological advances, they are also expected to drop in price. Current Iris recognition technologies are able to identify individuals that are moving and as far as twenty meters away.

Additionally, new three-dimensional face recognition has removed previous problems having to do with lighting, angles, and facial feature location. Both of these advances lends to great possibilities for security purposes as well as heavy growth in the market. [end] 

Visa made waves in August when it unveiled a road map to move the U.S. to EMV and then again in January when the company said that the country’s deployment wouldn’t be chip and PIN. Stephanie Ericksen, head of Authentication Product Integration at Visa USA, talks to Regarding ID’s Gina Jordan about the move and why the U.S. will have a different solution than what other typically associate with EMV. “One thing that we’re trying to clarify is there are many countries around the world that have adopted EMV chip technology, but it’s not chip and PIN,” Ericksen says.

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Some countries collect fingerprint or other biometric data from visitors but Afghanistan is going a step further a collecting the data from everyone entering or departing Kabul International Airport, according to the New York Times.

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A journalist for the Mingpao Daily has managed to spoof a biometric self-service kiosk used for immigration clearance at the Hong Kong-China border, according to a PC Advisor article.

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A new report on the market for biometric technology in India forecasted a 42.4% compound annual growth rate for the industry in the four year span. TechNavio, a market intelligence reporting company, reviews and forecasts the period of 2010 through 2014 from

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The UK Border Agency has announced intentions to require applicants applying for six-month stays from outside the European Economic Area to use biometric residency permits starting at the end of February 2012, according to an HR Magazine article.

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CBP denies report

A Canadian man uses a scanned image of his passport from his iPad to get past Customer and Border Protection officials, according to a report from the AP.

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