Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine January 2020 | Page 113

Business / Outlook
Fast forward to the 21 st century,
and biometrics are finally enjoying
widespread use, ushering in new ways
for us to interact in our daily lives. Now,
biometrics aren’t solely used to identify
us, but also to access the human machine
interface in new and novel ways.
Leveraging the rapid growth of these
technologies are businesses at the
leading edge of deploying biometrics
for more efficient customer interactions
and in-house processes.
Business analysis firm Statista reported
that the biometric technology industry
was worth over US$21 billion in 2018,
with more than 46 per cent of businesses
looking to implement biometrics into
their value chain in the future.
Here, we explore some of the most
innovative ways that businesses are
adopting this technology.
Payments and verification
Although there’s already a multitude
of simple ways for customers to pay
in-store, such as contactless cards and
mobile pay solutions, these physical
payment methods are still fraught with
issues. Cards and smart devices can be
easily lost or stolen, and similarly, they
require the physical manufacture of
plastic cards or specialist hardware.
In comparison, biometrics are now
allowing people to pay and authenticate
transactions using just their unique body
identifiers. These include fingerprints,
facial recognition, and, interestingly,
vein identification. Although, of course,
everyone has veins in the same parts of
the body, their structure and placement
are unique to each individual – and as
such they have become an important
area of research for biometric scientists.
identity. The finger scanners, which
are smaller than an average card reader,
can easily be installed by merchants
worldwide.
Facial Recognition
In a fitting tribute to Bertillon’s vision
for biometric crime prevention, retailers
are now using facial recognition software
to identify and deter thieves in stores.
In the US alone, the National Retail
Federation estimates that ‘inventory
shrink’ – a euphemism for shoplifting
and fraud – costs retailers more than
US$46 billion per year.
To combat this growing problem,
companies such as Panasonic are
deploying facial recognition solutions,
in conjunction with deep learning models,
to identify known shoplifters as they
enter a building. Panasonic recently
deployed their FacePRO system in
the flagship store of Dutch supermarket
chain Jumbo Ten Brink Food as part
of their zero-tolerance on shoplifting
policy. The system, which consists
of 80 cameras linked to Panasonic’s
facial recognition software, identifies
faces with 90 per cent accuracy.
Of course, facial recognition has
attracted some serious criticism from
privacy lobbyists and politicians, who
argue it could be used to infringe on our
personal freedoms. In September 2019,
Forbes reported that many people fear
facial recognition will be used by law
enforcement to perform constant
surveillance of public spaces, which
has prompted legislators in California
to ban its use by certain public officials,
such as police officers.
Business analysis
firm Statista reported
that the biometric
technology industry
was worth over $21
billion in 2018, with
more than 46 per
cent of businesses
looking to implement
biometrics into their
value chain in the
future.
Speech Recognition
Speech recognition is incredibly popular
in consumer technology, with devices
such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri
making interaction with search engines
and navigation apps easier than ever
before. More than 35 per cent of
Americans online used voice search
at least once a month in the first quarter
of 2019, and this figure is growing.
For businesses, speech recognition
trained to a single user’s voice is
providing equal opportunities for
workers with limited accessibility.
British company Hands Free Computing
offers a range of speech recognition
As their name suggests, Fingopay,
a British-based start-up, allows users
to process transactions using just the
scan of a finger. In contrast to traditional
solutions which use fingerprints as
a means of authentication, Fingopay
uses the unique vein patterns in our
fingers to process payments.
Unlike a fingerprint, which may
leave a traceable physical imprint
on an interface, veins in the tip of
the fingers are hidden. Called ‘VeinID’,
Fingopay scans fingers with infrared
light, using vein structure as a unique
digital ID stored via cloud technology.
By pairing vein patterns with payment
cards, users can scan their fingers to
both pay in seconds and verify their
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