New mobile biometric modalities, new sensor technologies and the world’s first contactless biometric payment card, were important hallmarks of the biometric year of 2017. This was a year when stronger identity proofing became a priority hot topic.
As 2017 is getting closer to its end, we can look back at a year where biometrics left its fingerprint on new technologies and devices – if you pardon the pun.
In and under display fingerprint sensors made a forceful entrance and got a great deal of attention when they were showcased in mobile devices at the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai. The advent of a more user-friendly generation of smartphones with a slick and appealing edge-to-edge display are driving the need for new sensor technologies such as ultrasound and optical fingerprint sensors that can read a fingerprint through glass, metal or OLED displays. The market is still in its early phase. There are several ongoing projects involving these new sensor technologies and we expect to see product launches already in 2018.
2017 was also a year when the development of biometric payment cards made great strides. Several successful pilot projects have led to increased interest from banks to bring payment cards to consumers for biometric payments. In September, the international travel management company AirPlus International announced the world’s first successful use of a contactless biometric payment card, using fingerprint authentication.
The race towards smaller and more cost-efficient capacitive fingerprint sensors has fuelled the development of more efficient fingerprint algorithms. As a result, card manufacturers are now able to cost-efficiently launch biometric contactless payment cards that meet the biometric performance requirements set by the payment card industry. Contactless biometric payment cards are expected to replace the use of PIN codes enabling a more convenient and secure shopping experience.
The launch of Apple X, Samsung Galaxy S8 and other Android smartphones, marked the introduction of new modalities such as facial and iris recognition in mobile biometrics.
This opens for the possibility to integrate complementing modalities to fingerprint technology in smart mobile units, offering the opportunity to use multifactor authentication solely based on biometrics to access banking and payment services.
Regulators, banks and payment services are indeed demanding multifactor authentication for stronger identity proofing with mobile payments and transactions as a measure to reduce fraud and identity theft. One example is the European PSD2 Directive, which enters into force in January 2018, demanding two-factor authentication for electronic payment services and bank transactions.
Other big trends in 2017: Capacitive sensors for low-end mobile units shrank down to half the size to meet the mobile markets increasing demands for cost efficiency.
Biometrics moved into new devices, particularly in Internet of Things, which includes applications for door locks and cars. Among all the buzzwords floating around, “continuous authentication” got a lot of attention, being used frequently in market reports and industry conferences. Continuous authentication is about creating an unparalleled level of authentication with minimal user impact, whereby a device’s different sensors continuously capture biometric and/or behavioural data to automatically authenticate the user for different applications.
In 2018 we are looking forward to a year of continued increase in the global market for biometric enabled smart mobile devices and smart cards. We are also expecting to see a year with increased demand for biometric identity proofing to secure a rapidly expanding market for mobile payments and financial transactions.
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