Demand from businesses for security methods that rely less on hardware will raise the profile of newer biometrics over the next five years, in particular voiceprints and facial recognition.
This is according to a recent Juniper Research report: Mobile Biometrics: Consumer Markets, Opportunities & Forecasts 2016-2021. The study notes by 2021 about 600 million mobile devices, from wearables to phablets will come with biometric security other than fingerprint recognition as standard.
Juniper says the newer biometrics technologies are easier to deploy than fingerprinting, as they do not require dedicated hardware. This brings biometric security to a new audience in markets with lower-tier smartphones, with fingerprinting remaining common in more affluent regions, it adds. With many different biometric technologies now emerging for consumer use, Juniper predicts that multiple biometrics will become part of consumers' mobile experience in the near future.
According to Acuity Market Intelligence, the explosion in the use of smart devices over the past five years, along with anticipated growth over the next five - especially in developing economies where low cost smartphones have begun to alter the mobile landscape - will bring biometrics into the daily lives of half the global population. "By 2020, 100% of smart mobile devices will include embedded biometric sensors as a standard feature."
The report says fingerprint authentication will account for a huge majority of biometric security apps because of the increased use of fingerprint scanners in midrange smartphones. However, other forms of biometric identification that don't need embedded hardware, such as earprint biometric authentication and voice authentication, are also emerging, it adds.
The Juniper report says the use cases for biometrics will shift from identification to verification, due to the need for increased security of the biometric itself.
"While biometrics offer an increased amount of security and convenience, they need higher levels of protection," remarked research author James Moar. "Establishing best practices for storage and transmission of newer biometrics will be key to ensuring both consumer control over and the security of these most personal data."
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