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COVID-19 Could Hurt Some Biometric Technologies & Increase Others

Re-posted with permission from Campus Safety Magazine and edited.

The use of fingerprint and vein biometrics technologies will most likely suffer due to new stringent infectious disease protocols, but facial and iris recognition could experience an increase. The coronavirus pandemic is expected to cause a significant pushback on biometric device shipments, creating a major revenue drop of $2 billion over the course of 2020, according to global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research.

The Coronavirus Impact

At the same, COVID-19 has given rise to new identification and surveillance needs, prompting further investments in biometric artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm design, which will give a boost to the face recognition technologies market going forward.

“Contact biometric technologies like fingerprint and vein have been dealt a substantial blow due to new governmental regulations targeting contact and close-proximity interactions,” explains the report. “Fingerprint biometrics vendors are struggling to uphold the new stringent hygiene and infectious control protocols. These regulations have been correctly introduced for the safety of users and personnel, but they have also affected sales in certain verticals.”

Physical access control, user registration, identification and workforce management systems have been greatly affected in the enterprise and commercial space; however, these applications are also deployed in healthcare, law enforcement, border control, government, civil and other market niches, the ABI report continues.

“While contact-only companies will have additional hurdles to overcome in most markets, several innovative companies have already adapted their solutions offering contact-less fingerprint sensing technologies,” the report says. “Additionally, fingerprint sensor vendors operating in consumer markets will be mostly affected by smartphone sales, rather than hygiene concerns, due to the personal nature of user authentication.”

The total biometric device market is forecast to reach $28.2 billion in 2020, with the government and security market taking a significant hit of $1.1 billion. Fingerprint device sales are also expected to decrease in 2020 by $1.2 billion.

The Rise of Contactless Biometrics

The market outlook isn’t all bleak, however. “AI biometric firms are adapting to the biological threat. Biometric technologies are currently undergoing a forced evolution rather than an organic one, with artificial intelligence biometric firms spearheading the charge,” says the report. “New IoT and smart city-focused applications will enable new data streams and analytics, monitoring infection rates in real-time, forcing new data-sharing initiatives, and even applying behavioral AI models to predict future outbreaks.”

Face and iris recognition have been brought into the spotlight as key technologies allowing authentication, identification and surveillance operations for users and citizens wearing protective headgear, face masks, or, with partially covered faces.

These elements that were the bane of face recognition algorithms in the past have now been integrated into algorithm developers’ value proposition followed by further investment boost targeted at surveillance, video analytics and smart city applications.

Temperature and fever detection technologies making use of infrared technologies have also been retrofitted in access and border control while biometric telemedicine applications are providing healthcare support to consumers and patients remotely. These findings are from ABI Research’s “Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on the Biometrics Market,” an application analysis report.

Biometric Solutions from the ISG

Whether you need contact biometric solutions for physical or logical access control or identity verification, or contactless biometric solutions, like iris recognition, the ISG has what you seek. Speak with your local ISG expert about your specific biometric capture and tracking needs, and we can offer our professional advice and product options to satisfy your need.

Contact us today!

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