Warning: Think before you touch the surface. It may be contagious.
The global DSC market size is expected to increase from US$ 6.56 bn in 2014 to US$14.6 bn by 2020, a CAGR of 13.01% in the next five years. This phenomenal growth is attributed to a market that has greatly matured and consolidated in the last few years, and primarily driven by two trends: smart cards and biometrics. The latter comprise fingerprint authentication terminals and facial, iris, retina and voice recognition devices. Detailed market research undertaken by Technavio has predicted that the global biometric POS terminals market will grow at a remarkable CAGR of 27% until the close of 2020.
Out of all these, fingerprint authentication terminals have become the single most common sight everywhere around us. This holds true especially for locations where access control is a matter of human identity, not an automatic entry privilege: airports, offices, data centers, educational institutions, hospitals, factories, petrochemical plants, prisons and government/military establishments. The objective of restricting access to a predefined set of individuals is both preventive, i.e. avoiding any untoward incident in the first place, and reactive, i.e. performing a detailed forensic analysis to pin down the exact source of infringement.
From here, we will discuss the huge business potential of touchless/contact-less biometric systems. All fingerprint access control terminals need to be deployed in typically harsh environments so they definitely meet consumer grade certifications for safety. However, it has to be added that the problem of hygiene is of huge concern to many people.
Some of the manuals, in fact, advise germophobes to wash their hands after each use (or carry a hand sanitizer). There’s a reason behind this. Since, these devices undergo thousands of operations every day, there is a real chance that you will be exposed to infections from other people. A touchless biometric device can therefore, mitigate these concerns easily and efficiently without compromising on security.
Other reasons why a touchless biometric device offers natural advantages:
Fast
It often happens that the user fails to activate the contact-based fingerprint system despite multiple attempts. This can be a huge source of administrative stress in peak office hours or emergencies. Touchless biometric authentication is therefore, the faster alternative as authentication can happen simply by waving your hands rather than struggling with precise finger impact.
Higher Accuracy
A touchless biometric terminal can capture an HD image of fingerprints using high resolution sensors with better matching results making it more accurate. Better processors with GPU ensure faster response time compared to other biometric systems. Furthermore, touchless biometric devices overcome the challenges of delayed fingerprinting as well.
User-friendly
Touchless Biometric solutions capture and match fingerprints with single hand movement making it a fast and user-friendly device. Users don’t have to remember how much strain they must put on the device with their fingers, whether it’s been ideally placed around the sensors etc.
Reliable
The false rejection ratio and false acceptance ratios are pretty low compared to contact biometric devices. The high resolution sensors ensure high amount of data availability for pattern matching and higher reliability of authentication/identification. Also, it works as easily with wet fingers as dry fingers.
Safe
Touchless biometric devices are free from the effect of weather that can in very rare cases, expose you to static shocks (ESD), freezing weather, heat waves etc.
Secured
Touchless biometric devices provide improved security, and faster operations without compromising on security. As discussed, the amount of data points that can be matched are substantially higher compared to contact surfaces. Also, pattern matching is carried out on all fingers simultaneously as compared to single finger on conventional touch-based biometric products.
Low Maintenance cost
The touchless devices have fewer failure points owing to avoidance of any contact with the device that leads them to have a higher life time and longevity, negligible servicing and maintenance requirements.
Enhanced image quality
Touchless biometric devices find their niche with high image sensors, typically ranging from Ultra HD resolutions to 4K Video resolutions. Such terminals do provide capability to have large number of points for pattern matching. One could fine-tune the algorithm to different levels of sensitivity pertaining to different security levels. This implies, at a low security level, the device could be operated at lower resolutions, lesser algorithm sensitivity and faster operation. However, at a higher security, the device could be operated at higher algorithm sensitivity which may be slow but more stringent security is achieved.
Ideal for high traffic application
With a touchless system, there is no need to spend time on finger scanning. The person need not be wait till the authentication is over. One can simply gesture with their hands and gain access. These features make touchless terminals ideal for shorter queues and hence suitable for high traffic applications like airports, banks etc.
Read about: eInfochips Touchless biometric Success story
Having worked on five Product generation of 8 product families with 100+ variants, eInfochips have the proficiency to provide services across the entire product life-cycle right from product conceptualization to design, development, prototyping, testing, validation, qualification, product re-engineering, and sustenance. In addition, we have also carried out competitive benchmarking, performance optimization, part replacement, value engineering user interface design, and product certifications
Being a design and development partner for security and identity solution companies, we are able to develop full-fledged touchless biometric access control terminal thus, bringing the touchless fingerprint recognition concept to a wider market.
Want to make a touchless biometric terminal, contact us.
