|
For many people, "biometrics" conjures up images of a Big Brotherish surveillance society. But tell them they could save a few precious seconds at the supermarket checkout just by waving their fingers over a scanner, and they will sign up in their millions.
After more than a decade of hype, biometrics-the use of body measurements such as eye scans or fingerprints to determine or verify identity-is finally taking off. And all it took to convince the public of its merits, it seems, was the promise of shorter queues or a few extra loyalty points. In the past year there has been an explosion in the commercial use of biometrics, utterly eclipsing the uphill efforts of various governments to introduce identity cards and passports that store electronic signatures derived from facial images, fingerprints or eye scans.
For a long time it was assumed that biometrics would be a government led technology, says Sapna Capoor, an analyst at Frost and Sullivan, a consultancy. But in the past couple of years this has quietly started to change. "There has been a group of biometrics vendors who have shifted away from working with governments and focused instead on commercial products," she says.
One reason for this shift is that the technology has matured, says Michael Thieme of the International Biometric Group, an industry body based in New York. In the past many biometric technologies would not work on a broad section of the population. Some types of biometric scanners worked well in the laboratory, but ran into problems in realworld environments when scanning children, old people, people with small or sweaty hands, bricklayers or subjects with eye conditions. But the technology has since improved and is considerably more inclusive, says Mr Thieme.
New regulations in the financial sector have also boosted adoption, says Mark Upson, the boss of BioPassword in Issaquah, Washington, whose company has more than 400,000 onlinebanking users enrolled in its keystrokedynamics security scheme. In a bid to tighten security and reduce online fraud and identity theft in online banking, America's Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council is pressing banks to adopt "two factor" authentication, says Mr Upson. Previously, account holders had to provide only a single means of identity verification, such as an account number and password. Two factor systems rely not just on something you know, however, but also on something you have, such as an electronic token, or something you are, in the form of a biometric.
Those in the industry believe the banking and retail approaches to biometrics-one of which puts security above convenience, the other convenience above security-will eventually converge, opening up new applications in the process.
As governments grapple with schemes to introduce biometric passports and identity cards, companies are pushing ahead with biometrics on their own. And what is perhaps even more surprising than the commercial adoption of the technology is the speed and willingness with which the public is embracing it. This is unlikely to be because people trust big companies more than they trust governments. Instead, it is because the commercial applications of biometrics tend to place a greater emphasis on the benefits to the customer, so providing incentives for adoption. As governments start to foist biometrics on their citizens, they would do well to bear this in mind.
A recent survey found that air passengers would welcome biometric checkin procedures at airports if it meant less queuing. People will embrace biometrics, it seems, provided there's something in it for them.
“生物识别技术”会让许多人想起一个“老大哥式”的监控社会。然而，如果他们得知只要在超市收银台前向扫描器挥挥手指就能完事，可以节省宝贵的几秒钟，他们也会加入到已经接受“生物识别”的数百万人群中来的。
生物识别是指通过检测人体的某部分（例如眼睛、指纹）来检测或验证身份，经过十几年的大量宣传，此技术应用终于推广开来。然而这项技术能给大众带来什么好处呢？大众感受到的似乎只是能少排些队、安全性更高一点。去年生物识别在商业领域的运用出现了爆炸性的增长，让各国政府在这方面的举措显得黯然失色，各国政府也在竭力引入新型身份证与护照，这些新型证件可以存储根据脸部图像、指纹、眼睛制作的“电子标识”。
在咨询公司Frost&Sullivan工作的分析师Sapna Capoor说，大家一直以为生物识别技术是个由政府主导的技术。但近两年情况已悄然改变。她说，“以前售卖生物识别产品的公司都主要做政府生意，但现在已有不少公司转而把重点放在商用产品上了。”
这种转变的其中一个原因是此技术已经成熟了，设于纽约的行业协会国际生物识别组织的Michael Thieme这样宣称。过去生物识别技术从未广泛应用于大众。有几种生物识别扫描设备在实验室表现很好，但面对各种各样的真实情况就会出现许多问题，比如应用于儿童、老年人、手特别小的人、多汗的手、砖匠的手、还有一些患眼病的人群。Thieme说但后来此技术得到了很大改进，因此应用的人群也广得多。生物识别技术的可靠性因此大大提高，能够应用于超市与笔记本电脑。
金融领域的新规则也推动了此项技术的应用，位于华盛顿的Issaquah的BioPassword公司的总裁Mark Upson说，该公司已有超过40万的网上银行用户采用了该公司的“击键力学”身份验证项目。Upson说，为了增强网上银行服务的安全性、减少服务过程中的诈骗与身份盗窃行为，美国联邦金融机构检查委员会竭力要求银行采用“双重认证”。以前，帐号持有者只需通过一重身份验证，比如帐号与密码。要通过“双重认证系统”，不仅需要你提供你所知道的信息，而且还需要你携带的东西——比如某种电子信物，或者你身体的某部分：以生物识别形式。
这说明什么呢？这说明虽然生物识别技术能使系统获得极高的安全性，但在实际应用中并不一定要达到这么高的安全性。Thieme说，在某些方面的应用中较低的安全性完全可以容忍。
各国政府还在想尽办法引入生物识别护照与身份证，各家公司却已经靠自己的力量推动该技术的应用了，这种情况十分出人意料，但比这更让人吃惊的是公众对其愿意接受，而且速度很快。其原因并不见得是公众更相信大公司而不相信政府，而是因为商业应用过程中更强调生物识别技术能给顾客带来的好处，为顾客提供了某种“激励”。各国政府想要让民众接受此技术在公共领域的应用的话，记住这一点才能成功。
最近的一个调查发现，如果在登机手续中应用生物识别技术能让乘客少排些队，乘客还是欢迎此项技术应用在机场的。看起来情况似乎是这样，如果在生物识别技术的推广过程中能给大家带来好处，大家还是会接收此项技术的。
相关资料
| 
