A Brief Introduction to the Use of Biometric Security Systems in Various Industries

With the rapid development in biometric technologies, their acceptance as security systems is increasing at a fast pace. Fingerprint recognition in this regard is by far the most developed & economical biometric security & management solution which has already percolated most industries. The holy grail of any identification/verification system, be it biometric or otherwise, is to provide absolute accuracy (zero false positives) in every condition it is subjected to and yet manage to provide that solution at the lowest cost possible in the market. Fingerprint technology comes very close to this aspiration and thus enjoys wide acceptance across industries.

Fingerprint identification is used by banks, other financial institutions as well as by banking software developers to know exactly ‘who’ is using the services they are offering and also for documenting customers’ activities. It is also extremely useful in helping banks with their KYC compliance. Use of fingerprint technology to access ATMs is also quite popular and has been preferred over PIN & cards.

Fingerprint sensors allow to uniquely identify each electronic medical record without the need of entering other identifiers such as file number, registration code, date, etc. Hence, prompt access to the patients’ medical record could be achieved. This also eliminates the chances of wrong extraction of medical reports or duplication which could be fatal in some cases.

It is one area which extensively makes use of fingerprint sensors for the purpose of granting access to the different parts of the facility and for time & attendance management. This technology could be easily integrated with the existing payroll systems in the company so as to provide more accurate attendance data to be used for labor law compliance.

As the biometric technologies become more accurate, more government agencies are employing them in various areas such as national identification programs (like UID in India), public distribution systems, ePassports, voters’ enrollment and public safety systems. Public safety systems make use of fingerprint technology in prisons, government facilities, detention centers, border control, etc.