For more than 30 years, HAL fans have wondered whether we'd achieve true artificial intelligence (AI) by 2001. Of course, many AI components remain purely science fiction. But take a closer look, and you'll find many HAL-inspired technologies going mainstream next year.
Sceptical? Consider the market for biometric authentication devicesâ€"which allow users to sign on to secure networks using a fingerprint, an iris scan and so on. Dramatic price reductions are making the technology affordable, and heightened concerns over security and privacy have customers taking a close look at biometric devices. Moreover, government regulations soon may make biometrics virtually mandatory for health-care, financial and e-commerce applications.
Fortunately, biometric work carries the promise of profitability. Hardware sales are projected to grow tenfold to more than US$590 million in 2003. Concurrently, biometric consulting and integration revenues could reach nearly $1.8 billion. Solutions providers can expect to earn $3 of high-margin services revenue for every dollar's worth of biometric hardware, according to International Biometric Group (IBG), a New York-based consulting firm.
"It's not an off-the-shelf solution," explains Raj Nanavati, a partner in IBG who notes that biometrics offers the opportunity to "consult and specify" one or more competing technologies from 145 vendors. "Integration work requires understanding of security policy and technology," he adds.
Biometrics consultants must balance many factors, including reliability versus speed-of-recognition and data-storage requirements; space and locations available for scanning devices; and a user group's acceptance of various biometric techniques. Even the volatility of a biometric parameter within a user group is a significant factor; for example, construction workers, who often suffer hand injuries, render finger and hand biometrics unreliable.
Still, the integration of biometric devices into complex IT systems has become much easier, thanks to vendor consolidation, standardisation of APIs and abandonment of some unsuccessful biometric parameters.
Today, five biometric parameters account for 95 percent of the market. They are: fingerprint, hand geometry, face recognition, voice authentication and iris recognition. We've interviewed a leading vendor in each of those segments to help you understand the state of their respective arts, channel strategies and fastest-growing markets.
