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Big Brother biometrics
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August 26, 1998: 4:20 p.m. ET
The identification you'll never leave home without
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SAN FRANCISCO (The Red Herring) - The days of personal identification numbers and even car keys may soon be over. A technology called biometrics, which identifies people through their physical characteristics, is changing the ways machines recognize us.
Biometrics can use a person's irises, thumbprint, voice, and even facial texture as unique identifiers. And while most biometric technologies sound fairly outlandish, they are being developed for a variety of very practical applications.
David Tong, a senior analyst at SRI Consulting, estimates that the biometrics market is already worth roughly $250 million. Most of the applications in use today, however, are narrowly focused on the areas of law enforcement, security, and financial services (see chart below)--all of which seek to prevent fraud or theft by requiring positive identification or authorization. (Biometrics will be a lot slower to break into the corporate IT market; see "Access Delayed.") For example, IriScan, based in Mount Laurel, N.J., sells a system to police departments that uses a standard camera to take a picture of a person's iris, then compares it with a previously stored image, allowing police to determine quickly whether they're detaining someone who's already in their files.
Another startup, Sensar, of Moorestown, N.J., hopes to market its iris-scanning system to commercial banks, which could use it to identify customers at cash machines.
Looking forward, most biometric applications will likely be used in conjunction with one another--and that may rapidly transform them from security measures to an integral part of daily life. For instance, Amy Wohl, editor of the technology newsletter Trendsletter, foresees an explosion in the use of voice interfaces, "especially in conjunction with face recognition," she hypothesizes. "You'll be able to speak into a panel at your home and say, 'See who's at the front door.'"
Tong, meanwhile, predicts that the automobile industry will employ biometrics in the next few years. "Voice recognition, fingerprint authentication, iris scanning--it'll probably put an end to carjacking," he says. Presumably, such technologies could also be used to keep minors from getting behind the wheel.
Of course, before most biometric applications can work, a database of biological information must be created; not surprisingly, the prospect of such intrusive measures has unnerved some people. The State of California has already penned a bill, still awaiting passage in the Senate, that prohibits the sale, transmission, or exchange of individuals' biometric data to third-party databases.
But given the pinpoint accuracy of some biometric technologies, these applications will inevitably become more common.
Miros, a company in Wellesley, Mass., is already selling face-scanning software to businesses for "time and attendance" monitoring. In Orwellian fashion, the boss can see exactly who is punching in his or her virtual time card -- and when.
"Biometrics will need to be regulated," Tong admits when asked about these privacy issues. "But I can't think of one serious ramification that outweighs the advantages." 
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