The biometric smart cards market is beginning to emerge in a big way.
Yesterday, one of the biggest players in the mobile biometrics market, Precise Biometrics, issued a Q1 update in which it revealed that its algorithm software has been integrated into payment cards to be used by a South Korean bank, and that it’s working with clients on other biometric card projects that will produce results in the latter half of the year.
It’s a significant revelation, but it’s one that caps other major developments in recent weeks revolving around Mastercard. The company had announced last month that it had completed two successful trials of a biometric payment card in South Africa, with plans for further trials in Europe and the APAC region, and IDEX was immediately revealed to be the supplier of the card’s fingerprint sensor.
IDEX was not the only biometrics specialist involved. This week, Safran Identity & Security announced that it is the supplier of the biometric software used by the payment cards, and echoed IDEX in suggesting that the biometric technology offers applications beyond payments.
The deep involvement of some of the biggest names in biometric technology, not to mention the leadership of a financial services giant like Mastercard, suggests that the biometric cards market, particularly with respect to payment cards, is on the cusp of a significant boom – or so these big names evidently believe, judging by their big bets.
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