Gait biometrics will continue to pick up momentum over the next few years, according to a new report from TechNavio. The firm predicts that between 2016 and 2020, the global gait biometrics market will grow at a rate of 13.98 percent (CAGR).

The market research firm asserts that such growth is driven primarily by the healthcare sector, since the technology has particularly impactful applications in athletic training, orthopedic treatments, and other physiological and healthcare areas; indeed, those latter applications could prove increasingly important with widespread demographic changes leading to a greater number of aged healthcare patients in the coming years. However, TechNavio points to the high costs of such technology, along with its often bulky physical form, as a major market challenge.

There are smaller, less costly technologies emerging, though, as gait biometrics are adapted beyond physiological applications. FST Biometrics’ IMID technology, for example, leverages gait biometrics in a multimodal system that can be used for a range of authentication applications, and other companies are starting to look into this area as well. Authentication applications therefore could help to further propel the gait biometrics market as the medical and athletic communities’ interest in biometric technology generally continues to grow.

(Originally posted on FindBiometrics)