To build safer cities, countries like the U.A.E. are paying a lot of attention to how new technologies such as biometrics could improve their public services.
To build safer cities, countries like the U.A.E. are paying a lot of attention to how new technologies, such as biometrics, could improve their public services. For instance, civilians have to provide fingerprints for their passport and ID cards for personal identification.
In the U.A.E., an Emirates ID card is required when a member of the general public needs to go for any government purposes, such as health care institutes or others, as well as to board a plane, open a bank account, or check in to hotels. Since the use of the ID card is widespread, multiple identity management solutions have been introduced to this region.
David Massad, Marketing Lead of the Traffic Safety and Security Division at Security & Graphics Business Group in 3M Gulf provided an example with their latest solution in hospitality. When checking into a hotel, guests are asked for their passport. Instead of taking a copy and then a note of all the information from the passport, the hotel can scan it and automatically, with the software their partner has, it will pick up all the information and display it on the screen. It is very convenient for the hotel without doing extra paperwork. According to the company, since the introduction of the system, the government has started to ask some hotels to have the document reader ready at their desks. The government is very likely to be automatically connected to the hotel, so this document reader is very important for them. In addition to that, it can also identify if the ID is a fraud.
“We think the portable identity verification solutions will be the future development for the government agencies, such a ports, immigration, or health insurance.”
- Hadi Rabie Omer, Sales and Marketing Director, Systems and Solutions Division,
Emirates Photo Marketing (ePM)
The region also needs more advanced identification solutions for government agencies. Hadi Rabie Omer, Sales and Marketing Director for the Systems and Solutions Division at Emirates Photo Marketing (ePM), a systems integrator (SI) and reseller of access control and identification systems in Dubai, pointed out the trend for identification solutions in public services.
“We think the portable identity verification solutions will be the future development for the government agencies, such a ports, immigration, or health insurance,” Omer said. “We have an anti-copy barcode solution, which uses mobile biometric verification by barcode, with which you can put the person’s fingerprint or his photo inside the barcode offline and you can check it offline. And, we can develop that software for the government agencies.”
Biometrics continues its wide penetration
Along with the high demand for advanced identification management solutions, regulations for biometrics are more flexible and the user acceptance is relatively high, much higher that other places in the world.
“There are different reasons to the spread of biometrics,” said Alex Zarrabi, CEO of Touchless Biometric Systems (TBS). “Labor secure access is one reason, the other reason is the drive to increase productivity and improve the government services. Another growing sector for biometrics is the education sector, making sure that students attend classes.”
Airports
Airports are a major adopter of
biometric technology throughout the U.A.E.
Airports, public agencies, and big enterprises are the sectors with the highest biometrics adoption in this region. In 2014 the Dubai International Airport implemented 125 smart gates, equipped with functions such as automatic identification system, facial imprint, and automatic iris scan, which are specifically designed to help speed up passport control procedures with plans to expand the program.
Antoine Grenier, VP and GM of Access Control/OEM/Gaming Business Unit at Morpho (Safran) also said, “Morpho has been developing a relationship with governments and private companies for a long time. We currently have requirements for airports in many areas in the world. It’s a very significant part of Morpho’s growth. Now we are introducing contactless biometrics identification technology to them, which are very good for passenger flow processing organization. So we are developing our presence with this technology, still for government applications but also for transportation, airports, and access control. Contactless technology is new and hygienic so it is an advantage for when many people going through the same place, it may be a concern for some people to touch a sensor. It is why people like using contactless products.”
The company has its new Morpho Wave, which captures images of the user’s four fingertips from a single wave of the hand in less than a second. Its unique dynamic acquisition capability allows subjects to be “on the move” during fingerprint capture.
“We have started deployments and the big sales requirements in Europe and America, but in the Middle East people are the most interested in it I would say, from the first few months of selling to the clients. I think people are interested in the new products and technology,” Grenier said.
Another trend for boarder control is iris recognition, which is ready to be adopted by many of the airports in the Middle East, such as the Dubai International Airport. Due to its high accuracy of authentication, Iris ID Systems, and iris biometric technology provider and developer, expects a lot of growth from this region. Mohammed Murad, VP of Global Sales and Business Development for Iris ID Systems said iris recognition will be an obvious trend for boarder control, and then spread to access control for government agencies and enterprises, such as data centers.
From government-related projects to enterprises
Many of these identification solution providers in this region have already started to expand its customer base beyond government-related projects to maintain growth. We can expect more diverse solutions in access control and increased adoption of identification authentication in this region.