ZDNet Article

Biometrics: Smaller and Cheaper

The use of biometrics now seems inevitable, but there's a contentious hardware issue yet to be resolved: optical versus silicon.

While bigger names like Saflink still sell software for thousands of dollars (Saflink charges $100 per client for its product, but requires a $10,000 minimum implementation) start-ups are starting to make biometrics much more affordable.

Digital Persona's complete product, which includes a portable, key chain-sized optical fingerprint scanner and software, retails for only $149 per user, with no minimum cost. The software, which allows users to sign in remotely and set up permissions for shared access, is comparable to that from Saflink--which only announced shared permission and remote functions this week at Comdex.

"Prices are coming down--especially for scanners," said Jake Hong, an associate at IBG, a consulting firm that works with government and corporate clients.

So what's holding up adoption? Price and privacy concerns are still factors. But a new law requiring biometric identification could help push widespread adoption of the technology, says Richard Ouaknine, an account executive at IBG. By 2004, the United States will require that all foreign visitors from visa-waiver countries carry passports with a microchip holding biometric data. Even so, says Ouaknine, standards will still be a huge hurdle.