Contactless Biometric Authentication: The Future of Payment and Security

The internet has changed many things in our day-to-day lives. It has changed how we take care of our finances. Now you can shop, play, bank, and communicate without even leaving your favorite sofa. All of this has become possible thanks to biometric technology and it is still evolving. What will it evolve into? Contactless biometric authentication.

However, there’s a question that keeps coming to our minds. Is this it? Are we in the future? Is this as good as it’s ever going to get? The answer is that this is just the beginning. Biometric authentication has a bright and shining future in the industry and it is just starting.

Two Types of Biometric Authentication

Biometric technology is maturing and making its way into our lives with rapidity. One of the factors that differentiate biometric technology is its intrusiveness. Intrusiveness means how much will a user be engaged while identifying himself or herself. Based on intrusiveness, two major categories of biometric authentication come forward: contact biometric authentication and contactless biometric authentication.

What is Contactless Biometric Authentication?

A way of biometric authentication that does not need the user to perform any physical contact with the system is called contactless biometric authentication. It includes technologies like facial recognition, iris recognition, voice recognition, etc.

Why Go For Contactless Biometric Authentication?

Nonphysical authentication has a lot of advantages over authentication that requires users to physically touch a surface.

Less Intrusive

Some users may feel uneasy when interacting with authentication that requires them to come in contact with the biometric system surface, especially if a lot of people have done so before them. This may be the case with biometric authentication systems in public, like ATMs, etc. this can cause infections and other viral diseases to spread, especially when there’s an outbreak.

Less Time Consumed

Biometric authentication that requires physical contact may take a lot of time depending on the number of people using it at a single time and the number of times they are required to do the authentication for it to work right. Just think about your office’s attendance system and how it works when everyone is trying to log in or log out at the same time. With a less intrusive biometric authentication system, the time consumption would be drastically reduced. This will also lead to less friction and less number of disgruntled and annoyed employees.

Intrusiveness may lead to an increase in time taken for successful authentication due to time wasted in making right contact with a biometric system. It can also increase friction and annoyance due to failed attempts and inaccurate touch.