South African-based group Transmetrix predicts a significant shift to market demand for biometrics in access control in Africa.
However, the firm believes the biggest demand driver for biometric technology in the developing world, including SA, will remain time and attendance control for the next few years.
Transmetrix marketing director Charlie Stewart says developing countries are seeing a high demand for biometric applications in the time and attendance sector, mainly due to the large segment of hourly-paid labour in these regions.
"The developing world sees a much higher return on investment from biometric time and attendance systems, which is currently our biggest market. Due to the characteristics of the workforce in developing countries, business are trying to combat time fraud and practices like 'buddy punching`," Stewart explains.
However, the company believes this trend will change as developing countries achieve higher levels of technological advancement, with the focus expected to shift radically to biometric systems within the physical and logical access control environment.
Stewart also maintains that SA has seen a general uptake in biometric technology over the last two or three years, as, increasingly, businesses are seeing the benefits of employing biometric solutions.
"This can be clearly seen in the fact that tenders for biometric technology in SA have amounted to about R300 million in value so far this year, and this is a very significant trend. The market is kicking off in a big way," he notes.
Basic biometrics
Interestingly, Stewart says, the trend has also been for businesses to move towards basic biometric applications, after an initial demand for complex, and often impractical, solutions.
One of Transmetrix`s core differentiators, he says, is the Certis fingerprint reader, developed specifically for the African environment, relying on thermal rather than optical reading sensors.
"Most commercially available products were developed for use in Western office environments. But in Africa, few people have the perfectly manicured hands you`ll find in a US or European workplace, so scanners struggle to read fingers," Stewart points out.
"We have the exclusive African import and distribution rights for the Certis fingerprint reader. This device was developed by one of the global defence companies for use in combat situations and so was designed to operate in extremely challenging environments."
The device uses thermal technology to extract an image of the print, which offers several significant performance benefits, he states. Stewart explains that the scanner`s sensor measures the heat differential between the ridges and dips on a fingerprint, and takes 1 780 images of the print per second, allowing it to extract an exceptionally clear image of the finger`s unique features.
"The quality of image which a sensor extracts is especially critical in Africa where the majority of the population, as a result of manual or outdoor work, have eroded or damaged fingerprints which traditional scanners, with lesser image extraction capabilities, cannot always recognise," Stewart claims.
"We have seen a growing demand from customers for the thermal fingerprint scanner, which is ideally suited to such work environments as manufacturing, mining and agriculture."
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