NEXT Biometrics—and the biometrics industry in general—got some high-profile publicity last month when the company’s CEO appeared for an interview on NPR staple Here & Now.
Speaking to NPR’s Jeremy Hobson, NEXT’s Tore Etholm-Idsøe explained that “[f]ingerprint sensors will now start appearing in a lot of different contexts,” pointing to applications in residential access control, key fobs, and small-scale consumer electronics. Etholm-Idsøe also pointed to the improved security of biometrics as opposed to passwords. “It’s not easy to steal a fingerprint”, he said, adding later, “If you suspect someone has stolen your index fingerprint, just change your designated print to another finger, as most people have nine backups.”
While Etholm-Idsøe asserted that his company specializes in technology “market one-to-one context, for which you need to be able to process fingerprint identification and authentication in typically less than one second,” he also gave due credit to Apple for pioneering smartphone biometrics with its Touch ID system. “Now you have fingerprint sensors in almost all smartphones,” he said.
The interview likely helped to further spread awareness about the benefits of biometric technology, and boosted NEXT’s profile at a time when the company is seeking to expand aggressively into smart cards and to explore potential Internet of Things applications with flexible sensor technology.
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March 8, 2016 – by Alex Perala
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