Invixium Reports ‘Significant’ Increase in Demand for Contactless Biometrics Amid COVID-19

Toronto-based biometrics specialist Invixium says it has been seeing “a significant rise in the demand for touchless biometric solutions” – and that this trend had started even before the COVID-19 pandemic that has prompted a global shift toward social distancing.

In any case, it’s that shift that is leading to a profound and long-lasting change, as Invixium CEO Shiraz Kapadia explained in a statement. “The impact of the Coronavirus pandemic will forever change the landscape of the biometric industry moving forward,” he said. “Mandates have been issued by governments, enterprises, business owners to cease the use of fingerprint, palm print and hand-key readers, as well as any access control readers or workforce management devices due to amplified concerns related to physical contact with these types of devices.”

Indeed, there are a growing number of examples of organizations moving away from contact-based biometric during the COVID-19 pandemic. Government authorities in India and Pakistan were restricting the use of fingerprint scans for attendance tracking already in February, and in early March the NYPD halted the use of fingerprint scanning for police accessing its headquarters. Meanwhile, a high-tech burger shop in Silicon Valley went so far as to implement face and temperature scanning for customers, signalling the utility of contactless biometrics at a time of social distancing.

For its part, Invixium has a solution at hand. “Invixium is ready and well equipped to provide consulting to security architects and project administrators on the adoption or migration to touchless biometrics via our TITAN offering,” said Kapadia.

The Titan biometric terminal offers facial recognition for purposes such as time and attendance tracking, and has been proven to work highly effectively in challenging conditions. It also supports touchless fingerprint authentication, allowing for versatility and a high level of security when multimodal biometrics are required.

What’s more, Kapadia says his firm “will continue to pioneer new and innovative forms of touchless biometrics for myriad security and workforce management applications” going forward, suggesting the company is poised to be an important solutions provider as the broader shift to contactless biometrics plays out.

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April 9, 2020 – by Alex Perala