A&S International: What to Expect from Biometric Access Control Market in 2021?

By Prasanth Aby Thomas, Consultant Editor

Article originally posted via A&S International.

We are almost at the end of 2020, a year that most of us would rather forget. On the bright side, this year did help some markets like facial recognition. Even though it’s too early to be sure, there are signs that a vaccine for COVID-19 might be available soon, and we might see an end to this pandemic. So, what can we expect in 2021 for the biometric access control market? We asked leading companies from Asia and the US.

Young Moon, CEO, Suprema

Solutions with safety and hygiene features will continue to be in demand in 2021. Examples of these solutions include Suprema face recognition terminals that can detect face masks and alert and limit access of users not wearing masks or the Suprema Thermal Camera modules that can be combined with face recognition terminals to detect people with elevated skin temperature. In software, features like occupancy limit that help with social distancing by maintaining a certain number of people in a confined space are popular. 

Mobile Access solutions will also see more demand next year as the need for contactless solutions rise, and our dependency on smartphones remains more vital than ever. On top of the traditional BLE and NFC communication, Mobile Access solutions will also incorporate QR code into the system. Devices that help organizations adopt mobile access solutions at a lower cost, such as Suprema’s Airfob Patch, will also be popular. Airfob Patch translates BLE signal to RF card signal, enabling communication between Mobile Access Cards and existing RFID card readers. With Airfob Patch, organizations do not have to replace existing RF card readers or carry out complicated and costly wiring work to use mobile access. Merely attaching the patch to existing readers is enough.

Steven Humphreys, CEO, Identiv

“I think the federal government will drive a lot of the demand in the coming year because of the need for high security in many government facilities, and because we don’t know how the economy will perform. The federal government needs to keep its programs going because that spending will help the economy. That’s one expectation.”

“We may also see demand as businesses and organizations see a need and desire to reopen. This may include schools, hospitals, or even the travel industry. The Royal Caribbean, for instance, is a big customer of ours. Cruise lines are looking for ways to reopen and start again, and a high-security touchless environment is critical to them.”

“Companies in these sectors would be willing to invest, and you’re going to see some good market spikes, being driven by the near-term needs, federal travel, hospitals, schools, etc. Advantageously, the cost of deployment is going down while accuracy and user familiarity are going up. So, technology has become pervasive. I think both of those will make 2021 and 2022 exceptionally good for biometric industries within systems.”