Fingerprint sensors, iris scanners and other such tech is a huge market. In the mobile space especially, you likely wouldn’t see a flagship device considered complete and consummate by consumers at large these days without some form of biometric authentication. As the relevant technology advances, biometric sensors, such as the fingerprint scanner shown on the LG V10 above, will only become smaller and more ubiquitous. Even outside the mobile space, the biometrics market is growing by leaps and bounds. Biometric sensors can be found on laptops, doors, briefcases and many other things used every day. Whether it’s for home security, enterprise or just making sure a thief won’t be able to steal data from your phone, the applications for biometric technology are incredibly numerous and those numbers are growing every day.
According to research done by the Korea Information Security Industry Association, the global biometrics market reached over $156 billion in total size in 2014 and will continue to grow at an astronomical pace, with projections showing it reaching almost $350 billion by 2018. Fingerprint tech, which makes up most of the market, is predicted to grow about 10.8 percent per year. Other forms of biometric identification, mostly iris scanners for now, are expected to bring the market up to a total of 66.6 percent growth year on year. In the mobile market, biometric tech is expected to show up on 4.8 billion devices by 2020, with about 5.4 billion downloads of relevant apps.
New biometric tech is being researched at breakneck speed as biologists and tech wizards of every type work hand in hand. Mobile iris scanners are already a reality and researchers are working diligently to bring new tech to the mobile space, as well as to develop new biometric tech. The unique shapes and sizes of peoples’ ears are being used to develop new biometric authentication and identification tech. Even means to measure and identify brain waves are beginning to come to fruition, opening up entirely new sectors of the biometric market. Researchers are also looking into ways to use more human body parts for biometric authentication. New market segments are jumping into the biometric game as well, including government and IoT, leading to potential for unprecedented market growth.