Advanced Recognition Systems: moving to mainstream
The current physical and cyber threats facing Australia are ever-present, and growing. And the optimal response to both these threats – particularly cyber security - will be delivered in the form of another IT solution; advanced recognition systems.
By the end of 2017, it’s estimated there will be 8.4 billion connected devices installed worldwide; millions of these in Australia. This requires a concerted approach across a range of sectors as Australians seek reliable, secure access to their banking, health, educational and retail services.
In terms of service delivery, the challenge is no greater than for government. In this sector, the continued growth and delivery of online services is vital – while there is a clear need to protect the identity and details of more than 24 million Australians.
One of the key technological answers was examined in depth this week at a landmark conference in Victoria. The Advanced Recognition Systems Experience event, hosted by NEC, provided a unique insight to the role that these systems will play in meeting the nation’s long-term security and public safety needs.
The reason that the systems will be so successful is two-fold: their ever-growing acceptance nationally, especially by digital users; and the significant protection that they will clearly provide to Australian residents in every state and territory.
A milestone white paper, tabled at the conference, highlighted just how positive this experience will be. The paper Advanced Recognition Systems – the new paradigm in Asia Pacific by Frost and Sullivan, states that tech-savvy users are likely to become accustomed to advanced recognition systems to carry out the simplest of tasks: such as making digital P2P payments with fingerprints or passing through immigration using borderless gates in a matter of seconds.
Not only that, advanced recognition systems, when integrated to commercial services, often provide twofold benefits - an increased level of security as well as improved speed and convenience for consumers.
Advanced recognition includes fingerprint technology, voice recognition, iris recognition and mobile identification software. And its uses are varied, and growing. The software is being used in advanced security surveillance, information security; through to behavior detection, crowd behavior analysis, rapid machine learning, congestion prediction, textural entailment, invariant analysis and more.
Many of these were on display at the NEC-hosted event to showcase the capabilities of the technology to scores of private enterprise and government representatives, along with analysts and the media.
With the advance of recognition technology, traditional authorisation methods are being outstripped and Governments and corporations have begun using the technology in a wide range of industries from retail to banking, health and education - with a range of examples supporting the proposition.
Frost & Sullivan states that the Australian Government has developed a $100 million Seamless Traveller Initiative which can automate 90 percent of border clearance processes by Australian Federal Police and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
And in Australian retail, including one major chain, the use of advanced recognition systems incorporates biometric scanners and CCTV cameras, to improve security for staff and customers.
Furthermore, a major Australian bank is using voice biometrics at call centres and pushing Australian banks to go PIN-less to curb fraud. Fraud cases increased 93 percent in Australia in 2016. Some 78 percent of credit card fraud in Australia is created via stolen card details and total fraud losses in 2016 were $534 million.
Frost & Sullivan estimates that by 2020, there will be more 20 billion connected devices installed world-wide. As the use of biometrics extends into broader commercial applications, the three-pronged approach – people, places and patterns - may become the very fabric of future smart ecosystems.
From the London tube bombing attempt that left 30 people injured, and from the WannaCry ransomware that crippled over 300,000 computer systems globally to NotPetya which hit major international organisations including some in Australia, physical and cyber security threats have grown to unprecedented levels, according to Frost and Sullivan.
But at the same time it has spawned a new era of technology and NEC – ranked at the forefront globally for advanced recognition speed and accuracy – continues to support research and its growing acceptance. In this way, the technology’s mainstream appeal here, as in other countries globally, will be assured.