He told conference delegates at Biometrics 2009 in London on 20 October, that the Chinese government is deploying large scale biometrics systems, and that biometrics are being taken up in sectors such as banking and finance, telecoms, prisons, border control, education, etc.

And of course, biometrics were used for access verification at the Beijing Olympics with face recognition used in the opening and closing ceremony, and the security centre for the softball stadium used hand vein recognition for access control.

Fingerprinting is still the largest biometrics used, but others such as iris scanning are emerging, Tan told the audience.

Amongst other examples, Tan showed how biometrics has been taken up by the coal mining industry, where some companies have started using biometrics for attendance and access control, amongst other uses. The coal mining industry could pose a huge potential market for biometrics in China, as the country expects to have more than 10 000 coal mines by the end of 2010.

Tan said iris scanning appears to be the favoured biometrics for the coal mines, as for obvious reasons of the coal miners’ working conditions fingerprints and face recognition could be complicated. He went on to show the audience at Biometrics 2009 a photo of a miner ending his shift covered in black coal dust…

Looking ahead to the future of biometrics in China, Tan said the country already has more than 10 000 biometrics researchers in universities and institutions funded by the government, but also industry.

As mentioned above, the Chinese biometrics market has a large potential with an increasing need for security, rapid economic growth, a maturing manufacturing industry and lower costs, and a growing public acceptance.

He also identified some challenges, however, such as the scalability of biometrics technologies. The biometrics industry needs to provide rich product lines and customisable solutions to take advantage of this market opportunity.