In September this year, Reconnaissance International will release a new publication – ‘Smartphones for Authentication’ – the only publication of its kind.
Smartphones are revolutionising the world of authentication, thanks to their ubiquity, connectivity, and computing power. As a result, they have given over 80% of the world’s population (ie. those people currently owning smartphones) the power to read barcodes and validate security features not previously available to them.
Smartphones are thus accelerating the move towards more standardised, universal authentication methods and are giving rise to technologies that simply didn’t exist before.
These technologies are based on the various embedded attributes of smartphones, including light sources, display screen attributes, biometric capabilities, fingerprint sensors, connectivity, and – of particular significance to authentication – camera systems. The current and potential role of these technologies are covered at length in the new report, along with any drawbacks as far as the authentication sector is concerned.
The 60+ page publication also explores existing use cases of smartphone technologies within the authentication ecosystem, including in the individual areas of currency and payments, personal identity, product and document authentication, and tax stamps.
Emerging technologies and their potential role as authentication devices of the future are also covered, including the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the move towards wearable electronics and smart glasses.
The author of the report is Dr Alan Hodgson, an independent expert in printing and imaging technologies, who is active in the field of international standards for photography, printed electronics and wearable devices.
Dr Hodgson’s interest in smartphones started with the early days of phone cameras and their photographic capabilities. As the smartphone platform developed into the multiple capabilities we see today he continued to study these, noting the trade-offs between capabilities and vulnerabilities across a range of applications.
The report is divided into the following sections:
The broad landscape around smartphones for authentication: a political, economic, social and technical (PEST) analysis.
Smartphone technology for secure applications: light sources, display screen attributes, biometrics, fingerprint sensors, connectivity.
A dedicated section on smartphone camera systems (given the importance of optical attributes for authentication).
Implications of smartphones for security: balancing the power of smartphones against their vulnerability.
A selection of seven case studies, from both within and outside our industry. These include the effects of smartphones on cash use, a perspective on mobile identity, product and document authentication, the reading of printed codes on tax stamps, lessons from photography, and lessons from the pandemic. Dr Hodgson will consider the different requirements of consumers and inspectors across the different use cases, as well as compare smartphones with more specialist, purpose-built devices.
Emerging technologies, including innovation in smartphone camera systems, emerging fingerprint technologies, distributed systems, 5G wireless networks, AI, wearable electronics, and smart glasses.
Asking the hard questions: has decision making shifted too far for us? Are we creating an unprecedented target for cybercrime? What about product life cycles and development paths? Where will this technology lead?
Technology providers and other experts in smartphone technologies for authentication purposes are invited to demonstrate their capabilities for driving innovation in smartphone authentication by advertising in this unique new special report. The report will be distributed to central banks, payment authorities, identity issuers, revenue authorities, security printers, technology and software developers, and security feature suppliers and integrators.
For more information on the different advertising options, and to book your space, please click here.
‘Smartphones in the New Optical and Digital Document Security World’ is also the subject of a seminar, led by Dr Hodgson, at the Optical & Digital Document Security™ conference, in Prague, Czech Republic, from 17-19 April. The conference and seminar are now open for registration at opticaldigitalsecurity.com.
