Smartphones Keep Getting Smarter

Smartphones Keep Moving Forward

Well, how was everybody’s weekend?  Mine was sort of the same, with two major differences.  I competed in the first TKD tournament this year, and I got the gold by default.  The second major thing, well my beautiful Anita and I made more progress on the wedding planning front.  We made a lot of headway in looking at wedding invitations (personally, I never thought that there could be so many of them out there .  . . but hey, that means we have a lot to choose from).  But, back to the tournament.  There is one theme that is always recurring as of recent.  Since TKD tournaments have a lot of kids competing, it means that there will be a lot of parents attending, to support their children. 

But rather than using the Smartphone to call their family and friends to tell them how their little athlete is faring, the trend now is to use all of the mobile apps as possible to keep people apprised via Twitter, Facebook, and all of the other social media things you can think of.  I guess in a way, it makes sense.  Why waste time calling when all you have to do is just quickly enter 140 characters or less???  So, with this image of Smartphones emblazed into your mind, it is today that I came across a press release than a Biometrics Vendor has just launched a whole new set of Smartphones, all Biometric enabled. 

So, here we go:  “The RaptorONE and RaptorPAD represent a tremendous leap forward in the Mobile Biometrics field. They provide current communications technologies and robust processing power with leading edge biometrics in highly mobile, cost-efficient, handheld devices. Raptor ID's exclusive Extended Depth of Field (EDOF) iris capture technology allows users to capture iris images with extraordinary clarity, anywhere from 5"-9" away, enabling true one-hand point-and-shoot iris capture. Raptor ID's exclusive TalonTM biometric capture interface is an intuitive, icon-based application that enables user training in minutes, not months . . . Raptor ID's modular devices function as the computing-power "engine" for the operator. Both devices are compatible with interchangeable add-on modules, enabling a wide array of additional mission sets - RFID readers; contactless card readers; peer-to-peer radio; satellite radio over a wide variety of bandwidths; multi-TB storage for mirroring content from suspect devices and PC's; passport readers; laser barcode; streaming video from helmet cams/bore-scopes/rifle scopes; and almost anything the use case calls for.” (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9512/).

My Take

You are probably thinking, yea, yea, big deal, another Smartphone comes out on the market.  And, when I first read the article, those were my first thoughts as well.  But this Smartphone differs from most others are a number of fronts.  First, this is one piece of device in which another Biometric Technology is clearly being used, and as you can see from up above, it deals with Iris Recognition.  This is probably one of the very few times I have seen Iris Recognition ever specifically mentioned.  It’s always either Fingerprint Recognition, and now, Voice Recognition.  Second, this device supports a series of other kinds of security solutions-ranging all the way from bar codes to smart cards to the e-Passport to contactless card scanners, the works. 

And to be honest, I can say without a doubt that this is the very first time I have seen such a Smartphone with so many security modalities already attached to it.  Third, this Biometrics Vendor has taken a very unique approach to the way it is making this Smartphone.  Rather than making specialty products for very niche style segments, their approach is to create apps which are more popularly used, and market them to much broader market segment.  So, as a result, more revenue can possibly be made because more people will be marketed to.  But, here is the tradeoff.  Although in theory more revenue will be made, it will take a lot more to make more money, rather than selling to the specialty markets, where a lot of money can be made as well, with just a few purchases by some large customers. 

So, it all comes to down to do we market more, or market less???  It seems like they favor the approach to market to the mass crowds.  Nothing wrong with that, it is just a different way of marketing for the Biometrics Industry.  Now, that Iris Recognition has made its way into the Smartphone market, I wonder when the day will come when we see all of it put together:  A Smartphone which has Voice Recognition, Iris Recognition, Facial Recognition, Fingerprint Recognition.  This would be the ultimate multimodal security solution to the core.  When will it come out, I wonder???  Perhaps by the time I write the next posting on this very topic  . . .

Comments

[Samantha Cole]

I think that's why they are considered as smartphones: because they have a high level of security system. For the personalized security alone, they are very much worth their price - maybe even more.