Moving Towards A New Era of Human Identification

By: Azfar Adib

Identification can be considered a core human need. Every person in this world aspires, needs and deserves some sort of unique identification. In fact, our day-to-day activities both in the physical or virtual arena regularly call for the use of these documents, whether it’d be buying a bottle of wine at the SAQ or signing up for your first driving lesson. However, let’s imagine a world where we shall no longer need any physical document nor any virtual password. No more commitment to remembering dozens of passwords or to meeting dreadful requirements to create high strength passwords. This kind of grandiose thinking is exactly where we are currently progressing towards: a world where our identities will be automatically verified through our physiological attributes, or otherwise known as biometrics.

The necessity of identity verification has existed right since the start of human history. It started with a very basic technique, remembering general details like one’s facial features, voice, or physical assets to verify them. While human civilization has progressed to a period of papermaking and record keeping; written identification concepts gradually emerged. In the meantime, continuous technological advancement has continuously been used as a tool to create stronger and more convenient identification methods. As the world turns into a global village through widespread internet access, digital identification schemes become more prevalent. In parallel, in the field of biometric identification, fingerprints, voice and iris scan have received significant recognition for its efficiency, thus currently being used by government and business entities.