Biometric Kiosk Authentication – A Talk With Frank Olea

By Evan Schuman

Kiosk Authentication Is Getting Trickier

As kiosks are handling more sensitive and compliance-controlled data–as well as literally giving users money and other high-value items–robust authentication is critical. But robust in the kiosk realm cannot mean time-consuming or in any other way deliver friction. Done properly, biometrics can address both, but there are significant tradeoffs between the various biometric forms and how their settings are handled.

One environment, for example, that requires extreme speed when authenticating a transaction are concession stands at a sports arena. “Businesses want to know and need to know who is in that facility,” said Frank Olea, the CEO of Olea Kiosks.

Just about every form of biometrics (finger scan, eye scan, vein placement, facial recognition, voiceprint, etc.) have their pros and cons. This involves accuracy as well as friction, in the sense of how easy is it for the system to register correctly the first time.

Fingerprint is easy to implement and to perform. but a substantial number of people have skin issues (excessive use of detergent, prescription drugs that thin the skin, damaged or seriously calloused fingers, etc.) that prevent fingerprint scans from working for them. Facial recognition–which today stands as the most popular authentication on smartphones–can be finicky, requiring the user’s face to be a precise distance from the phone.

All of these methods can be fooled fairly easily depending on the settings selected–more on that in a moment–so the best theoretical route is to layer multiple authentication methods. But that would sharply add friction and time to the process, which can defeat the point of using biometrics in a kiosk.

The settings issue is sensitive. The choice is figuring out how strict or lenient you want the authentication system to be. An ultra-strict setting is more protective, but it runs the risk of incorrectly denying access to legitimate users. The reverse is true for the opposite: An ultra-lenient setting means fewer disgruntled users, but it also means that some thieves will get a greenlight. Note: It is virtually impossible to choose a setting that will allow in all authorized users and simultaneously block all bad guys. Hence, you choose your poison.

Read the full article on Kiosk Industry here.