BIOMETRICS:A faster airport security checking system may soon become a reality given the many biometric technological advances being made, writes Eamon McGrane

IMAGINE BEING able to walk through airport security control in seconds by using your body as identification? Or what about being on a smart electricity grid that delivers power to your home when you need it and enables a consumer to reduce their electricity costs? What about using your mobile phone as your credit card, bus/train/Luas pass or for gaining access to a concert?

And what if your banking experience changed and became more personalised and targeted towards you thanks to biometric identification, measuring physical characteristics, such as fingerprints, DNA, or retinal patterns, for use in verifying your identity. In fact, you might never have to meet your banker again.

While some of this may sound distinctly like something from the Philp K Dick-inspired film Minority Report, the truth is most of these technologies are already with us, or are being developed.

One of the companies at the coalface of this cutting-edge technology is consultancy company Accenture, who usually work on integrating diverse vendor technologies.

The company also contributes to technology think-tanks with "blue sky" ideas and has its own research and development labs located throughout the world in locations such as the USA, France and India. The labs facilitate research and development, incubate and help promote technology innovation to various industry sectors, including public service.

Keeping an eye on government sector developments for the firm is Juan Domenech, Accenture's chief executive officer for public service practice. Domenech says Accenture usually aligns itself with industry and requires from them a certain technological approach. Investment in these sectors is reviewed every 12 to 18 months.

"We get ideas in the market through the industries. Then we test the ideas and the ones we believe have a place in the market, we come back with beta versions and it's a continuous cycle. From test, to client, to market."

While a significant amount of research in the labs is "blue sky", Domenech said about 30 to 40 per cent of the public sector projects become commercial realities.

One of the most significant public sector projects Accenture has worked on is border control security, using technologies such as biometrics and it is an area that is set to expand in the future.

"Today, you can get on a plane and go to certain countries based on your profile," he says. "This is going to be extended - the other thing is depending on how much scrutiny you are willing to initially go under, you may be entitled to become a 'trusted traveller'.

"And because governments want to facilitate travel, you may be able to travel throughout the world using biometric technologies," says Domenech. "I am a firm believer that travel documents will be one single piece of ID that will follow you with internationally recognised standards and will be interoperable in different networks and countries."

One of the interesting areas of Accenture's work is helping non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to become more efficient.

From the outside it seems like an unusual fit, a big corporate money-making entity being involved with predominantly charitable organisations. But according to Domenech, it is something the company has naturally slipped into.

"It's a strategic decision that Accenture made. A trend had been developing for the last few years in that NGOs were becoming service providers for governments and as we help our clients to become high performing, we need to take into account their service provider network in certain parts of the world, often supported by NGOs and so on, so we included these organisations as part of our market so we'd have an end-to-end vision on how services are provided."

But would such a huge corporate creature being involved with NGOs be an anathema to charitable supporters who want to ensure their money is headed for relief work and not on the improvement of the NGO's internal cogs?

Domenech said that a certain percentage of the monies received or donated to NGOs are earmarked for specific purposes - to improve management capabilities and so on.

"So the money they manage and the service they provide and the good they are doing in the world is multiplied by 'X'. There's nothing wrong with someone donating money specifically to improve the capacities and capabilities of an organisation so they can better fulfil their mission."

With most newspaper column inches cogitating on the recent turn of economic events, what's the one thing Domenech would advise governments worldwide to do? "Use technology wisely - it brings huge opportunity. It improves communications with citizens to better understand their needs and provides it more cheaply than the way it is being commonly done today," says Domenech.