Facial recognition to be $9.6 billion market by 2024: report

Like it or not, facial recognition is increasingly being adopted at businesses, public facilities, and in electronics devices to control access and improve security. According to Mordor Intelligence, the facial recognition market was valued at $4.51 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach $9.06 billion by 2024, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 12.5%. The United States and China are considered leading adopters.

According to the study, the percentage of smartphones that use traditional fingerprint sensors will drop from 94% to 90% by 2023, as 3D facial recognition becomes a standard approach to user authentication.

The study added that the 3D camera market will bring advancement and new applications for 3D facial recognition technology, especially in the healthcare IT solutions, payments, and commerce sectors. The technology could enable retailers to replace cash and card payments and eliminate the need for checkout lines through a 3D facial recognition platform that identifies customers automatically and charges them for their purchases, for instance.

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Government initiatives are expected to contribute to the double-digit growth of facial recognition technologies, the study said. For instance, the US government has plans to reshape airport security through facial recognition to register and identify visitors.

According to the study, North America is expected to hold the highest market share in facial recognition. The biggest facial recognition surveillance system in the region is operated by the FBI, which maintains a facial recognition database with images of more than 117 million Americans. The study also noted that Canadian companies are taking advantage of this facial recognition technology.

The study noted that while the facial recognition market has some major players such as Aware, and Gemalto, a number of startups were growing at a substantial rate, leading to a highly competitive scenario in the near future.