Turkey’s Very First Biometrics Summit held in Istanbul
Istanbul Biometrics Summit, an opportunity for sharing comprehensive information on "Biometric Solutions" that draws attention for many sectors and end-users, held in Istanbul Marriott Asia Hotel for the first time on November 19th, 2012 by Proline Information Technologies. Organisation has presented new technologies on biometrics with the participation of top-level speakers from both Turkey and abroad and provided sectoral sharing network.
Involved in the very nature of many sectors such as general public, homeland security, safety, health, transportation, retail, border control, banking & finance, Istanbul Biometrics Summit encompassed many biometrics technologies like fingerprint, palm vein, face, finger vein, iris and voice recognition. Key subjects on biometrics, ID management trends, recent advances, cost advantages of biometrics, system choice, data security and latest applications and latest standards on system integration were discussed by domestic and foreign authorities in the sector.
Mehmet Doğanyiğit, CEO of Proline Information Technologies, mentioned the definition of biometrics, general usage of biometrics process in Turkey and forward steps. He put emphasis on the importance of biometrics in daily life with the expectation of its private sector share to increase 55% until 2017. He added "four important factors" to pay attention in the biometrical development process as validity rate, cost advantages, adaptability and data security.
Philip Reuter, Frost & Sullivan Director of Turkey, considered "The Role of Biometrics at Safe and Smart Cities." Reuter said "In the near future we will encounter M2M Technologies first, and then ‘the social things’ structures which will play a very important role in our lives."
Dr. Joseph Atick’s Biometrics 2012 recorded speech was about ID management trends, ID data magnitude, knowledge acquisition mechanisms, intelligence, communication and data processing. Following this presentation, the summit panel took place with the participants from various sectors. Biometric technologies are discussed in a wide spectrum ranging from identity verification to bank transactions such as electronic banking, regulation, eID and trade issues. "Customers trust the banks but not the internet" was one of the important topics discussed in the panel.
Dr. Hasan Palaz, President of TÜBİTAK Bilgem said: "Biometrics applications will be used both in Turkey and in the world. Biometrics is especially critical for e-health applications. Biometrics tehcnologies will share the key role to play in the transformation to e-state when electronical national ID cards will be in use in 2013. Biometrics applications will become a common tool in eIDs in the near future. In conclusion, we, as the shareholders (universities, industries, research & development institutes) working for biometrics, need to improve technologies in biometrics."
Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bağış participated in the summit and delivered a speech on biometrics. Bağış mainly underlined the importance of biometrics technologies. He also stated that Turkey has completed transition to biometrics passports in accordance with EU harmonization and thanked to hall for their contribution to this process.
At the 37th International Star Award for Quality, organised by Business Initiative Directions (BID), Proline has been awarded with one of the most prestigious awards of IT World: "The Golden Category". Proline became the first Turkish company awarded by BID. Proline is also listed in the "125 global companies" ranking according to Keesing publications.
