Intel . . .
Now, this one is scarier (from the Financial Mail, South Africa, February 26, 1999):
". . . leading hi-tech companies and research institutions are investing in encryption and identification technologies. Intel, for instance, is working on chips that will include real-time data encryption, voice recognition and biometric security systems."
I'll be happy to take technical corrections on the following: If Intel decides to somehow incorporate biometric software elements inside a chip, that takes a lot of the profit out of the industry for other companies. Basically, if biometric instructions are on the chip, the rest of the industry tends to become commodity hardware producers. If Intel uses an IDX or IDT algorithm, great, although the software license margins would not be very high.
This is a fundamentalist's worst-case scenario.
Intel has made some modest investments in other biometric companies. |
