"Whether it be faster processing of travelers at airports, more confidently verifying an internet or phone banking customer's identity, or providing access to your services in more customer friendly ways, we believe the focus in 2009 will be on putting the consumer first."

Unisys 2009 security predictions

1. The roll-out of identity verification solutions, that capture iris and facial images from a distance, to speed up security checkpoints, for better customer experience, where large numbers of people move through a bottleneck such as immigration control.

Unisys is working with governments and organisations to pilot a biometric approach, called "Iris On the Move" to take iris images at a greater distance and wider field of view, by finding the face of a person as they move at a normal walking pace

"'Iris On the Move' improves the time it takes to verify an individual against a list of pre-enrolled people," said Webber. "At an airport it can speed up the security process by as much as four times, meaning that up to 30 people per minute can potentially pass through a security checkpoint depending on the level of interactive checks done."