The global biometrics industry is set to triple in size by 2012, according to an article published today.

The growth will be supported by government identity management schemes, criminal and surveillance systems and private sector initiatives.

The worldwide market value could surpass $7 billion.

Fingerprint biometrics will spearhead growth, followed by facial and iris recognition technologies, with Asia and the Middle East marked down as the key growth areas.

Biometric technologies that will be displayed at Intersec trade fair and conference include areas such as fingerprint scan, face recognition, automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS), live-scan, iris recognition, middleware/biometric identity management software, vein recognition, multiple-biometric, hand geometry and voice recognition.