Here you can find the older Biometric News of September 2011. (Newest on top).
Every week, a selection of this news has been published in the Weekly Biometrics Newsletter.
You can subscribe to this (free) Newsletter by sending an e-mail to rene.bense@xs4all.nl
A petition to abolish the TSA has appeared on the White House.gov website, with the massive response evidence of how infuriated Americans have become at being groped not only at airport, but also highways, sports stadiums and at other public venues.
The petition already has almost 20,000 signatures, and has clearly passed the 5,000 mark required for it to receive some kind of response from WhiteHouse.gov.
It is entitled “Abolish the TSA, and use its monstrous budget to fund more sophisticated, less intrusive counter-terrorism intelligence,” and the full text reads as follows.
The Transportation Security Administration has been one of the largest, most expensive and most visible blunders of the post-9-11 homeland security reformation. It has violated countless constitutional rights of average Americans, caused miserable and expensive delays in an already-overburdened air travel system, and allowed multiple known instances of harassment, theft, extortion and sexual abuse by its employees. It has failed approximately 70% of undercover efficacy tests, and for all its excesses, has been unable to catch even a single terrorist since its creation. In our current economic situation, we can no longer afford to continue wasting taxpayer dollars on this kafkaesque embarrassment. Let us instead invest in saner, more effective solutions.
Ishmael Msiza is one of the of the young men and women in the CSIR Modelling and Digital Science unit who are trying to establish themselves as scientists and engineers on a global scale.
Msiza works in the biometrics research group, where he is doing his bit to combat identity theft and related crimes – and he could put South Africa at the head of world research.
He has recently developed a structural fingerprint classifier that can classify a fingerprint with only partial information – a world first.
He also introduced novel fingerprint features, collectively referred to as pseudo-singular points, as a feeder to his extensible structural fingerprint classifier.
“In fingerprint recognition, fingerprint templates normally sit in a database, so when going through an identification process, the system has to sift through thousands, if not millions, of templates, making the system slow in yielding results.
“A classification module essentially breaks down the overall database into smaller, manageable chunks to improve the performance of a fingerprint recognition system.
“Both the extensible fingerprint classifier and the pseudo-singular point detection module will allow the system to be extremely fast and accurate when a database search is conducted. This will add to the overall efficiency of a fingerprint recognition system,” he says.
Download his (highly scientific) whitepaper here:
by Kurt Haskell
With jury selection set to begin in the Underwear Bomber Trial set to begin tomorrow (September 20), I've spent the evening reminiscing about Christmas Day 2009 and the 21 months since. The Underwear Bomber attack has fundamentally changed my life. Not in the way most would think, but it has destroyed any faith I've had in the U.S. Government, the media and this country as a whole. To say that I believe the government is corrupt and the media is complicit doesn't fully explain my beliefs.
Not only have I come to those conclusions, but I've witnessed that an ordinary person who sees something important can be silenced despite his efforts to spread the truth. Such is the Underwear Bomber case. I can do nothing but laugh at the TSA's new policy of "If you see something say something."
That is exactly what I did, and not only did the U.S. Government not want to hear what I had to say, but it actively lied about it, attempted to get me to change my story, and hid, by withholding (secret government) evidence or putting a protective order on the evidence and nearly everything that would support my eyewitness account.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working at the Paso Del Norte (PDN) international crossing in El Paso have initiated work on a system which will result in more efficient processing of arriving pedestrian traffic. The pilot project uses biometric data (fingerprints) to expedite the pedestrian entry process.
It is expected to launch later this year.
“This system provides CBP a higher confidence level in identifying the traveler through enhanced biometrics,” said Hector Mancha, CBP El Paso port director. “There are many benefits to be realized including more efficient processing because we are eliminating manual data entry.”
The system requires a set of high quality fingerprints to be on file and linked with an entry document. In order to increase the population of travelers that will have access to this system a team of CBP officers is currently positioned at the PDN pedestrian area and will spend the next two weeks collecting biometric data from frequent border crossers. Non-U.S. citizens who have an older border crossing card or legal permanent resident card (issued before 2008) or those who have not applied for an I-94 travel permit in the last three years will need to submit their biometrics to participate in this pilot project. If a traveler has been identified as having biometrics on file they will have already been added to the database and there will be no need for the traveler to resubmit.
The new system will use RFID and biometric data to expedite the entry process. Three existing pedestrian lanes (11-13) will be used during the system pilot. Those lanes will be equipped with a gated system in which a travelers’ RFID enabled document will be read and fingerprints scanned before they approach the inspection station. The CBP officer working the primary inspection booth will receive results of the biometric verification and all required information before the pedestrian arrives at the inspection station.
A finger vein and finger- print scanner, which uses optical image capturing of the print and near-infrared light capturing of the vein network, combines the two types of verification to increase accuracy and security, says French biometrics technology company Morpho VP for biometric terminals Hervé Jarosz.
The device maps the minutia of a person’s fingerprint, as well as the vein network in the second phalanx of the same finger. The company’s algorithms then compare the results with a database.
Either using the data to identify a person as belonging to a group, for example employees or technicians, or to verify a person’s identity when used in conjunction with cards, personal identification numbers and common security measures, which improves security and reduces the likelihood of fraud.
The device, known as the FingerVP, increases the accuracy and usability of fingerprint scanners as a means to secure access control, time attendance or verifying personal details to conduct a transaction.
The company has received awards from the US bench-marking organisation the National Institute of Stand-ards and Technology for both the accuracy and the inter-operability of its algorithms. The device has a false accept-ance rate of 0.0001% and a false rejection rate of less than 0.01%.
JustLook, an India based supplier for biometric facial identification applications, claims that face recognition Visitor Management System (VMS) is better than a camera based VMS. VMS based on facial identification can capture live faces and store it in the database. The individual is automatically recognized when he comes before the system, next time onwards. A camera based VMS, on the other hand, cannot recognize faces automatically.
JustLook has been a leading supplier for biometric facial identification system in India since years. It deals in products like time attendance, access control, and VMS. After a lot of market analysis, the company has come up with face recognition VMS to manage the large number of visitors in a premise. It states that there are many benefits of this product as compared to a camera based VMS. For example,
*Biometric facial identification VMS works by identifying live faces during every transaction. This makes the system comparatively more accurate and foolproof.
*It completes a transaction in seconds as the visitor only need to appear before the system. Everything else will be done automatically. On the other hand, a camera based VMS will require the operator to manually record all the details making the transaction long.
*Face recognition VMS allows the user to categorize the visitors in different ways. This is not possible with the latter.
*Biometric facial identification VMS can restrict unauthorized access to a premise which is not possible with a camera based VMS.
AMMAN // Lights flash in unison on a row of black boxes at passport control at Jordan's Queen Alia International Airport, on standby for the next batch of visitors.
The devices have a key job; to scan irises, the coloured part of the eye, so that newcomers are added to a government database and criminals are kept at bay.
Imad Malhas, the chief executive and a co-founder of IrisGuard, the Amman-based technology company behind the iris scanners at Jordan's airports, says the machines may not look pretty but "they do the job".
When IrisGuard first pioneered its iris recognition software for the UAE's airports in 2001, Mr Malhas says the country was trying to stop banned workers trying to return to the Emirates to obtain work illegally. Since then, he says the software has caught 600,000 people attempting to enter the UAE illegally.
He is a staunch advocate of iris scans as the best form of identification. Fingerprints, he says, wear over time or can be damaged.
"One iris is as good as 10 fingerprints. So if you are working with an adverse government or you are a drug lord and have three different passports with three different identities, if we tie the eyes to you, you won't be able to do that."
Dan Or-Hof, a privacy and technology partner at the Israeli law firm Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer is reporting that new regulations and orders introduced by Israel's Ministers Committee for Biometric Applications set the ground for a two-year biometric IDs issuance trial period. The Ministry of Home Affairs is making final preparations to start issuing the IDs that will contain encoded fingerprints and facial image, and will be stored in a national database. A campaign led by privacy activists against the controversial biometric database has failed to yield a positive result so far.
In December 2009, the Israeli parliament (the 'Knesset') enacted the Biometric Identifiers and Biometric Data Inclusion in Identification Documents and a Database Act (The "Biometric Data Act"). The act is meant to tackle large-scale loss and theft of identification cards and passports, later used by criminals and terrorists.
The Biometric Data Act is far-reaching. Following a two year trial period, every citizen will be compelled to provide two fingerprint samples and a facial photograph, to be digitally stored in a national database and on chips embedded in passports and national IDs (National IDs are mandatory in Israel for citizens over the age of 16). The digital ID will also carry a certified electronic signature to be used as a substitute for regular signatures in execution of transactions.
Developed at first as master’s thesis through UCLA, Optimum Biometric Labs, a developer of biometric systems monitoring solutions, has released a report titled “Best Practices in Biometrics Performance Monitoring Programs.”
The document primarily deals with standards, methods, processes, frameworks and tools that can be leveraged to obtain data to detect, diagnose, report and recover issues and further assess the reliability, availability, maintainability and performance of biometric systems.
In addition to the release of their report, Optimum is hoping to create a new category of biometric products the company calls Biometric Performance Monitoring tools.
Optimum has developed off-the-shelf software, called BioUptime, to perform such monitoring. In conjunction with both the push for the new product category and the report release, Optimum is offering on-site courses on biometric performance monitoring.
You can freely download this report here:
Recently securing a Police Port in the UK the ievo reader was subject to forensic investigation to render the biometric system fit for purpose.
The forensic team at the Police Port constructed a false finger made from synthetic material and tested the reader to see if it could be duped by the non-live print. With the ievo spoof detection feature enabled, the man-made finger was rejected by the reader, therefore refusing the individual access. The feature is able to be ‘switched on’ due to the ievo world leading algorithm and functionality.
The ievo reader looks for specific traits such as the difference in the refractive index and the presence or absence of blood being shown by the fingerprint. From this, the ievo fingerprint software reader gives the print a unique score, which if above the set spoof detection level the individual will not be granted access.
Uniquely, the activation level can be set to certain thresholds which differ for each application. The ievo reader has so far secured an abundance of high security projects including embassies and national banks. This provides the business owner with peace of mind that the room or door secured is protected to the highest possible standard.
Shaun Oakes, Managing Director of ievo commented: "The spoof detection feature was specifically designed so that we could accommodate projects like the Police Port. We look forward to catering for more projects that require additional security and the use of spoof detection."
Lumidigm today announced that Innometriks has added Lumidigm’s Mercury multispectral biometric sensor to the Innometriks Cheetah card reader, which meets or exceeds credential authentication requirements as set forth by U.S. Government identity programs including FIPS201/PIV, SP800-116 and the Transportation Worker’s Identity Credential (TWIC). Mercury biometric sensors feature multispectral fingerprint imaging, a sophisticated technology developed to overcome the capture problems conventional imaging systems have in less-than-ideal conditions.
“Multispectral imaging from Lumidigm lets our Cheetah reader capture superior fingerprint images quickly on all people in all environmental conditions,” emphasizes John Cassise, Innometriks CEO. “The Mercury sensors incorporate this field-proven technology into a reliable platform that allows for a smaller form factor and a lower cost.”
“Our Mercury multispectral sensors coupled with the Cheetah’s strong credential authentication provide a truly cost-effective reader for those who are serious about the entire security process,” adds Bill Spence, Lumidigm vice president, transaction services. “Security professionals now have a reader that seamlessly connects the next generation of credentials with the next generation of reliable fingerprint technology.”
Lumidigm Mercury multispectral fingerprint sensors capture fingerprint data beneath the surface of the skin so that dryness or even damaged or worn fingers create no problems for reliable reads. Using multiple wavelengths of light and advanced polarization techniques to extract unique fingerprint characteristics from both the surface and subsurface of the skin, the sensors provide Cheetah users with results that are more consistent, more inclusive and more tamper resistant than conventional biometric readers using an optical technology.
The Federal Trade Commission the week said it will hold a workshop that examines how burgeoning use of facial recognition technology impacts privacy and security.
From the FTC: "Facial recognition technology has been adopted in a variety of new contexts, ranging from online social networks to digital signs and mobile apps. Its increased use has raised a variety of privacy concerns. The FTC workshop will gather consumer protection organizations, academics, business and industry representatives, privacy professionals, and others to examine the use of facial recognition technology and related privacy and security concerns."
The agency said the workshop will look at many topics including:
• What are the current and future uses of facial recognition technology?
• How can consumers benefit from the technology?
• What are the privacy and security concerns surrounding the adoption of the technology; for example, have consumers consented to the collection and use of their images?
• Are there special considerations for the use of this technology on or by children and teens?
• What legal protections currently exist for consumers regarding the use of the technology, both in the United States and internationally?
• What consumer protections should be provided?
The workshop will take place in Washington, DC on Dec. 8, 2011 is free and open to the public.
The latest cyberattacks prove “One Time Password” (SecurID) has failed to protect faked “legitimate” access. Significant federal sites with RSA protection were recently breached. Biometric storage methods define conditions for individual identification by storing indefeasible characteristics in national, government and private databases. It also means specifying the characteristics that distinguish or identify the actual identity of a person, rather than using it for authentication only. Storing biometric data gives hackers the obvious potential to hack, copy, clone or manipulate sensitive/irreplaceable information in minutes.
Financial institutions, Fortune 500 companies, governments, intelligence agencies and military worldwide have spent billions of dollars to prevent illegal access to protect critical intellectual property, plans and finances on mainframes, data centers and computers. This paper outlines the vulnerability of current sensitive Biometric data storage systems and presents a unique solution to this growing security threat with the use of privacy friendly amorphous identifiers.
Whether it is Firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems, Intrusion Prevention System, Private Key Infrastructure, Application Security, Secure Socket Layers, SecurID’s, or Load Balancers, facts show that none of these security measures can prevent hacking, given that the best bet is to attack vulnerable endpoints, or computers that are connecting remotely and are not likely under the direct control of the organization’s security policies creating, as President Obama describes, “Weapons of Mass Disruption”.
Currently there is no single technology that can mitigate the weakest link in the security chain; End-User Authentication, a legal access made by a set of composite Phishing or Crawling acts, triggering global cyber attacks. There are no pragmatic, arithmetical, or automatic means to compare a legitimate individual’s unequivocal identity record with computers, when the individual’s authentication is based on remote authentication or growing Biometric databases.
In this electronically interconnected world, weak real remote authentication of the end-user is the gap that allows hackers to use counterfeited legitimate entry with simple, front door credentials, hiding themselves behind undiscoverable secure tunnels.
Machines that process data, cannot see differences between legitimate and fake-legitimate entries as to a machine, they all look the same. High tech savvy hackers use system security measures themselves to gain access. Trusted real end-user authentication is the common case, but through current business, or other known solutions, users and administrators find themselves required to serve under such weak conditions.
John Trader of M2Sys has announced a world première: The first Biometric Tweet Chat.
The topic of this first-ever tweet Chat is: Biometrics and Privacy.
October the 6th, 2011 will mark the first tweet chat on biometric technology of its kind. After running a couple of polls and talking with some industry professionals, we thought it was a good time to start a chat that helps educate, promotes communication and openly discusses challenges and issues that the biometrics industry faces. Plus, it will also give an opportunity to take a look into the future and ponder what changes may lay ahead and how they can affect the many different vertical markets that biometric technology touches.
Not familiar with a tweet chat? A Twitter tweet chat is a pre-scheduled chat on Twitter where participants can discuss and learn in real time through the use of updates (tweets) about topics of interest with other industry professionals and anyone else who wishes to participate. Formal Twitter tweet chats are arranged in advance and occur at a specific time. The biometric tweet chat will include a formal agenda with a specific leader or “speaker”, and involve a free flowing discussion between all participants.
If there is a question that you would like us to include during the chat, please submit it to: john@m2sys.com and we will do our best to include it during the chat. If the first biometric tweet chat goes well, we will continue to schedule the chat for the first Thursday of every month at the same time.
The 2011 Symposium took place at ICAO Headquarters and the Symposium programme have now been posted on their website.
The 64 page programme can be downloaded here:
All the presentations can be downloaded here:
Our faces betray a range of emotions; the thermal sensor even detects changes in blood vessels.
A sophisticated new camera system can detect lies just by watching our faces as we talk, experts say.
The computerised system uses a simple video camera, a high-resolution thermal imaging sensor and a suite of algorithms. Researchers say the system could be a powerful aid to security services.
It successfully discriminates between truth and lies in about two-thirds of cases, said lead researcher Professor Hassan Ugail from Bradford University.
The system, developed by a team from the universities of Bradford and Aberystwyth in conjunction with the UK Border Agency, was unveiled today at the British Science Festival in Bradford.
This new approach builds on years of research into how we all unconsciously, involuntarily reveal our emotions in subtle changes of expression and the flow of blood to our skin.
We give our emotions away in our eye movements, dilated pupils, biting or pressing together our lips, wrinkling our noses, breathing heavily, swallowing, blinking and facial asymmetry. And these are just the visible signs seen by the camera.
Even swelling blood vessels around our eyes betray us, and the thermal sensor spots them too.
Traditional lie detection depends on the venerable polygraph, first developed in 1921, a much more invasive apparatus with a set of wires attached to the skin. This new device promises non-invasive, even covert truth tests in real time.
The rugby union world cup gets under way later this week with all the home nations hoping their teams will be good enough to go a long way in the tournament.
Wales are trying out a new type of technology as part of their training that they hope will give them an extra edge.
Originally developed for US Special Forces, it's a new, hi-tech training shirt able to monitor a variety of biometric data on a second by second basis.
All that data can then be processed by the team's coaches to fine-tune the players' training regimes.
Newsbeat technology reporter Dan Whitworth has been speaking to players, a coach and fans to find out what they make of it.
See the Video here:
Human Recognition Systems (HRS) is pleased to announce the latest enhancement, lights out latent, to its recently launched product, MForce. The 'lights out latent' module delivers real time results for police, military and humanitarian organisation in disaster victim identification, crime scene investigation and watch list identification.
MForce is a mobile ABIS platform designed for organisations that operate in remote, difficult or temporary environments and need to manage identities and gather intelligence. The system is designed with inter-agency cooperation in mind exporting data records based on the international EBTS standards. The combination of livescan and latent in a single mobile form factor means police, military and humanitarian organisations can very quickly establish a complete identification platform wherever they are.
With its combination of fixed and portable components, MForce systems synchronise to share the latest databases and watch lists keeping data up to date across disparate teams. Already delivering multi-modal biometrics combining finger, face, iris, DNA, the addition of latent matching completes the biometric capability meaning users have all their identification processes in one place.
“We have integrated a key advancement in latent fingerprint identification so the MForce system implements a ‘lights out’ latent solution, which now means untrained personnel can carry out automatic forensic imaging and fingerprint enrolling there and then,” said Neil Norman, chief executive of HRS.
“This provides an excellent opportunity to allow forensic experts to continue working where they are most needed in the field without being called away this saves time and money.”
Thanks to facial recognition technology, advertising in the real world could become a lot more like that done online. Rather than advertising being selected for you according to cookies on your computer that reveal your age, gender, likely income, likes, and dislikes, billboards enhanced with facial recognition technology will choose ads based on what your face reveals about you. The L.A. Times took a look at digital advertising being rolled out by the Venetian in Las Vegas, which will use FRT to suggest the right bars, clubs and restaurants to its clients. (Casinos, of course, also use facial recognition technology for security purposes; in Canada, cameras screen entrants for chronic gamblers who should be kicked out).
Facial recognition technology seems to be experiencing its boom time; a team of CMU researchers led by Alessandro Acquisti found that basic off-the-shelf technology can determine the identities of strangers a third of the time. When we talk about facial recognition, there are two different kinds on the table. There’s the type, used by law enforcement, Facebook, and DMVs, that seeks to match your face to your identity, and there’s the other that just wants to look your face up and down to ascertain its gender and age. The second type is the kind that most marketers are interested in, as it raises far fewer privacy flags.
Earlier this summer Facebook rolled out facial recognition software that identifies users even when they appear in untagged photos. Like every other time the social networking site has introduced a creepy, invasive new feature, they made it the default setting without telling anyone.
Once people realized that Facebook was basically harvesting biometric data, the usual uproar over the site's relentless corrosion of privacy ensued. Germany even threatened to sue Facebook for violating German and EU data protection laws and a few other countries are investigating. But facial recognition technology is hardly confined to Facebook -- and unlike the social networking site, there's no "opt-out" of leaving your house.
Post-9/11, many airports and a few cities rushed to install cameras hooked to facial recognition technology, a futuristic apparatus that promised to pick out terrorists and criminals from milling crowds by matching their faces to biometric data in large databases.
Many programs were abandoned a few years later, when it became clear they accomplished little beyond creeping people out. Boston's Logan Airport scrapped face recognition surveillance after two separate tests showed only a 61.4 percent success rate. When the city of Tampa tried to keep tabs on revelers in the city's night-club district, the sophisticated technology was bested by people wearing masks and flicking off the cameras.
AuthenTec has announced that its AES1750 fingerprint sensors are to be included on some new waterproof mobile phones from Fujitsu.
Specifically, the biometric feature provided by AuthenTec will be embedded onto the docomo PRIME series F-09C, docomo STYLE series F-10C and the docomo SMART series F-11C phones. All are waterproof and utilize the fingerprint biometrics both for securing the phone as well as touch-powered personalization options.
The phones new security options go beyond simply securing access to the phone, but also link up with the phone’s near field communication-based mobile wallet transactions to provide an option for requiring biometric authentication for payments made via mobile phone
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Friday launched, through videoconferencing, the biometric smart card scheme for the disbursal of monthly pension given under social security schemes.
Initially, 24,004 beneficiaries in 268 villages belonging to three taluks of three districts were covered.
The Thovalai taluk of Kanyakumari District accounted for 3,562 beneficiaries; Manaparai (Tiruchi) - 9,882 beneficiaries and Kattumannarkoil (Cuddalore) – 10.560 beneficiaries.
The participating public sector banks were Indian Bank (covering 8,448 beneficiaries), State Bank of India (6,646 beneficiaries), Indian Overseas Bank (4,848 beneficiaries), Bank of India (2,572 beneficiaries) and Canara Bank (1,490 beneficiaries). The opening of Savings Bank accounts for beneficiaries and distribution of biometric smart cards formed part of the scheme. The smart cards would have the visual image and the SB account number of the beneficiary.
Each month, banking correspondents would visit the beneficiaries with hand-held machines, which would be used for insertion of cards. Even printouts could be generated from the machines, a senior official said.
To mark the inauguration, Ms Jayalalithaa handed over the cards to seven beneficiaries.
Using a smartphone's accelerometers, security researchers achieved a 70% accuracy rate in deducing numeric keys pressed on a virtual keyboard.
Every tap of a virtual key on a touchscreen smartphone results in the device moving. Now, researchers have found that they can infer, with a notable degree of accuracy, exactly which key was pressed based on how the device moves.
That's the surprise finding made by two security researchers at the University of California, Davis, and detailed earlier this month in a presentation at the HotSec '11 conference in San Francisco.
According to the researchers' report: "Since typing on different locations on the screen causes different vibrations, motion data can be used to infer the keys being typed. To demonstrate this attack, we developed TouchLogger, an Android application that extracts features from device orientation data to infer keystrokes." TouchLogger achieved a 70% accuracy rate at inferring which keys were pressed on a numerical keyboard.
How did the researchers come to build a motion-driven keylogger? "We looked at new functionalities on mobile devices, and we realized they all have advanced sensors," said paper co-author Hao Chen during the HotSec presentation. "Obviously, some of the sensors are privacy-sensitive, such as the microphone, camera, or GPS."
But sensors required to deduce keystroke motions aren't normally protected against inappropriate use. "There are certain sensors ... you might not think that they're that privacy-sensitive, such as the accelerometer or gyroscope. Who would care if you bump your phone?" said Chen. "Well, it turned out that you can build a powerful keylogger by monitoring these motion sensors."
From pre-board screening to automated boarding to immigration, AOptix InSight iris recognition is fast, accurate, and hassle free.
Iris recognition has long held the promise of being the most accurate biometric technology, but early systems were very difficult to use, especially for the diverse populations seen in a passenger terminal.
Now, the AOptix InSight VM iris recognition system takes the accuracy of iris and makes it very easy to use. Working from 1.5 to 2.5 meters, passengers simply stand and look at the InSight for two seconds, and it automatically captures best-in-class iris images and offers a conclusive match result, quickly and accurately confirming passenger identity.
Because it is so fast, accurate, and effortless, the InSight can play a key role in streamlining and automating the future travel experience, from international registered traveller programmes to pre-board screening to automated boarding.
Optionally coupled with an automated eGate, the InSight can help airlines, airports, and government authorities alike improve efficiency while increasing security.
AOptix is striving to improve the overall passenger experience and is working with customers to facilitate the growing demand for increased security measures. New this year at Future Travel Experience 2011, AOptix will be demonstrating an end-to-end eGate solution.
New Zealand Post has taken its first step towards a future in biometrics.
It is trialling a hi-tech system that takes passport and digital photos in 14 of its Postshops, including its Manners St branch in central Wellington.
The software behind the system could also let NZ Post capture fingerprints and voice samples for identification purposes.
Agency services head Mandy Smith said that if the trial went well, the photo-capture system would be installed in about 150 of the company's 280 Postshop-Kiwibank branches by early next year at a cost that would be in the low millions of dollars. Though people will be able to get passport photos at a cost of $20 for a set of six prints, the state-owned enterprise's main goal was not to take on the high-street chemist, she said.
Instead, NZ Post will need the system for a contract it is negotiating with Internal Affairs under which it would enrol people in the Government's $122 million iGovt identity verification scheme. It also expects to provide biometric identity verification for other public and private sector clients – for example, to produce identity cards.
Under the voluntary iGovt scheme, people would visit a Postshop to be digitally photographed, have their credentials checked and to obtain a password and logon that could be used to securely access government services online.
People would either register their mobile phone, so a one-off code could be texted to them when they needed to conduct a secure transaction, or would be issued with a "two-factor" security token, similar to those used by banks to secure internet-banking transactions.
Behind Post's hi-tech photo-capture service is a software system supplied by United States firm Daon, which Daon has also sold to Australia Post.
It can remotely control the camera, raise and lower a background screen and check whether photos will meet the quality criteria of the particular client – such as a passport office – before they are taken.
Yadira Suarez has her palm scanned during registration at Memorial Regional Hospital Miramar on Thursday. She was at the hospital with Jesus Gonzalez to deliver her twin babies. (Amy Beth Bennett, Sun Sentinel / September 1, 2011)
The next time a hospital official asks to look into your eyes, it might not be your health he's checking.
In South Florida and across the nation, hospitals are implementing high tech biometrics technology to speed up the admission process, reduce errors and add a layer of security in an age where insurance fraud and identity theft is a serious problem.
They include such things as palm readers, iris scanners and voice recognition systems, which are methods to recognize a person based on unique biological characteristics and patterns, according to companies that create the technology.
These systems help locate patient records and log them into electronic files. It can also track who is looking at sensitive information stored in hospitals and cut down on patients pretending to be someone else to dodge a bill.
"The advantage is that it prevents some lunatic from walking in off the street with someone else's identity,'' said Dr. Fred Valdes, of Hollywood, whose palm was recently scanned at Memorial Hospital Miramar.
To prevent errors and enhance security, some hospitals, such as Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, require new moms and their babies to wear bracelets with their photos attached to barcodes. When they leave, the bar codes must match so the family is "as safe as possible," said Lisa Kronhaus, director of public relations and marketing.
Others medical centers have finger scanners that only allow authorized workers to access certain records. The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Palm Beach is considering incorporating face recognition programs in the future.
While there are many one-time passcode devices on the market, RSA’s football-shaped key fobs are most often associated with the technology. In March a well-publicized hack of RSA’s seed code for its SecurID solutions sent shockwaves through the ID community. It led to attacks on the company’s end users, including military contractor Lockheed Martin.
While RSA has taken steps to ease the burden of the hack, some say it should never have ever happened. This is the position of Kenneth Weiss, developer of the token-based authentication technology that became SecurID 25-years-ago.
“When I was running RSA, every few years a well-intentioned member of the executive team would suggest that the secret seeds, which are programmed into every token, be stored on a corporate computer,” he says. “I would have to explain that that was grossly unnecessary and would put us at great risk.”
At the time of the March hack, RSA had indeed put the seeds on a network computer and it was breached. “What they’ve done is stupid, arrogant, greedy … those words are really appropriate to the circumstance,” he says.
“There was no necessity, ever, to put the secret seeds on a computer that is online,” he adds. “They did it for internal convenience and put everybody at risk.”
The seed is a random binary pattern that is unique to each token, Weiss says. The seed is tied to an algorithm that is used to create a random number that changes every minute. “If you have that seed, you can create a SecurID token,” he says. “You may also need to capture a password, but in a major espionage situation which I think this breach was triggered by, you’ll have the password as well.”
Today, employees can just look at a screen to clock in, using facial recognition technology that promises greater speed and accuracy than fingerprint scanners or identification cards.
It’s the latest step in the evolution of biometrics, one of the many ways businesses are using technology to improve their operations.
FaceIN, the newest face recognition time clock by Atlanta-based Lathem Corp., can verify registered users at three feet away and clock them in within two seconds, said Tony Burks, product manager for Lathem, which he said is the largest seller of facial recognition time clock technology in the United States. Other companies that sell systems using similar technology include ZK and PSP Security.
“Facial recognition technology came in because it’s more reliable, more accurate, and still eliminates buddy punching,” said Burks, who was in Miami Thursday to demonstrate the system to dealers in the last leg of a five-week tour of eight U.S. cities that comprise Lathem’s biggest markets.
What’s more, FaceIN is touchless and hygienic. And the whole system is embedded in the terminal, so no additional components or infrastructure is needed.
FaceIN works with two embedded cameras — one black-and-white and one digital color.
Even if you age or your weight fluctuates, the cameras will recognize you, because each day along the way the camera’s template changes with you, updating your aging, growing or dwindling dimensions. And each camera only has to recognize 80 percent of your digital characteristics to verify you, Burks said.
Watch the demonstration video here:
IDENTIFYING a person in surveillance footage through software using "soft" biometrics might sound like science-fiction, but Australian researchers are leading the development to make it a reality.
Researchers are working on a way to use soft biometrics such as estimated height, weight, skin and hair colour to identify a particular person in video footage, The Australian reported Tuesday.
Assoc Prof Clinton Fookes , using biometrics to uniquely identify a person using physiological traits for surveillance by police and airports
Policing agencies and airports are expected to benefit from a Google-style search ability.
"If there is a mugging somewhere and the description of the person is six-foot tall, wearing blue jeans, a black shirt and a red baseball cap -- we can take that description and convert it into an algorithm to actually data mine video networks to search for a person of that description," said Clinton Fookes, from Queensland University of Technology's (QUT) School of Engineering Systems.
"If you want to search for something on Google, you type in keywords and you look for it. It is a similar concept that we want to do for people on video."
Fookes said despite video analytics systems -- which do motion detection, unattended baggage detection or intrusion detection -- high-level tracking and recognition is still some way off.
"The London bombings, for example, I think they had about 40 or 50 federal agents looking at video for a couple of weeks full-time to manually locate what happened, who were the people that did it, where did they come from, where did they go and tracing them through the video."
Some fifteen years after Congress first mandated the creation of an “entry-exit” system for foreign visitors, the government has finally come up with an effective solution. The issue now is whether Congress will embrace a sensible approach or continue to insist on the utopian solution of a perfect biometric system.
John Cohen, the principal deputy coordinator for counterterrorism at DHS, yesterday told the House Homeland Security subcommittee on border and maritime security that the administration had developed an “enhanced biographic” system that will go a long way to tackling the problem of visitors who overstay visas. The issue has been a terrorism concern since 9/11, because several of the hijackers had overstayed visas. It has also been a big hole in U.S. efforts to deter illegal immigration.
Congress, and the 9/11 Commission, have insisted on a biometric exit system that would be the counterpart to the US-VISIT entry scheme. The problem has been that, even in the relatively controlled airport environment, there is no easy and efficient way to collect fingerprints from departing travelers. The land border environment is even harder.
Over the past several years, however, DHS has been steadily improving its ability to track overstays, primarily by using the passenger departure records provided by all airlines. Under the direction of Secretary Napolitano, DHS in May began using those records and others, including the US-VISIT entry records and various intelligence databases, to vet the roughly 1.7 million individuals who were thought to have overstayed their visas since the launch of US-VISIT in 2004.
The results were striking. The review determined that 843,000 of the potential overstayers had already left the country or changed their status and were living in the United States legally. Of the remaining 839,000, just 2,100 were determined to warrant greater scrutiny on security or public safety grounds. ICE narrowed that list further to several hundred names, and determined that many of those were already in U.S. jails, had died, or in some case left the country as well. In the end, Cohen said, some “dozens” of new investigations were opened by ICE to track down the remaining individuals.
Passport Canada said on Wednesday that it will release biometric passports by the end of 2012. The identification document will have an electronic chip encoded with the owner’s name, gender, date and place of birth and digital image.
Although the agency announced it would shift to electronic passports in 2004 as part of Ottawa’s National Security Policy, the later 2012 release makes Canada one the last among G8 nations to have enhanced digital security measures.
About 350 million biometric passports have been issued by 95 nations.
The agency explained the delay to overseas printing and implementation of new facial recognition technologies. To worsen the situation, Passports Canada was deluged with passport applications between 2007 and 2009 after Canadians were required by the U.S. Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative to have passports to travel to the United States.
Washington and Ottawa recently concluded talks on the Beyond the Border action plan that would integrate continental security and remove obstacles to cross-border trade. The deal includes coordination and alignment of biometric passports, watch lists, container inspection at overseas ports and other security measures.
The Republic of Kenya set out in 2008 to make significant reforms to its electoral processes. In 2009 the government created the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC to develop and implement an entirely new process for voter registration and management of elections.
The IIEC worked with system integrator CODE Inc. to implement a multi-biometric voter registration system based on secure and reliable fingerprint, facial and multi-biometric technologies from Neurotechnology.
Because Kenya’s population is so widespread and diverse, ranging from bustling urban centers like Nairobi to remote rural communities and semi-nomadic groups such as the Maasai, implementing an entirely new voter registration effort required flexible software and sturdy hardware that could be used in the field to collect data and issue identification cards even in areas that are off the power grid.
Also, because Kenya’s citizens speak a variety of languages and not all voters can read and write, the IIEC wanted a solution that could provide unambiguous identification to ensure accuracy of the registry and provide a fast, reliable way to check data for any duplicate registrations.
For the initial phases of the project, both fingerprint (thumbprints) and facial biometrics were chosen for voter identification, and future project plans call for the use of iris scanning. Using multiple biometrics helps to ensure a higher degree of identification accuracy.
CODE Inc. recognized that Kenya’s solution would require a very high degree of biometric accuracy and reliability across a spectrum of variables – from fingerprint quality to wide variations in lighting conditions between urban settings and field registration sites. The biometric solution would need to be resource-efficient, since in some cases it would be running on solarpowered equipment when in remote rural areas.
The solution also would need to be economical and easy to implement to allow widespread deployment while keeping the project within budget.
Cars have come a long way since the Model T. Technology now allows your car to play music off your iPhone, to tell you how to parallel park, and to alert you when you’re about to bump into a shopping cart as you’re backing out. If Ford and New York City-based Bug Labs have anything to say about it, your car will soon be able to do much more: compare your fuel economy to that of your friends, measure your biometrics as your drive, or even alert you to the presence of allergens in the air.
“Think of the car of the future as a mobile computer on wheels, and these are the attachments,” says Peter Semmelhack, founder and CEO of Bug Labs. “The idea is a crowd-sourced, bottom-up approach.”
The two companies announced this week that they will team up in a joint development project to research and distribute open-source developer tools to advance in-car connectivity innovation. Known as “OpenXC,” the research platform will transform the car into a docking station for interchangeable plug-and-play hardware and software modules. Functions change with the addition or deletion of modules, giving owners the freedom to continually customize their vehicles.
The iPhone 5 rumors are spreading every day as most probable specifications with clear distinction over the unpredictable ones. Apple has all along remained on top with its innovative design structure and offered consumers the opportunity to know what a smartphone can really bring forth.
Although other smartphone manufacturers too offer awesome specifications, they are not able to match the ease of use which iPhone users enjoy. The iPhone scores over others in terms of the hardware's integration with the iOS. Apple has become the company today by studiously avoiding competing on specs, and instead, competing to deliver the best user experience.
In fact, more than the technical specifications, operating systems make the big difference in how fast a device works. If the operating system is not consistent or compatible with hardware, then the smartphone ends up with various errors and many glitches. Ninety percent of the users simply take the device in their hand and try out what they see. Also as an operating system, iOS provides consistent 60 fps, while Android barely manages to get 30 fps and some devices even score lower.
NFC support:
Certain rumors suggest that Apple may implement NFC support. NFC, allows simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in close proximity, usually by no more than a few centimeters. Emerging NFC standards allow customers to quickly purchase products and transfer secure information by touching devices. NFC allows companies to reduce staffing, printing, and point of sale costs. Globally, 100 million people use mobile payment outside the U.S., but only 3.5 million use the technology in the U.S. As of now, NFC is just a rumor for the iPhone 5 and most probably Apple won’t be embracing the technology, since Near Field Communication has no industry standards. But Apple’s fifth generation iPhone will have mobile payment accessibility. Apple is expected to team up with PayPal for this.
Biometric security:
The biometric security devices have vast advantage over conventional security methods. It is used in IT industry starting from IT vendors to end-users where high security is critical at all times. Biometrics security technology protects highly sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands and also prevents unauthorized physical access to safety establishments. In US airports, biometrics is almost the standard procedure in screening passengers.
As more and more online transactions are taking place, banks and financial institutions make use of security biometrics to safeguard financial and other sensitive transactions on the net. The most obvious advantage is the enhanced safety feature compared to conventional security measures like locks and passwords. Finger prints and retina features cannot be tampered with and hence, provide fool-proof security.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Tablet strikes a nice concession between ultraportable business laptop and multitouch Windows 7 tablet. Some businesses may be hard pressed to give up its QWERTY ways for a full tablet or compromise losing time learning a new operating system.
The ThinkPad X220's convertible-tablet design combines choice aspects of the Lenovo ThinkPad X220 laptop with a superb multitouch screen, taking top honors among tablet PCs as our new Editors' Choice.
Design
There's little to distinguish the X220 tablet from any other black, plastic-clad member of Lenovo's ThinkPad family—aside from its twist and fold hinge that allows the lid to rotate 180 degrees and close with the screen facing outward, so you can take full advantage of the touch feature. Like the Lenovo X220 laptop, it has a magnesium alloy frame and has been ruggedized to withstand moisture, shock, vibration, and extremes in temperature. The X220 Tablet's touch screen has a treatment of scratch resistant Infinity Glass, acting as a protective layer over the actual screen, however, this extra precaution adds a glare. The display is also designed for visibility indoors and out, with adjustable brightness up to 300 NITs and sharp 1366 by 768 resolution (720p HD).
The touch screen is multitouch capable, able to register up to five fingers at a time. The Lenovo comes preloaded with the Windows 7 Touch Pack, providing you with an on-screen keyboard and Windows' handwriting recognition. The on-screen keyboard is fine while in landscape orientation, but in portrait mode—the orientation that will be preferred due to the ThinkPad's ergonomics—the keyboard is too narrow to comfortably use. In these instances, you'll want to use the included digital stylus to take advantage of Windows' handwriting recognition. The stylus will also come in handy for more accurately cursor control.
Panasonic has revealed its rugged Android tablet. It is a sturdy-looking 10.1″ tablet that looks like it can take punishing shocks on every corner, without being knocked out. Panasonic pitches it as a “business tablet”, so it comes with 3G/4G and IT management features, including hardware-level features that could mean “encryption”. It also has handwriting recognition and does not need a stylus, which has been a hallmark of business tablet for so long.In technical terms, this Toughbook Android tablet has a 10.1″ (1024×768) display which is optimized for outdoor use on a sunny day. It has two cameras (back/front), although there are no official specifications on those. Inside, Panasonic is using what they describe as a 3G/4G optional module but we don’t know if it’s 4G LTE or HSPA+ (more information about 4G networks). It also comes with a GPS.
Despite being relatively thick, this tablet does not come with a lot of ports: just a dock connector. That said, it’s understandable to some extent, as having more ports could also mean more potential entry points for dirt, water etc… Finally, Panasonic says that its battery life can last for a full-shift, which would imply 8hrs, but this is definitely not clear, so wait for independent reviews. [Panasonic official link]
