Biometrics

Civil Liberties Groups Reject IBIA Biometric “Best Practices” Recommendations

The International Biometrics and Identification Association (IBIA) recently issued a “best practices” document listing numerous recommendations on how to best deploy biometric technology for commercial situations. The IBIA is participating in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) effort to develop a voluntary code of conduct that specifies how the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights […]

Majority Of Australians Support Biometrics To Verify Their Identities When Boarding Aircraft

Nearly eight in 10 Australians support the use of biometric-based security measures to verify the identity of passengers boarding aircraft at airports. However, they do not support airport retailers using biometrics to make customised sales offers, according to the 2014 Unisys Security Index. The Unisys Security Index is an annual global study that provides insights […]

Florida’s Biometric School Ban Passes Into Law

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has officially signed the biometric ban proposed in Florida that will prohibit schools from collecting the palm scans, iris scans or fingerprints of its students. Senator Dorothy L. Hukill (R – Port Orange) proposed Senate Bill 188, Education Data Privacy, which bans the collection of any and all biometric data in […]

IMRON Launches Access Control System With New ACP Integration, Support For Biometrics

IMRON Corporation has just announced that its IS2000 access control platform now integrates with the company’s ACP open hardware platform. According to the company, the new IS2000 integration includes support for biometric templates and communicates natively on TCP/IP networks. In addition to the support for biometrics, the new system also includes provisions for elevator control, […]

ImageWare Systems Brings IDaaS To IBM Cloud Platform

ImageWare Systems, Inc. (otcqb:IWSY), a leader in mobile and cloud-based, multi-modal biometric identity management solutions, has formed a partnership with IBM that brings the power of IWS’ patented, multi-modal biometrics user authentication and cloud-based identity management platform to the IBM Cloud Platform, code name: BlueMix. IBM BlueMix customers can now leverage ImageWare’s Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS), a […]

MorphoAccess SIGMA Named Best Of Biometrics By SIA

MorphoAccess® SIGMA Series reader submitted by MorphoTrak won the Best of Biometrics Award at the 2014 New Product Showcase (NPS) held by the Security Industry Association at ISC West. MorphoAccess SIGMA Series biometric access reader combines three powerful attributes that ultimately contributed to winning the award: • Industry leading genuine 100K user 1 :MANY matcher, […]

Cross Match Acquires DigitalPersona

Cross Match has announced the acquisition of DigitalPersona and the appointment of Rich Agostinelli as CEO of the new combined company. The definitive merger agreement between Cross Match and DigitalPersona will see the two companies combined and remain headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. According to the companies, the new merger now makes them the […]

Physical Security Market Poise $85.51 Billion By 2018

The report "Physical Security Market By Products (Video surveillance, Access Control, Biometrics, Intrusion Detection, Security Systems), Services (Remote Management, Technical Support, Security Consulting) Worldwide Market Forecasts and Analysis (2013 – 2018)", which analyzed and studied the major market drivers, restraints, and opportunities in North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Asia Pacific […]

Controversy Surrounds India’s Biometric Database

Questions about the security of India’s giant biometric database continue to be raised by privacy advocates. Established in 2009 by executive order, the Unique Identification Number Authority of India (UIDAI) has taken on the monumental challenge of issuing each resident of the country with a Unique Identification Number (UID), more commonly known as the Aadhaar […]

Macau Casinos, Major Hong Kong Companies Look At Facial Recognition

Casinos in Macau and major companies in Hong Kong are looking to upgrade their face-recognition surveillance systems, making it easier for staff to know a customer’s age, gender, and spending habits the moment they walk in the door. But the company behind the technology has refused to reveal basic details about the biometric system – […]

Global Biometric System Market 2014-2024 – Competitive Landscape And Strategic Insights

Competitive Landscape and Strategic Insights report in the Global Biometric Systems market clearly identifies promising areas for future growth, both in terms of lucrative geographies and biometric systems. The analysis will provide you with identification of market drivers augmenting its provision of data on the current industry size and growth expectations to 2024. This report […]

Biometric Border Controls Failed The Passengers Of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Had Malaysia – the world’s first country to introduce biometric ePassports and a leader in automated border control eGates – biometrically verified passengers, those with false travel documents and any terror suspects could have been identified before boarding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. At least two passengers with stolen passports slipped past security. According to a biometric identity and security […]

KeyLemon, SoftKinetic Launch New Facial Recognition System

keylemon logo January 21, 2014 –  KeyLemon  has launched a new wide-spectrum facial recognition system developed with SoftKinetic . According to the company, by analyzing incoming data using both visible light and infrared cameras in parallel, this innovative technology accurately identifies faces in most lighting conditions and is highly resistant to ID spoofing attacks using photos and videos. The key to the system’s tolerance of diverse lighting conditions comes from its use of both visible light and infrared imaging. 20 points of comparison are made for face matching. The system is also able to detect the difference between a live face, versus an image or video, as its ual-camera imaging system evaluates inputs for infrared heat signatures. “This technology gives users high security without headaches,” Gilles Florey, KeyLemon co-founder and CEO said. “Since our dual-camera face ID system operates continuously, in the background and without any interaction required, users forget it’s even there, protecting their data 24/7. And that’s always been a top priority for us. In our view, technology that gets out of your way is the best technology of all.” “Secure, fast and reliable face identification is an excellent use of 3D technology and our DepthSense camera,” Eric Krzeslo, chief marketing officer at SoftKinetic said. “By combining 3D and infrared (IR) data with face recognition technology, individuals and enterprises who require the highest level of security now have an excellent solution.” “The uses for this technology are nearly limitless, from consumer devices to enterprise, automotive, medical, online banking, […]

Biometrics: A Field That’s More Than Meets The Eye

biometrics By Maryalene LaPonsie, OnlineDegrees.com Cellphone passwords are so passé. With the launch of the iPhone 5s, the new way to unlock your cellphone is with a fingerprint. It is one of the latest — and most visible — ways biometrics is going from the realm of sci-fi fantasy to mainstream reality. Biometrics holds the potential to do everything from enhance national security to improve marketing displays in stores. It’s a hot field that isn’t going to be replaced anytime soon, meaning there should be plenty of jobs in the biometric field for years to come. Biometric basics According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation , biometrics are biological or behavioral characteristics that can be measured. In other words, biometrics is what allows Facebook to suggest you tag your roommate in that photo on your newsfeed. It also includes voice recognition, optical scans and even the keystroke dynamics of how someone types on the computer. Despite the recent hype around biometrics with the iPhone launch, it is nothing new. The granddaddy of biometrics is fingerprinting, and the FBI has been amassing a collection of fingerprints since 1924. Even the more high tech biometric applications aren’t all that new. Consider that more than 20 years ago, Robert Redford was fumbling to convince a security system “My voice is my passport” as he worked to bypass a biometric system in 1992′s minor cult classic “Sneakers.” What is new is the price. While biometric systems were previously so expensive that their applications […]

Markets and Markets : Facial Recognition Market Worth $6.5 Billion By 2018

Contact Center Solutions Industry News [December 18, 2013] (M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Over the past few years, Facial Recognition Market has crossed the chasm and has become more accurate, less costly and significantly mainstream. This has helped the technology to gain traction and investment from commercial sector. The development of 3D face recognition technology backed by improved imaging solutions, middleware and fast analytics has helped the technology to overcome its traditional flaws such as poor results in low lights, pose variation and image reconstruction Browse 86 market data tables and 27 figures spread through 171 pages and in-depth TOC on "Facial Recognition Market [Emotion; Thermal; Mobile; Forensic; 2D; 3D; Cloud-based Facial Recognition]: Global Advancements, Emerging Applications, Business Models and Worldwide Market Forecasts and Analysis (2013 – 2018)". http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/facial-recognition-market-995.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this reports Enquiry Before Buying @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=995 The major forces driving the market are growth of surveillance market and huge spending by the government across the globe on biometric technologies. At the same time, various opportunities exist in consumer electronics segment, handheld devices segment and innovative cloud services based on face recognition technologies (anonymous face analysis). The report Facial Recognition Market: Global advancements, Emerging Applications, Business Models and Worldwide Market Forecast and Analysis (2013 – 2018) defines and segments the global facial recognition market with analysis and forecasting of the global revenues. It also identifies drivers and restraints for this market with insights on trends, opportunities, and challenges. MarketsandMarkets has segmented the […]

Global Biometric Standards-Setting Body Formed

News analysis: Global biometric standards-setting body formed The Natural Security Alliance, a French-based international open source biometric standards-setting body that counts BNP Paribas, MasterCard and Carrefour Banque among its members, has launched what it claims is the world’s first association grouping, the Open Alliance, dedicated to propagating shared wireless biometric authentication to protect transactions. Up until now, the French-based organisation has not tried to corner the international standards market, reports Neil Ainger , but with the launch of the Natural Security Alliance’s open source group that is now changing. Jean-Pierre Viboud, group chief executive of Oney Banque Accord in France has been appointed as the open group Alliance’s first chairman, overseeing a collection of banks, card schemes, retailers and vendors all dedicated to developing and encouraging a global open source wireless biometric authentication standard. The shared protocol will be freely available to all and can protect transactions around the world. According to Viboud all open Alliance members, with the initial founding board including AS 24 (TOTAL oil group), Crédit Agricole, Paycert, SIX Payment Services and Swiss Capital International among many others, share a strategic commitment to delivering mission-critical authentication and payment solutions based upon biometric technology. “The Alliance was formed to provide a collaborative space for all professionals who are interested in biometrics and new payment systems to share and develop ideas for an open standard,” he said. “We believe that this information sharing and access to the specifications is one of the main benefits for our members. As […]

US Government Intel Researchers ‘Radically Rxpand’ Facial Recognition Capabilities

Spencer Platt / Getty Images / AFP The United States intelligence community’s research arm is set to launch a program that will thoroughly broaden the capabilities of biometric facial recognition software in order to establish an individual’s identity. The Janus program of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA) will begin in April 2014 in an effort to “radically expand the range of conditions under which automated face recognition can establish identity,” according to documents released by the agency over the weekend. Janus “seeks to improve face recognition performance using representations developed from real-world video and images instead of from calibrated and constrained collections. During daily activities, people laugh, smile, frown, yawn and morph their faces into a broad variety of expressions. For each face, these expressions are formed from unique skeletal and musculature features that are similar through one’s lifetime. Janus representations will exploit the full morphological dynamics of the face to enable better matching and faster retrieval.” Current facial recognition relies mostly on full-frontal, aligned facial views. But, in the words of Military & Aerospace Electronics, Janus will fuse “the rich spatial, temporal, and contextual information available from the multiple views captured by security cameras, cell phone cameras, news video, and other sources referred to as ‘media in the wild.’” In addition, Janus will take into account aging and incomplete or ambiguous data for its recognition assessment goals. IARPA was created in 2006 and is a division of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The […]

CMU Facial Recognition Technology Could Be Future For Catching Criminals

(Photo Credit: KDKA) PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Much like fingerprints, our faces are unique – no two exactly alike. As human beings, we see the differences, but what can a computer see? In the movie “Minority Report,” cameras in a shopping mall recognize Tom Cruise’s character and ads speak directly to him. While that’s fiction, new technology at Carnegie Mellon University is not. Inside the CyLab Biometrics Center at CMU, is a drone that’s programmed to seek out faces. It wants to take your picture. And in the next room, is something they’re working on for the Department of Defense. The camera the drone uses can see someone’s eye form a distance and then the system checks to see if that person has been entered into its database – or is a possible security risk. But the center’s director Mario Savvides showed us something remarkable. They started by taking a picture of KDKA’s David Highfield and adding it to their computer. “First step, we analyze the face to extract 79 landmarks,” said Savvides. It mapped out his face and then determined that he’s male and Caucasian. It’s similar to the fictional mapping seen on many TV shows, where detectives compare faces. But at CMU, from a single picture of Highfield looking straight forward, “We are able to show if we can generate a 3-D model of your face from that single 2-D photo,” Savvides said. The computer is able to figure out what he looks like form a variety of […]

FBI Exploring New Facial And Behavioral Recognition From Surveillance Cameras

(Before It’s News) B4INREMOTE-aHR0cDovLzIuYnAuYmxvZ3Nwb3QuY29tLy1kcU4zZmMtcW0zSS9VbnZ1bTYxeWlwSS9BQUFBQUFBQVZuOC83NXFBd2tNN0xIUS9zMjAwL0NDVFYtY2FtZXJhLW9uLXBvbGUtMzAweDIwMC5qcGc= image credit: freefotouk/Flickr Madison Ruppert Activist Post The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is reportedly considering new video analytic software that would enable identification of suspects in videos and still imagery based on both facial and behavioral recognition. This type of technology has been under development for quite a while, with a patent awarded for behavioral recognition software last year. Indeed, it has been said that the future of CCTV is in the field of behavioral recognition and so-called “remote biometrics.” However, the system that the FBI is working on could also scan footage against records of objects and places in addition to people, in order to detect possible suspects and their location. “The FBI is currently undertaking a major issue study of video and digital image processing and video/digital image analytic capabilities to identify current capabilities, assess gaps, and develop a roadmap for the FBI’s future video analytics architecture,” the bureau stated in a contracting notice published on Oct. 30. Contractors are to submit written proposals by Nov. 13 and up to 30 vendors will be invited to present their technology at FBI headquarters on Dec. 11. Unlike the facial recognition systems that are increasingly being rolled out across the United States with the FBI’s help , this technology would analyze backgrounds. The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, is funding research on more accurate long-distance facial recognition technology . The new technology would compute “the degree of similarity among pedestrians, graffiti designs, buildings in […]