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Editor's note
HSNW: Biometrics
The move toward making biometric technologies the identity authentication method of choice is accelerating. ABI Research, for example, says that private and public spending on biometrics will rise to a staggering $7.3 billion by 2013 -- up from $3 billion this year.
A study by Stanford Group's Jeremy Grant says that the Obama administration is likely to spend $750 million to $1 billion on biometric applications this year, primarily in defense, intelligence, and homeland security. Key programs at the Defense Department could result in $500 million to $600 million in biometrics contracts, and intelligence programs could add another $250 million to $350 million, Grant said.
In this report, you will read about:
- The promise and peril of biometrics
- San Diego’s use of biometrics to identify criminal aliens
- Seaky cameras, brain scanners, vascular pattern readers, iPods, and more!
We cover biometrics stories regularly in the daily issue of the Homeland Security Newswire. A special report dedicated to this fast-growing field highlights major trends in the field, point to emerging technologies, and discuss recent applications. We hope you will find this and future reports useful. Let us know what you think!
Ben
BIO-key (OTC Bulletin Board: BKYI), provides biometric identification solutions that scale to any application. This superior technology is compatible with EVERY major fingerprint reader manufacturer and operating system platform. It’s a cost-effective, easy-to-deploy solution to identify and authenticate individuals. NIST ranked BIO-key in the top tier of MINEX and SDK performers. The world’s largest biometric-based voter credentialing solution enrolled 80+ Million voters using BIO-key software.
BIO-key's mobile wireless technology provides first responders real-time information from local, state and national databases. 1,000+ North American police departments use BIO-key solutions, making BIO-key the leading mobile and wireless solution supplier for law enforcement. http://www.bio-key.com
The trend toward digital identification and biometrics appears inexorable; this trend is a boon to companies in biometrics -- but it also raises serious privacy concerns
The move toward digital identification and biometrics appears inexorable. Every week brings news of yet another country opting for a biometric passport, another state choosing biometric driver licenses, another government agency selecting biometric means to identify the people it serves. This trend offers lucrative business opportunities for many companies even as it worries privacy advocates. Read more
The 2009 Biometric Consortium Conference and Technology Expo, presented by AFCEA, NIST and NSA, will address the important role that biometrics
plays in identification and verification of individuals for government and commercial applications worldwide.
- Hear from over 100 leading international biometrics experts
- Network with nearly 2,000 biometric colleagues from around the world
- Discover the latest technologies and trends in the industry
- Find solutions to your most critical biometric challenges
The Biometric Consortium Conference is two and a half days of presentations, seminars and panel discussions with the participation of internationally recognized experts in biometric technologies. The conference focuses on biometric technologies for homeland security, identity management, border crossing, electronic commerce, and other applications. www.biometricconference.com
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Biometrics is not perfect -- but it is improving; biometrics is developing along two lines -- physical, which is often more intrusive for the user, and behavioral, which is usually less intrusive; Fujitsu's Jerry Byrnes: "What was James Bond 15 years ago is biometric reality today" Read more
One of the biggest shortcomings of facial recognition devices
is the angle of image capture; DSTO is toying with "attractors"
-- lights and sounds emitting devices that draw the attention of
passers-by so they inadvertently look directly into a camera.
Australia's Defense Science Technology Organization (DSTO) is
running facial recognition trials which will underpin biometric
initiatives across the Department of Defense, Immigration, and
new smartcard driver's licenses.
Angles of image capture is one of the biggest shortcomings of
facial recognition devices, which often must be obfuscated yet
be capable of taking a straight photo.
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Aware, Inc. provides modular OEM software components used to integrate advanced biometric functionality into law enforcement, credentialing, access control, and border management solutions. Our Universal Registration Client provides source code to a sample application for designing enrollment and access control workstations; it exercises our C libraries to perform face and fingerprint autocapture, image quality control, data formatting and compliance assurance, and live scan and camera abstraction. Our Biometric Services Platform (BioSP) is an SOA application server with optional modules for programmable workflow, image processing and analysis, data formatting and storage, quality reporting, biometric authentication, and duplicate checking.
www.aware.com/biometrics
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Cross Match Technologies, Inc. is a leading global provider of high-quality multimodal biometric identity management solutions, used to capture and process the unique physiological characteristics of individuals to establish and verify their identities.
Cross Match's government and commercial customers use its biometrics solutions in a variety of security and surveillance programs for protecting people, property and privacy. Cross Match solutions include fingerprint and palm scan devices, facial recognition and iris capture systems, document readers, biometric software, and related services. These offerings include multiple biometrics capable of wireless, mobile or stationary use. The capture and matching systems are interoperable and include customizable software, which allows for easy integration into a customer's existing infrastructure. www.crossmatch.com
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There is a new biometric technology on the horizon. Scanners that probe brain activity and heart rate are among the next generation of biometric security sensors being developed by the EU.
Silicon.com's Nick Heath reports that as part of an EU-backed trial, volunteers were sat in front of a camera and microphone and wore a cap that measured heart and brain activity. Read more
San Diego County Sheriff's Department deputies are the first law enforcement unit in California to use DHS Secure Community program to receive biometric-based immigration information Read more
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Green Bit, headquartered in Turin (Italy), develops and markets a complete product line of FBI certified fingerprint scanner starting from single finger, rolled, 10-print up to palm scanners for Law Enforcement and ID Management markets. Green Bit is in the market space since 1997 with a long track record of successful installations worldwide. Due to our slim organization, our biggest advantage ,regarding our competitors, is our ability to develop custom solutions thus enabling our customers to gain a competitive edge. Green Bit has subsidiaries in the US, Argentina and Spain, as well as Joint Ventures in China and Kazakhstan. www.greenbit.com
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NexID Biometrics is your trusted provider of fingerprint anti-spoofing technology. We offer a software-only approach which can be integrated with mainstream commercial fingerprint technology. Fully customizable, our software is a cost-effective solution that can be tuned to meet your anti-spoofing needs and retrofitted to existing fingerprint systems. Founded by the world leaders in anti-spoofing research, let our expertise work for you. For more information, please contact us at: info@NexIDBiometrics.com
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Australia's welfare agency Centerlink has switched from PINs to voice recognition system to identify and manage clients; clients who routinely access self-service functions, such as lodging payment forms and updating the welfare agency with simple information about income, are most suitable for the system Read more
Austin, Texas-based company shows its new vascular patterns reader; low false acceptance rate (FAR) of 0.0001 percent, quickness (0.4/seconds per person), the ability to performs with skin conditions such as scars or dirt and any lighting conditions makes it ideal for industrial applications Read more |
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Retica Systems develops innovative iris-based identity management systems. Our multi-modal iris and face capture systems, combined with our fast and accurate matching algorithms, enable customers to identify multiple people simultaneously, at a distance of 2.5-10 meters, while in motion. Our Eagle-Eyes™, Mobile-Eyes™ and Rapid-Match™ Identity in Motion™ systems improve the accuracy and throughput problems of other, hands-on one at a time biometric systems.
Eagle-Eyes GEN 3 with a capture volume of greater than 95 m3 and a standoff distance of up to10 meters, can process more people, faster and from farther away than any other system available today. www.retica.com
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Headquartered in Dresden, Germany and offices in Herndon, VA; Miami, FL; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Hong Kong, China, Cognitec develops markets and deploys the well- established and market leading FaceVACS® face recognition software to global customers and government agencies. Cognitec’s software experts have been developing face recognition technology since 1995. In various independent evaluation tests including the Face Recognition Vendor Test in 2002 and 2006, FaceVACS® has proven to be the leading technology available on the market.
For more information, please contact: info@cognitec.com
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Two leaders in biometric technologies combine their respective technologies -- fingerprints and vein architecture -- in a multimode biometric recognition module.
Sagem Sécurité, member of the SAFRAN group, is partnering with engineering and information technology giant Hitachi to develop a multimode biometric recognition module. The company says that the module, developed and produced by Sagem Sécurité, will combine the best of Hitachi's vein imaging technology (VeinID) and Sagem Sécurité's fingerprint identification technology (MORPHO). Read more
Intelligent CCTVs already note weird or unusual behavior and alert security personnel to that fact; the U.S. Army, building on an earlier project which tried to identify unique body odors, wants perspiration detectors to help detect "harmful intent" Read more |
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Digital Defense Group is the leading developer of an enhanced, portable security platform using biometrics and RFID, which helps organizations converge their logical and physical access capabilities. Each product contains a biometric file and an identity management system that can be used to log on and authenticate data vaults, servers, VPNs, laptops, and PCs, as well as accessing buildings, all on one card. The biocards offer on-card enrollment, 1:1 authentication, digital certificate generation, and wireless transmission making them completely self-contained.
DDG also provides contracted design for biometric systems engineering services and solutions within the governmental and private business sector.
Visit www.mydigitaldefense.com or tel: 402.504.3700
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Daon, a leader in biometrics software and identity management products around the globe, provides border management and immigration systems to 4 of the 6 largest G-20 member countries. Why do the world’s largest economies trust Daon for their border management platform? It’s simple – Daon’s COTS products are scalable, flexible and proven in the most challenging real-world environments. The Daon product suite covers every aspect of identity management from pre-enrollment and identity proofing to enrollment, multimodal capture, adjudication, credentialing and provisioning; and provides a technology agnostic approach which gives leverage to the customer. Visit www.daon.com for more information.
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Biometric tool developed to determine which actress or model has the best lips; the formula analyzes lip proportion, size, fullness, texture, color, and shape; Italian model Monica Belluci wins -- with our candidate, Scarlett Johannson, coming in a respectable second Read more
DHS relaunches a project to scan the fingerprints of international travelers leaving the united States; CBP will take fingerprints exiting the United States from Detroit, while TSA will do the same in Atlanta Read more
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Oberon Associates, A Stanley Company, is a world leader in Biometrics, Communications Engineering, Intelligence Community Support, Information Technology and Data Management solutions. Oberon is the key innovator of the Biometrics Automated Toolset (BAT), a fielded tactical system that collects, correlates, distributes, and synchronizes biometric information on persons of interest. Oberon’s recent merger with Stanley strengthens the expertise for technology services and solutions. Combined, we have more than 4,700 employees located at over 100 locations worldwide. We offer a full-spectrum portfolio of services, providing comprehensive solutions for all phases of a program, product, or business lifecycle to meet customer mission-critical requirements. www.oberonassociates.com
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The Biometric Standards, Performance and Assurance (BSPA) Lab at Purdue University is a global leader in biometrics applied research. BSPA researchers can analyze all aspects of a biometric system, including performance, assurance and usability. The lab’s researchers build meaningful partnerships with organizations that need guidance about selecting and operating biometric solutions. With expertise in research, education and standards, BSPA can offer highly customizable and focused evaluation and testing services to each industry partner. BSPA also offers a unique usability evaluation service to understand human interaction with sensor and improve user experience. For a comprehensive list of BSPA’s capabilities, visit www.bspalabs.org/services
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The U.S. military is using iPods and iPhones to help troops carry out operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; devices are used for biometric identification, and will soon be used as guidance systems for bomb disposal robots and to receive aerial footage from unmanned drone aircraft Read more |
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