• Multi-biometrics combined in one system

    Lithuania’s Neurotechnology releases software that integrates fingerprint, iris, facial, and palm-print biometrics into a single system; MegaMatcher 4.0, Neurotechnology has incorporated palm-print technology along with the latest versions of its VeriFinger, VeriEye, and VeriLook biometric software development kits, all of which are built on a common architecture and feature a common programming interface

  • Portable device helps officers ID uncooperative suspects

    A portable fingerprint scanner helps police in a Florida town to identify people who refuse to identify themselves; the portable device searches the database of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which has more than 5.5 million criminal records; it also crosschecks a FBI database of wanted persons, sex offender registry and known or suspected terrorists

  • Face recognition on the go

    New mobile phone software recognizes friends in real time; the smart phone’s camera picks out faces in the crowd and tags them with names — so that their latest entries in Facebook, LinkedIn, or tweet appears on the smart phone’s screen

  • Hoyos shows cheap, dollar bill-size iris scanner

    Hoyos shows a small iris scanner which will allow scanning on the go; at just 5.5 inches wide, 4 inches tall, and 3 inches deep, the company’s latest iris scanner is not only a quarter of the size of the device’s previous iteration, the EyeSwipe Mini, but a quarter of its cost: the unit’s price is just $1,499

  • Voice biometrics company Persay sold for $6.7 million

    Persay, which was spun off from Comverse Technology Inc. subsidiary Verint Systems Inc. in 2000, raised $10.4 million in four financing rounds; the sale price is lower than the amount invested in the company

  • Biometrics goes mainstream -- and changes the way we live

    Biometrics will begin reaching a mainstream audience, changing the way we live; one change: we will see the beginning of the end of the wallet as it begins to move into our smart phones in ways that make it clear what is happening to the common observer

  • Hoyos Corporation (formerly Global Rainmakers): Identifying 50 people per minute

    The company says its HBOX device can scan fifty people a minute; it is used by the Philadelphia Port Authority as well as Bank of America at lobby entry points; the company made headlines recently with an ambitious city-wide deployment in Leon, Mexico

  • Adding biometrics to E-Verify would reduce illegal immigration

    A new white paper argues that adding biometric technology to E-Verify would bolster DHS’s legal employment verification system; the paper author, former senior FBI official, says that better verification of employment credentials would significantly reduce the flow of illegal immigrants because it will make that much harder for illegals to find a job

  • Will facial recognition biometrics come of age in 2011?

    Face recognition biometrics has been around since the mid-1960s, but is yet to develop a strong market presence; recent tests of the technology in conjunction with CCTV — in Birmingham and London in the U.K., and in Tampa, Florida and Logan Airport in the U.S.— were disappointing; still, Chris Routledge, managing director of U.K. Time Solutions Ltd, argues that facial recognition biometrics will come of age in 2011

  • Rhode Island prison deploys new inmate eye scanners

    This summer a Rhode Island prison inmate was able to walk out of prison by posing as another inmate who was up for parole; the state Department of Corrections has deployed an eye scanner in the prison that checks inmates’ eyes to ensure identity

  • Doubts cast on fingerprint security for online banking

    A new fingerprint security system could offer an alternative to remembering multiple online account passwords; some argue, however, that such a system is open to error and would face opposition in developed countries where it is seen as socially unacceptable

  • China developed gait biometrics device to identify passers-by covertly

    Chinese scientists have developed a unique biometrics device, probably for the military, which uses a person’s pace to identify them covertly, according to a confidential U.S. cable leaked by WikiLeaks; the device can be covertly installed in a floor or sidewalk and is able to collect biometrics data on individuals covertly without their knowledge

  • U.K. government drops voice biometrics as anti-fraud tool

    The U.K. Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) has to contend with fraud on a massive scale — fraudulent claims are estimated at 5.2 billion Pounds (or 2.1 percent of all expenditure) a year; since 2007, DWP has spent 2.4 million Pounds on testing voice biometrics as an anti-fraud tool, but has now abandoned the trial

  • Eye-movement biometrics holds promise, but skeptics want to see more

    Each of us has a unique pattern of eye movements; an Israeli company says its eye-movement biometric system exploits this fact for a simple, hard-to-fool approach; the system tracks the way a person’s eye moves as they watch an icon roaming around a computer screen; the way the icon moves can be different every time, but the user’s eye movements include “kinetic features” — slight variations in trajectory — which are unique, making it possible to identify him; the system can also be used as a lie detector, or a drug and alcohol test

  • Biometrics revenues to reach 8.9 billion Pounds by 2015

    Worldwide revenue from biometric technology is set to treble in the coming years, reaching 8.9 billion Pounds in 2015; as well as the usual access control uses of biometrics, corporations are beginning to utilize the technology to protect their data