Biometric technologies

Daon rides biometric wave
Founded in 2000, Daon initially looked at selling biometrics to the financial industry as a way for people to make secure purchases; then 9/11 happened
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Facial recognition trials at Manchester Airport
Five gates at Manchester Airport will be equipped with face recognition devices; gates can only be used with people from the United Kingdom and EU who are over 18 and hold a new-style chipped passport
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All is not clear with the Clear "fast pass" program
TSA suspended Verified Identity Pass (VIP) from the Registered Traveler program because one of VIP’s computer, containing the personal details of 33,000 customers who had registered for the program; the lap top was found, and TSA reinstated VIP; Priva technologies, locked in a legal battle with VIP over trademarks, is unhappy
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Grant for hand gesture-computer technology
University of Buffalo researcher develops technology that would allow a user automatically to manipulate a computer through hand gestures
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U.K. national biometric ID faces another hurdle: senior citizens
Automatic biometric scanners would struggle to read elderly people’s prints because the ridges on the pads of their fingers are often not well defined
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DHS extends Accenture's US-VISIT contract
Accenture is the prime contractor for US VISIT, and has been busy upgrading biometric readers from two fingers to ten; DHS extends company contract
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Scottish parents angry over school biometrics
Parents in Scotland question whether there are better ways to use school funds than create a biometric database of students
AuthenTec offer scanners for fingerptint-enabled phones
AuthenTec has shipped more than seven million AuthenTec-enabled phones powered by the Symbian OS, comprising 14 mobile phone models using AuthenTec’s fingerprint sensors
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New fingerprint reading method detects explosives, drugs
Boilermakers researchers develop a system which can detect traces of explosives, drugs, or other materials left behind in fingerprints — and can also distinguish between overlapping fingerprints left by different individuals
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Microchips in e-passports easily forged
Dutch researcher uses his own software, a publicly available programming code, a £40 card reader, and two £10 RFID chips to clone and manipulate two passport chips to a point at which they were ready to be planted inside fake or stolen paper passports; the altered chips were then passed as genuine by passport reader software used by the UN agency that sets standards for e-passports; the researcher took less than an hour to alter the chips
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U.K. £18 million National Identity Register deal awarded
French firm Thales awarded £18 million to design, build, test, and operate an early version of the U.K. National Identity Register (NIR) and ID card application system
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New Mexico's new driver's license
The state’s new licenses are several steps closer to what the Patriot Act will require in the way of approved identification
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Germany to introduce an electronic ID card
The German federal government plans to introduce an electronic ID card similar to the electronic passport already in use; for the industry, the device will create a significant additional business
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US Biometrics takes on project in Texas
Illinois firm teams up with a Texas partner to offer fingerprint biometric products to the various departments in the Texas state government
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Israel to create biometric database of citizens
Government approves bill calling for creation of database of all Israeli citizens; data to include fingerprints, computerized facial features embedded on IDs, passports
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