Biometrics

Collaborative Research Effort on Digital Identity to Support Secure Delivery of Public Benefits
NIST has launched a collaborative project to adapt NIST’s digital identity guidelines to support public benefits programs, such as those designed to help beneficiaries pay for food, housing, medical and other basic living expenses.
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Seeing Behind the Mask
There is a need for face recognition to be able to “see behind the mask” for security and safety. Researchers discusses the potential of new software which will allow facial recognition to work despite the mask you use.
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AI Faces Look More Real Than Actual Human Faces
White faces generated by artificial intelligence (AI) now appear more real than human faces, according to new research. The same wasn’t true for images of people of color.
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Why the Search for the Loch Ness Monster (and Other Beasts) Continues 90 Years After That First Blurry Photograph
It’s 90 years since Hugh Gray, in April 1933, took his blurry picture — and the beginning of the obsession with finding the Loch Ness monster. As a paleobiologist, I want to explore whether the type of monster we believe Nessy to be could exist and if we should continue looking.
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How Secure Are Voice Authentication Systems Really?
Voice authentication has increasingly been used in remote banking, call centers and other security-critical scenarios. Attackers can break voice authentication with up to 99 percent success within six tries.
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Track 2 of the Remote Identity Validation Tech Demo Challenge
DHS S&T announces the launch of Track 2 of the Remote Identity Validation Technology Demonstration (RIVTD). RIVTD is a series of technology challenges to evaluate the ability of systems to authenticate identity documents, assess the “liveness” of selfie photos, and evaluate identity verification using images taken with smartphones and similar devices.
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U.K. Police Fail to Meet “Legal and Ethical Standards” in Use of Facial Recognition
Researchers devise an audit tool to test whether police use of facial recognition poses a threat to fundamental human rights, and analyze three deployments of the technology by British forces – with all three failing to meet “minimum ethical and legal standards.”
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Facial Recognition Technology and Counter-Terror Operations
The use of facial recognition technology in counterterrorism must address several formidable challenges before being adopted. This means we should proceed careful, even cautiously, before operationalizing the technology.
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Facial Recognition: U.K. Plans to Monitor Migrant Offenders Are Unethical – and They Won’t Work
The UK Home Office plans to make migrants convicted of criminal offences scan their faces five times a day using a smart watch equipped with facial recognition technology. This is a mistake. The difficulty working with darker skin tones reflects the experiences of people of color who try to use facial recognition technology. In recent years, researchers have demonstrated the unfairness in facial recognition systems, finding that the software and algorithms developed by big technology companies are more accurate at recognizing lighter skin tones than darker ones.
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Deepfakes Expose Vulnerabilities in Facial Recognition Technology
Mobile devices use facial recognition technology to help users quickly and securely unlock their phones, make a financial transaction or access medical records. But facial recognition technologies that employ a specific user-detection method are highly vulnerable to deepfake-based attacks that could lead to significant security concerns.
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Quantum-Inspired Approach Allows Lidar to Be used for Facial Recognition
Quantum-inspired technique can be used to perform lidar imaging with a much higher depth resolution than is possible with conventional approaches. Lidar, which uses laser pulses to acquire 3D information about a scene or object, is usually best suited for imaging large objects such as topographical features or built structures due to its limited depth resolution. By capturing more details, new approach could make lidar useful for facial recognition.
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Breath Biometrics: Sniffing Out Your Identity
Biometric authentication like fingerprint and iris scans are a staple of any spy movie, and trying to circumvent those security measures is often a core plot point. Now, researchers have developed a new potential odorous option for the biometric security toolkit: your breath.
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Identifying Fake Voice Recordings
Artificial intelligence can imitate people’s voices. Scammers are already taking advantage of this on the phone. A team of researchers is working on a solution.
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Gait Authentication to Enhance Smartphone Security
Real-world tests have shown that gait authentication could be a viable means of protecting smartphones and other mobile devices from cyber crime. A study showed that a method sensing an individual’s gait was on average around 85 percent accurate in recognizing the individual.
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Face Recognition Is So Toxic, Facebook Is Dumping It
Facebook’s decision to end its face-recognition program comes at a time when face recognition technology is receiving push back, criticisms, and legislative bans across the United States, and the globe.
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