• Florida airports will require 10 fingerprints from foreign visitors

    To beef up efforts to catch terrorists and criminals, DHS starts new program in Florida airports — program which requires all foreign visitors to have all ten fingers electronically printed

  • Australian biometrics software developer finds success in U.K.

    Aussie biometric company finds success in the United Kingdom, with recent order from Wales bringing to company’s U.K. orders to more than $1 million; company still awaits similar recognition at home in Australia

  • Nursery installs fingerprint scanner at door

    Fingerprinting students in school is controversial, and many parents object to it; less controversial is installing fingerprint scanners at nurseries’ doors, to make sure that only parents and authorized personnel are allowed in

  • Lockheed Martin wins FBI database contract

    Lockheed Martin built and maintains the FBI’s current ten-fingerprint database, so it was expected to win the contract for the agency’s new database — and it did; contract potential value is $1 billion

  • Company looks for ways to expedite airport security

    Bay Area airports will be using Clear — a security screening system which passengers can subscribe to for about $100 per year; the creator of Clear launched a contest, offering a $500,000 prize for new technology which gets its customers through security lines 15 percent faster at a cost of less than 25 cents per passenger

  • EU moves toward biometric border checks

    There are 300 million crossings per year at EU member states’ border crossings — 160 million crossings by EU citizens, 60 million by non-EU without visa, 80 million by non-EU with visa; EU wants to introduce biometric IDs to know who is coming in

  • Digitus Biometrics shows networked access control solution

    Georgia-based biometric specialist shows a networked version of its stand-alone fingerprint access control system; the new version adds encrypted TCP/IP communications, enabling security administrators to control Digitus units anywhere in the world from a single location

  • Reconstructing 3D face from a single 2D image

    Researchers develop software to make the 3D reconstruction of a face from a single 2D image faster and more accurate; this will be especially useful for recovering 3D shapes when there is only one image to work from, such as an image from a CCTV camera

  • Congress wants tighter look at passengers claiming to be policemen

    Currently, all one has to do at an airport to prove he or she is a law enforcement officer — and, thus, entitled to bring a weapon on board — is show a photo ID and a letter from the law enforcement agency employing them; both documents can be easily forged

  • FBI wants palm prints, eye scans, tattoo mapping in mammoth database

    The FBI will soon announce a $1 billion, 10-year contract to help create the world’s largest biometric database; the organization wants to include not only fingerprints, but palm prints, iris scans, and more

  • More schools turn to biometrics

    Many parents object to their children being fingeprinted in school — the fingerprints are used to identify students in the cafeteria, library, and even to take attendance in class — and there is the question of cost, but school administrators see many benefits in installing biometric systems

  • Finger-vein biometrics on the rise

    A system developed by Hitachi transmits infra-red light into a part of the finger being scanned, which is absorbed by hemoglobin in the blood, causing the person’s vein pattern to show up as dark lines; the image can be captured by a special digital camera; some say the technology will replace fingerprint biometrics for ATMs, car locks, and more

  • Getting one's name off no-fly watch list a major hassle

    The U.S. lists 28 organizations as terrorist organizations; their total membership is estimated to be around 180,000 (of about 120,000 are members of the recently added Iranian Revolutionary Guard); yet, the U.S. terrorism no-fly watch list now contains more than 700,000 names — and it is growing by thousands every month; if your name got on the list by mistake, it is not easy to have it removed

  • Role of U.S. companies in building China's internal security system reviewed

    The Chinese government decided last year to invest heavily in security technology — especially intelligent CCTVs equipped with facial recognition capabilities; the Chinese say it has to do with security for the Summer Olympics; the sheer scope and breadth of the project, though, means that the new security system aims to strengthen the government’s ability to repress basic freedoms; role of U.S. companies questioned

  • Lumidigm completes $7 million funding round

    VCs continue to show interest in biometric technologies; Series C funds will support customer-centric deployments of multispectral imaging fingerprint systems