• Heathrow's Terminal 5 will open in two weeks

    The new, beautiful terminal — it also has an impressive view of the airport and its surroundings — will open on 14 March, and begin operations on 27 March; the mixing — and fingerprinting — of both international and domestic travelers; transfers to other airlines; and tight security checks pose problems

  • Mounties smash massive identity-theft ring

    Royal Canadian Mounted Police discover thousands of stolen and forged credit cards, licences, passports, personal records — and printing and embossing machines to manufacture IDs, passports, and print forged money; largest such ring in Canadian history

  • Coast Guard, US-VISIT expands biometrics-at-sea to Florida Straits

    Since the program began in November 2006, the Coast Guard has collected biometric data from 1,526 migrants and prosecuted 118 of those migrants; program was tested in the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and judged successful, is now being expanded to the Florida Straits

  • Face reading software

    Spanish researchers develop algorithm capable of reading facial expressions from video images; by applying the algorithm, the system is capable of processing thirty images per second to recognize a person’s facial expressions in real time before categorizing them as expressing anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, or surprise

  • Experts: By 2015 biometrics would do away with long lines at airports

    The future of airport security checks: Automated gates would confirm an individual’s identity using biometrics before checking their biographic data for any updates in their security/legal/journey status against various databases

  • Integrating smart cards with biometrics a growing market

    The market for integrated smart cards and biometric products earned $249.1 million in 2007 and is expected to reach $822.2 million by 2013; market driven by growing interest in national biometric IDs; market grew in 2006 by 55.2 percent, despite many of the national ID projects not operating at full scale

  • Bankrupt Pay By Touch to auction off its assets

    Pay by Touch came to market with a big splash; its system was installed in more than 700 U.S. retail locations; its biometrics and personalized marketing businesses, however, lost $137 million last year on only $600,000 in revenue; it sought buyers, but there were no satisfactory offers, so it is planning to auction off its assets

  • Indian high-tech companies tighten security procedures

    Indian high-tech and software companies, with their constant need for new employees, are easy targets for terrorist infiltration; these companies now take much tougher approach to vetting — and continuously checking — employees

  • 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