NEWS
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Biometric Technology Today
...Continued from front page Potential developers must address the challenges of ageing, pose, illumination, and expression by exploiting all available imagery. Technologies must support analysts working with partial information by addressing the uncertainties that arise when working with possibly incomplete, erroneous, and ambiguous data. The goal of the programme is to test and validate techniques that have the potential to improve the performance of biometric recognition in unconstrained imagery.
ID Ready 2D-to-3D face recognition in the cloud
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nimetrics has released a subscription-based facial biometric system called ID Ready, which takes grainy photos and improves them enough to be run through a database in the hope that a positive ID match can be made. The system is targeted at police departments that lack the resources to invest in facial recognition systems of their own. ID Ready is a cloud service that takes a grainy, partial view, angulated 2D facial image, applies 2D-to-3D algorithms, corrects the pose of the face, and makes it ‘ID ready’ for most any facial recognition system. “ID Ready essentially takes a bad image and makes a mugshot out of it,” says Paul Schuepp, chief executive officer of Animetrics. Law enforcement personnel upload a 2D photo to Animetrics servers at id.ready.animetrics.com and the ID Ready system applies facial feature point detection (eyes, nose tip, mouth, etc) to find the face and specify the parts of it. Fine-tuning is possible by the user positioning three red crosshairs over both eyes and tip of the nose. From there a 3D model is created and a new 2D image results that is pose-corrected to zero for facial pitch, yaw, and roll along the x, y and z axis. ID Ready eliminates any occlusions by using a proprietary symmetric blending algorithm. s see article page 8.
BioSurveillance Next IDs face in crowd
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pain-based Herta Security has launched BioSurveillance Next, a facial recognition solution for video surveillance applications, designed for facial identification in crowds.
Forty times faster than conventional CPU-based facial recognition technology, BioSurveillance Next is able to process in real time, live or recorded high definition video at a rate of 150 frames per second using graphics processing unit (GPU) technology.
Google Glasses app looks up medical records by face
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edRef has introduced the ability to look up medical records via facial recognition using Google Glasses. The Google Glasses can be interacted with to look up patient records by saying the patient’s name or taking a picture of their face. Caregivers can then append photo and voice notes.
e-borders
US immigration reform to mandate facial system for all?
U
S immigration reform will make it a requirement for foreigners to undergo fingerprinting when they leave the country. Privacy campaigners fear the legislation will also create a national biometric database at the same time, as it calls for a national facial recognition system. The legislation (http://tinyurl.com/cwag4f6) calls for the US Secretary of State to develop and maintain a ‘photo tool’ that enables employers to match the photo on an identity document provided to the employer to a photo maintained by a US Citizenship and Immigration Services database. Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire, including US passport or driving licence holders, in the database to verify that they match their photo.
Dublin Airport trials facial recognition
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pilot of automated border control (ABC) gates is underway at Dublin Airport. The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) joined forces with SITA for the pilot.
June 2013
NEWS As part of this project, SITA’s iBorders biometric gates identify each passenger through facial recognition. The gates at Dublin Airport are processing up to 1,000 passengers a day in as few as 7.5 seconds each. SITA joined forces with the Irish authorities to explore both passenger acceptance and the efficiency of the gates as European Union member states implement recommendations to move to self-service border control using ABC gates.
banking
Barclays turns to Nuance FreeSpeech
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arclays Wealth & Investment Management has deployed Nuance’s FreeSpeech voice biometrics solution to confirm the identity of Barclays customers using voice recognition. When a customer calls in to Barclays to access their account, they engage in 20 to 30 seconds of natural conversation with a customer service agent. During that time, Nuance FreeSpeech voice biometrics technology is used to compare the customer’s voice to their voiceprint on file. If the customer is not verified by the system, or if the transaction request is above security thresholds, Barclays agents can move to a traditional, knowledge-based authentication process. Barclays Wealth & Investment Management believes it is the first financial services firm to deploy passive voice biometrics as the primary means to authenticate customers in its call centre. Since its introduction, more than 84% of Barclays’ customers have enrolled in the Nuance voice biometrics solution, with 95% of those customers verified successfully during their first use of the system.
MFlow Journey at Edinburgh Airport.
MFlow Journey facial recognition at Edinburgh Airport
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uman Recognition Systems (HRS) has deployed its facial recognition
system MFlow Journey at Edinburgh Airport. The system is designed to conduct a performance review of passenger traffic through security screening and support Edinburgh Airport in reducing queuing times at peak hours. It will measure the journey time of the 13,000 passengers who pass through security at Edinburgh Airport every day. The real-time information on passenger numbers moving through security will enable the airport to identify and react to bottlenecks quickly, deploying additional staff or opening more security screening lanes. MFlow Journey is installed at other Global Infrastructure Partner operated airports, including London Gatwick and London City Airport. Graeme Agnew, head of IT at Edinburgh Airport, says, “Without doubt, biometrics is playing an ever more important role within the aviation industry.” He adds, “Following the successful implementation of MFlow Journey, we look forward to working with HRS to explore how biometric technology can also benefit passengers in other
EVENTS CALENDAR 2–5 July 2013 Istanbul, Turkey
Border Management and Technologies Summit Border Management is becoming a priority in Europe with an increase in human trafficking, illegal immigration and drug smuggling and acts of terrorism. With international travel and imports and exports increasing annually there is a greater need for countries to implement tougher borders, to lower the risk of human trafficking, money laundering and drug smuggling. This Border Management and Technologies Summit will discuss the latest immigration laws and the latest systems being employed to lower the risk of illegal activities taking place on their borders including access controls, biometrics, ABC, Surveillance, Profiling and CBRN Detection. Border Management & Technologies Summit will discuss key topics such as the increased use of biometrics at international borders, analysis of individual border controls, international cooperation and the threats border agencies deal with on a regular basis. More information: http://www.intelligence-sec.com/ events/border-management-and-technologies-summit
areas of the airport.”
9–11 July 2013 Sint Maarten, West Indies
mobile
Users eager to replace passwords with voice
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uance has carried out two surveys that found 85% of people are dissatisfied with current authentication methods and 90% of people are eager to use voice biometric solutions in place of traditional methods of authentication if they achieve the same high levels of security. In one survey, the ‘Nuance Mobile Security and ID Survey’ of more than 900 smartphone users in North America, 83% of mobile consumers noted that they are either concerned or very concerned about the misuse of their personal information. Yet due largely to the difficulty of remembering login information, 80% of mobile consumers surveyed use the same login credentials across all their accounts. Despite using the same credentials across all accounts, 67% of mobile consumers claim to reset their login credentials between one and five times per month. Of those surveyed, 74% claim password authentication prevented accessing their personal information at least once. 90% of mobile consumers surveyed would prefer to use voice biometrics if it ensured tighter security.
Regional Seminar on Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTDs), Biometrics and Identification Management International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)’s MRTD Regional Seminar will assist member states in North American, Central American and Caribbean Regions in implementing ICAO machine-readable travel document specifications and related ICAO standards and recommended practices. The seminar will specifically address the needs of states to enhance the integrity of the passport issuance process and ensure robust identification management in order to maximise border security and facilitation benefits. More information: http://www.icao.int/meetings/ mrtd-sintmaarten2013/Pages/default.aspx
19–21 August 2013 New York, US
Speechtek 2013 Designers, developers, vendors, analysts, consultants, and client companies will present their innovative ideas and success stories at Speechtek 2013. More information: http://www.speechtek. com/2013/
20–23 August 2013 Beijing, China
IEEE Workshop on Biometric Recognition and its Applications 2013 The purpose of the workshop is to promote international exchange of ideas and provide an opportunity for keeping abreast of the latest international developments. It is to be held in conjunction with IEEE iThings. More information: http://www.china-iot.net/
15–17 October 2013 London, UK
Biometrics Exhibition and Conference 2013 The conference runs from 15–17 October, while the exhibition runs from 16–17 October. Now in its fifteenth year, the annual Biometrics Show brings together biometric suppliers and users. More information: www.biometrics.elsevier.com
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June 2013
Biometric Technology Today