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Facial biometrics lays down the law in the US and Hong Kong
FEATURE
Facial biometrics lays down the law in the US and Hong Kong
Steve Gold
Steve Gold, journalist In the first quarter of 2012, the US FBI will activate a national facial biometrics system in several states that will allow police and allied law enforcement officials to identify unknown subjects from photos. The game plan, according to Kevin Reid, acting programme manager for the NGI (next generation identification) project within the FBI CJIS (criminal justice information services) division, is to roll out the scheme nationally across the US within the next couple of years. The cost is estimated at £1bn and Reid has said that the Lockheed Martin-administered project is the most ambitious he has seen in his 28 years of major IT and defence systems across multiple agencies. Reid is no stranger to the technology behind biometrics systems. He has managed the early stages of the NGI programme and his team has engineered improvements to the multi-modal developments plus deployments of biometrics services both within the US and internationally through Interpol. The FBI’s NGI programme is a major one, with Reid serving as section chief of the BSS (biometric services section), which has more than 1,000 employees across the US, providing national and international fingerprint plus criminal history services to what he describes as law enforcement clients, rather than officials.
NGI overhaul The NGI programme represents a major overhaul of the FBI’s existing fingerprint-centric database to cover additional metrics such as iris scans and voice recordings. The idea is that any police office or similar law enforcement officials – when suitably registered with the programme – will be able to securely submit a picture for identification to the NGI and then receive back a set of ‘mug shots’ that are ranked in order of similarity to the submitted photo. Currently, says Reid, there are more than 10 mug shots stored in the FBI’s IAFIS (integrated automated fingerprint identification system), tagged mainly by name. Under the NGI project, law enforcement officials will be able to upload 10
Biometric Technology Today
a picture to the database and the indicate how many ‘likeness’ identified mug shots – up to 50 can be selected – they are looking to get back.
“The NGI programme represents a major overhaul of the FBI’s existing fingerprint-centric database to cover additional metrics such as iris scans and voice recordings Because the NGI platform will return a default 20 mug shot images back to the officer or agent concerned, the FBI is careful to stress that the system is not a direct matching service. All the system does is generate a list of close likenesses and lets the local officials do the rest. This is not to say that the technology doesn’t exist to provide an NCIS TV-style database search but it’s likely that politics between the various law enforcement agencies in the US has dictated the development of a `likeness list’ rather than a full-blown search-and-identify system. The US Department of Homeland Security does not have direct access to the NGI platform, but Reid noted that the agency will have indirect access to the database via its IDENT internal identification platform.
Hong Kong’s international airport: face recognition integrated with numberplate recognition.
Reid’s open comments are in stark contrast to the FBI’s previous stance over the NGI facial biometrics plan, which has attracted considerable criticism from a variety of civil liberty and immigration groups in the US. And no small wonder as, back in July 2011 the FBI revealed that it has upgraded its biometric database to identify dangerous and undocumented US immigrants for possible deportation more quickly and accurately. The IAFIS-based database has been `upgraded’ since the start of 2011 and there are plans to integrate the system with the NGI platform at the earliest available opportunity, which may come as soon as the first quarter of 2012. Under the programme – known as Secure Communities – DHS officials are now able to check the fingerprints of people booked by local US law enforcement agencies against the Homeland Security’s IDENT biometric database to see if they are known to have entered the US illegally. Officials can then deport the most violent aliens such as convicted murderers and rapists to their country of origin. According to the FBI, the Secure Communities system now handles fingerprint biometrics for more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies and authorised partners across the US, and currently has a database of two million sets of metrics, which can be hash index searched in under 20 seconds. Although the FBI has not placed any search times on its NGI system, officials have been quoted as saying they are looking for similar time frames for facial biometric searches when the NGI platform goes live in several states from this month. This raises the interesting prospect of police being able to facially biometric scan suspects – and receive back a probable list of who they may be – in as close to real-time as it gets. In fact, the FBI says that, currently at least, local US law enforcement agencies send their fingerprints to the FBI on a voluntary basis, although anecdotal evidence suggests that most police forces across the US are actively transmitting their fingerprint databases and updates
January 2012
FEATURE in the expectation of gaining easy access to the NGI platform when it goes live.
Hong Kong The FBI’s rigid stance in releasing only limited information on its NGI facial biometrics platform is in stark contrast to the Hong Kong authorities approach, which has been markedly open since the former crown colony – now part of the People’s Republic of China – implemented facial biometrics at its border crossings in the latter part of the last decade.
“This raises the interesting prospect of police being able to facially biometric scan suspects – and received back a probable list of who they may be – in as close to realtime as it gets” According to Henry Leung, senior business development manager with NEC and a veteran of Hong Kong’s facial biometrics programme, Hong Kong’s facial biometrics scheme was slated by the Far Eastern media when, in October 2010, a young reporter wore a mask and make-up and successfully ‘beat’ the facial biometrics system by masquerading as an elderly citizen. Leung said that the reporter successfully passed through the facial biometrics process in Hong Kong and was only stopped when he reached Canada and had removed his mask after freely perspiring on the flight. Despite this media faux pas for Hong Kong’s national facial biometrics system, Leung said that the former crown colony has some of the best security technology at its airport, using a variety of fingerprint and facial systems to verify that the traveller is who they claim to be. “Biometrics is a very useful technology when it comes to national security in Hong Kong, as my colleagues in law enforcement know that, if there is a loophole, then someone will try to exploit it,” he says. One of the most interesting applications of facial biometrics in use at Hong Kong’s international airport – known as Chek Lap Kok by locals on account of the site being built on the
January 2012
island of the same name using land reclamation techniques – is not at the border crossings themselves, but at the vehicle access points to the airport, where police and other officials are constantly looking for miscreants, ranging from terrorists to wanted criminals.
Numberplate integration “The facial biometrics system is centred on an ANR (automated numberplate recognition) platform into which frequent travellers and visitors to the airport enrol themselves,” says Leung, who added that most frequent travellers and visitors tend to enrol themselves as it speeds up their access to the site dramatically. The system uses infra-red sensors to estimate the height of a car or truck as it approaches the airport entrance kiosk and then manoeuvres the facial scanner to precisely the right height for the vehicle concerned, which allows the driver to look out of their window and directly into the scanner. “Using a mobile kiosk helps a lot in this context, as it means that security staff can make any fine tuning that is required for non-standard vehicles and so ensure the fastest possible scanning time. The scanners then perform live scanning to the travel documents which the traveller has submitted previously, and, of course, that they are presenting on the day of arrival,” he says. Currently the facial biometrics scanning system at Hong Kong international airport has 40 lanes – typically operating on 20 lanes in and 20 lanes out – but with induction loop detection, he says it is possible to change the flow of the traffic lanes to keep the traffic flowing if any traffic jams occur. Thanks to very high levels of automation on the auto-ID and facial biometrics recognition front, Leung says that only one officer is needed for every traffic 10 lanes that are in use. The use of automated biometrics, he adds, also helps to ensure that there is no favouritism by security and law enforcement officials. By tying in the ANR licence plate recognition system into the facial biometrics recognition security platform, he says that it is not even possible to ‘ram’ the airport entry points as, if the ANR does not recognise a vehicle’s licence plate, barriers are not raised or lowered, so preventing access.
“We also have an overbridge facial recognition system that operates in parallel with our ground-based systems. This acts as a back-up to the kiosk scanners and can be used in high definition mode for spot scanning as police and other officials require,” he says. One interesting by-product of the facial biometrics system is that, since all drivers are scanned as they enter or leave the airport – whether or not they are enrolled in the programme – if someone suspicious tries to enter the airport campus, police can check back to see if they have visited the campus before and how many times in, say, the preceding 12 months. All the facial scans are logged, complete with date, time and camera number. “We may not be able to know who the person is yet, but we can tell whether they’ve been through before. This saves a lot of manual trawling through facial biometrics databases,” he says. Because of the immense traffic flows at peak times, Leung says that speed is of the essence on the Hong Kong international airport facial biometrics scheme, with database lookup times of less than one second.
“Because of the immense traffic flows at peak times, speed is of the essence on the Hong Kong international airport facial biometrics scheme, with database lookup times of less than one second” The airport isn’t quite at the stage of being able to use real-time drive-through facial biometrics, but the APC – automated people clearance – system is getting close to that target, especially now that most travellers are using electronic passports.
About the author Steve Gold has been a business journalist and technology writer for 26 years. A qualified accountant and former auditor, he has specialised in IT security, business matters, the Internet and communications for most of that time. He lectures regularly on criminal psychology and cybercrime.
Biometric Technology Today
11
Facial biometrics lays down the law in the US and Hong Kong
Steve Gold
Steve Gold, journalist In the first quarter of 2012, the US FBI will activate a national facial biometrics system in several states that will allow police and allied law enforcement officials to identify unknown subjects from photos. The game plan, according to Kevin Reid, acting programme manager for the NGI (next generation identification) project within the FBI CJIS (criminal justice information services) division, is to roll out the scheme nationally across the US within the next couple of years. The cost is estimated at £1bn and Reid has said that the Lockheed Martin-administered project is the most ambitious he has seen in his 28 years of major IT and defence systems across multiple agencies. Reid is no stranger to the technology behind biometrics systems. He has managed the early stages of the NGI programme and his team has engineered improvements to the multi-modal developments plus deployments of biometrics services both within the US and internationally through Interpol. The FBI’s NGI programme is a major one, with Reid serving as section chief of the BSS (biometric services section), which has more than 1,000 employees across the US, providing national and international fingerprint plus criminal history services to what he describes as law enforcement clients, rather than officials.
NGI overhaul The NGI programme represents a major overhaul of the FBI’s existing fingerprint-centric database to cover additional metrics such as iris scans and voice recordings. The idea is that any police office or similar law enforcement officials – when suitably registered with the programme – will be able to securely submit a picture for identification to the NGI and then receive back a set of ‘mug shots’ that are ranked in order of similarity to the submitted photo. Currently, says Reid, there are more than 10 mug shots stored in the FBI’s IAFIS (integrated automated fingerprint identification system), tagged mainly by name. Under the NGI project, law enforcement officials will be able to upload 10
Biometric Technology Today
a picture to the database and the indicate how many ‘likeness’ identified mug shots – up to 50 can be selected – they are looking to get back.
“The NGI programme represents a major overhaul of the FBI’s existing fingerprint-centric database to cover additional metrics such as iris scans and voice recordings Because the NGI platform will return a default 20 mug shot images back to the officer or agent concerned, the FBI is careful to stress that the system is not a direct matching service. All the system does is generate a list of close likenesses and lets the local officials do the rest. This is not to say that the technology doesn’t exist to provide an NCIS TV-style database search but it’s likely that politics between the various law enforcement agencies in the US has dictated the development of a `likeness list’ rather than a full-blown search-and-identify system. The US Department of Homeland Security does not have direct access to the NGI platform, but Reid noted that the agency will have indirect access to the database via its IDENT internal identification platform.
Hong Kong’s international airport: face recognition integrated with numberplate recognition.
Reid’s open comments are in stark contrast to the FBI’s previous stance over the NGI facial biometrics plan, which has attracted considerable criticism from a variety of civil liberty and immigration groups in the US. And no small wonder as, back in July 2011 the FBI revealed that it has upgraded its biometric database to identify dangerous and undocumented US immigrants for possible deportation more quickly and accurately. The IAFIS-based database has been `upgraded’ since the start of 2011 and there are plans to integrate the system with the NGI platform at the earliest available opportunity, which may come as soon as the first quarter of 2012. Under the programme – known as Secure Communities – DHS officials are now able to check the fingerprints of people booked by local US law enforcement agencies against the Homeland Security’s IDENT biometric database to see if they are known to have entered the US illegally. Officials can then deport the most violent aliens such as convicted murderers and rapists to their country of origin. According to the FBI, the Secure Communities system now handles fingerprint biometrics for more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies and authorised partners across the US, and currently has a database of two million sets of metrics, which can be hash index searched in under 20 seconds. Although the FBI has not placed any search times on its NGI system, officials have been quoted as saying they are looking for similar time frames for facial biometric searches when the NGI platform goes live in several states from this month. This raises the interesting prospect of police being able to facially biometric scan suspects – and receive back a probable list of who they may be – in as close to real-time as it gets. In fact, the FBI says that, currently at least, local US law enforcement agencies send their fingerprints to the FBI on a voluntary basis, although anecdotal evidence suggests that most police forces across the US are actively transmitting their fingerprint databases and updates
January 2012
FEATURE in the expectation of gaining easy access to the NGI platform when it goes live.
Hong Kong The FBI’s rigid stance in releasing only limited information on its NGI facial biometrics platform is in stark contrast to the Hong Kong authorities approach, which has been markedly open since the former crown colony – now part of the People’s Republic of China – implemented facial biometrics at its border crossings in the latter part of the last decade.
“This raises the interesting prospect of police being able to facially biometric scan suspects – and received back a probable list of who they may be – in as close to realtime as it gets” According to Henry Leung, senior business development manager with NEC and a veteran of Hong Kong’s facial biometrics programme, Hong Kong’s facial biometrics scheme was slated by the Far Eastern media when, in October 2010, a young reporter wore a mask and make-up and successfully ‘beat’ the facial biometrics system by masquerading as an elderly citizen. Leung said that the reporter successfully passed through the facial biometrics process in Hong Kong and was only stopped when he reached Canada and had removed his mask after freely perspiring on the flight. Despite this media faux pas for Hong Kong’s national facial biometrics system, Leung said that the former crown colony has some of the best security technology at its airport, using a variety of fingerprint and facial systems to verify that the traveller is who they claim to be. “Biometrics is a very useful technology when it comes to national security in Hong Kong, as my colleagues in law enforcement know that, if there is a loophole, then someone will try to exploit it,” he says. One of the most interesting applications of facial biometrics in use at Hong Kong’s international airport – known as Chek Lap Kok by locals on account of the site being built on the
January 2012
island of the same name using land reclamation techniques – is not at the border crossings themselves, but at the vehicle access points to the airport, where police and other officials are constantly looking for miscreants, ranging from terrorists to wanted criminals.
Numberplate integration “The facial biometrics system is centred on an ANR (automated numberplate recognition) platform into which frequent travellers and visitors to the airport enrol themselves,” says Leung, who added that most frequent travellers and visitors tend to enrol themselves as it speeds up their access to the site dramatically. The system uses infra-red sensors to estimate the height of a car or truck as it approaches the airport entrance kiosk and then manoeuvres the facial scanner to precisely the right height for the vehicle concerned, which allows the driver to look out of their window and directly into the scanner. “Using a mobile kiosk helps a lot in this context, as it means that security staff can make any fine tuning that is required for non-standard vehicles and so ensure the fastest possible scanning time. The scanners then perform live scanning to the travel documents which the traveller has submitted previously, and, of course, that they are presenting on the day of arrival,” he says. Currently the facial biometrics scanning system at Hong Kong international airport has 40 lanes – typically operating on 20 lanes in and 20 lanes out – but with induction loop detection, he says it is possible to change the flow of the traffic lanes to keep the traffic flowing if any traffic jams occur. Thanks to very high levels of automation on the auto-ID and facial biometrics recognition front, Leung says that only one officer is needed for every traffic 10 lanes that are in use. The use of automated biometrics, he adds, also helps to ensure that there is no favouritism by security and law enforcement officials. By tying in the ANR licence plate recognition system into the facial biometrics recognition security platform, he says that it is not even possible to ‘ram’ the airport entry points as, if the ANR does not recognise a vehicle’s licence plate, barriers are not raised or lowered, so preventing access.
“We also have an overbridge facial recognition system that operates in parallel with our ground-based systems. This acts as a back-up to the kiosk scanners and can be used in high definition mode for spot scanning as police and other officials require,” he says. One interesting by-product of the facial biometrics system is that, since all drivers are scanned as they enter or leave the airport – whether or not they are enrolled in the programme – if someone suspicious tries to enter the airport campus, police can check back to see if they have visited the campus before and how many times in, say, the preceding 12 months. All the facial scans are logged, complete with date, time and camera number. “We may not be able to know who the person is yet, but we can tell whether they’ve been through before. This saves a lot of manual trawling through facial biometrics databases,” he says. Because of the immense traffic flows at peak times, Leung says that speed is of the essence on the Hong Kong international airport facial biometrics scheme, with database lookup times of less than one second.
“Because of the immense traffic flows at peak times, speed is of the essence on the Hong Kong international airport facial biometrics scheme, with database lookup times of less than one second” The airport isn’t quite at the stage of being able to use real-time drive-through facial biometrics, but the APC – automated people clearance – system is getting close to that target, especially now that most travellers are using electronic passports.
About the author Steve Gold has been a business journalist and technology writer for 26 years. A qualified accountant and former auditor, he has specialised in IT security, business matters, the Internet and communications for most of that time. He lectures regularly on criminal psychology and cybercrime.
Biometric Technology Today
11