- Email: [email protected]
New iris database
NEWS iris recognition
New iris database A database containing multiple iris images from hundreds of people has been announced to help organisations studying the performance of their technology. As part of on-going research work, UKbased Smart Sensors told Btt it is collecting a high-quality database of iris images, which will be available for research, test and evaluation. By the end of 2005, iris images of some 800 people will be in the database, with more being collected during 2006. The database comprises 20 images of each
person’s ‘left and right’ eye, illuminated by a low-level near infra-red light source (750800nm), taken by a machine vision digital camera of 1392x1040 pixels, with 8 bits/pixel greyscale resolution. The anonymous database has a diverse ethnic and balanced gender mix, and is being collected under strictly supervised conditions. Images are supplied on DVD and are centred but not normalised. They can be compressed according to JPEG2000. Smart Sensors claims that ratios as low as 0.3 bits/pixel have not been found to cause any significant degrading of performance of
algorithms (including using its own compact Monro Iris Transform). A sample of the images is now available to establishments engaged in genuine research activities. Commercial organisations will be offered access to the database for a fee from 2006. Smart Sensors is working with the University of Bath in the UK and owns intellectual property for a variety of algorithms for use in iris biometric applications.
The banks’ password reset process had been largely manual, often taking several hours before the problem was solved. In 2004, the bank decided to automate the process by implementing a speaker authentication system from German ID management company Voice.Trust. The supplier’s Common Criteria-certified VOICE.TRUST Server (VTS) was connected to a Windows Active Directory Server as well as to 70 SAP systems and was tested for more than three months. The test results were deemed sufficiently impressive for the bank to begin a wide-scale user enrolment process in February 2005.
In order to use the system, a user telephones the VTS. A temporary password is then created and passed on to the user. The process takes up to two minutes. Oliver Geiseler, helpdesk manager, Volkswagen Financial Services AG, told Btt: “We can offer our users more security while at the same time increasing the levels of quality of service. We’re currently using the system successfully in Germany and are planning the roll out to our international subsidiaries over the next few months.”
Contact: Martin George at Smart Sensors, Tel: +44 1275 840211, email: [email protected]
speaker verification
VW trials reset system VW Financial Services, a subsidiary of the car maker Volkswagen, has decided to deploy a speaker verification-based password reset system at its German offices, and will roll the system out worldwide. With assets of approximately eight billion euros, security is a key consideration for the company and strict password management is an integral part of that. The problem is that some 80% of its 5,000 employees manage at least five passwords, causing a huge number of help desk calls as users forget their passwords or use them incorrectly.
Comment The tragic killing of an innocent Brazilian man by police hunting suicide bombers in London was a mistake which will no doubt haunt those involved for the rest of their lives. The officers had to make a snap decision, which will not only have been based on the rapidly evolving situation in front of them, but also made in the horrifying context of a series of actual and attempted atrocities. Contextual information is a powerful force, as can be seen in this month’s lead story. Veteran fingerprint examiners can be made to change their minds about whether a latent fingerprint is a match or not, purely based on contextual information. By being told the fingerprints they were examining were those of the innocent Muslim man arrested in the USA in the wake of the Madrid bombings, four of the five examiners proclaimed the prints were not a strong match. This is despite
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the fact that the fingerprints they were examining were actually prints from other cases, and ones they had proclaimed to be a match in a court of law some years earlier. A plus point for biometric technology is that it isn’t normally affected by contextual information. A fingerprint sensor doesn’t make a judgement based upon race, colour or creed, although there is evidence that some biometric systems will work better when verifying the identity of one race compared with another. Selection of technology to avoid any form of discrimination is vital to avoid accusations of racial bias. This research is scary, and although it was performed on a small sample of examiners it highlights the need for tight control over how fingerprints are examined. After all, it only takes one examiner’s judgement to become clouded for an innocent man or woman to end up behind bars – or even executed. Mark Lockie
Contact: Michael Kramer at Voice.Trust, Tel: +49 89 127 160, Fax: +49 89 127 16100, Email: [email protected]
Editorial Office: Elsevier Advanced Technology, PO Box 150, Kidlington, Oxford, UK, OX5 1AS Tel: +44 (0) 2920 560458 Fax: +44 (0) 1865 843971 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.compseconline.com
Editor: Mark Lockie In-House Editor: Nova Dudley-Gough Production/Design Controller: Colin Williams
In next month’s issue In next month’s issue of Btt we will turn our focus onto the use of biometrics in national ID card implementations. Where are the major biometric ID card installations, what lessons have been learnt and how do the differing ID card models affect their performance from a privacy and national security standpoint. Plus all the regular sections, including news, comment, features and in-depth business analysis.
Biometric Technology Today • September 2005
New iris database A database containing multiple iris images from hundreds of people has been announced to help organisations studying the performance of their technology. As part of on-going research work, UKbased Smart Sensors told Btt it is collecting a high-quality database of iris images, which will be available for research, test and evaluation. By the end of 2005, iris images of some 800 people will be in the database, with more being collected during 2006. The database comprises 20 images of each
person’s ‘left and right’ eye, illuminated by a low-level near infra-red light source (750800nm), taken by a machine vision digital camera of 1392x1040 pixels, with 8 bits/pixel greyscale resolution. The anonymous database has a diverse ethnic and balanced gender mix, and is being collected under strictly supervised conditions. Images are supplied on DVD and are centred but not normalised. They can be compressed according to JPEG2000. Smart Sensors claims that ratios as low as 0.3 bits/pixel have not been found to cause any significant degrading of performance of
algorithms (including using its own compact Monro Iris Transform). A sample of the images is now available to establishments engaged in genuine research activities. Commercial organisations will be offered access to the database for a fee from 2006. Smart Sensors is working with the University of Bath in the UK and owns intellectual property for a variety of algorithms for use in iris biometric applications.
The banks’ password reset process had been largely manual, often taking several hours before the problem was solved. In 2004, the bank decided to automate the process by implementing a speaker authentication system from German ID management company Voice.Trust. The supplier’s Common Criteria-certified VOICE.TRUST Server (VTS) was connected to a Windows Active Directory Server as well as to 70 SAP systems and was tested for more than three months. The test results were deemed sufficiently impressive for the bank to begin a wide-scale user enrolment process in February 2005.
In order to use the system, a user telephones the VTS. A temporary password is then created and passed on to the user. The process takes up to two minutes. Oliver Geiseler, helpdesk manager, Volkswagen Financial Services AG, told Btt: “We can offer our users more security while at the same time increasing the levels of quality of service. We’re currently using the system successfully in Germany and are planning the roll out to our international subsidiaries over the next few months.”
Contact: Martin George at Smart Sensors, Tel: +44 1275 840211, email: [email protected]
speaker verification
VW trials reset system VW Financial Services, a subsidiary of the car maker Volkswagen, has decided to deploy a speaker verification-based password reset system at its German offices, and will roll the system out worldwide. With assets of approximately eight billion euros, security is a key consideration for the company and strict password management is an integral part of that. The problem is that some 80% of its 5,000 employees manage at least five passwords, causing a huge number of help desk calls as users forget their passwords or use them incorrectly.
Comment The tragic killing of an innocent Brazilian man by police hunting suicide bombers in London was a mistake which will no doubt haunt those involved for the rest of their lives. The officers had to make a snap decision, which will not only have been based on the rapidly evolving situation in front of them, but also made in the horrifying context of a series of actual and attempted atrocities. Contextual information is a powerful force, as can be seen in this month’s lead story. Veteran fingerprint examiners can be made to change their minds about whether a latent fingerprint is a match or not, purely based on contextual information. By being told the fingerprints they were examining were those of the innocent Muslim man arrested in the USA in the wake of the Madrid bombings, four of the five examiners proclaimed the prints were not a strong match. This is despite
12
the fact that the fingerprints they were examining were actually prints from other cases, and ones they had proclaimed to be a match in a court of law some years earlier. A plus point for biometric technology is that it isn’t normally affected by contextual information. A fingerprint sensor doesn’t make a judgement based upon race, colour or creed, although there is evidence that some biometric systems will work better when verifying the identity of one race compared with another. Selection of technology to avoid any form of discrimination is vital to avoid accusations of racial bias. This research is scary, and although it was performed on a small sample of examiners it highlights the need for tight control over how fingerprints are examined. After all, it only takes one examiner’s judgement to become clouded for an innocent man or woman to end up behind bars – or even executed. Mark Lockie
Contact: Michael Kramer at Voice.Trust, Tel: +49 89 127 160, Fax: +49 89 127 16100, Email: [email protected]
Editorial Office: Elsevier Advanced Technology, PO Box 150, Kidlington, Oxford, UK, OX5 1AS Tel: +44 (0) 2920 560458 Fax: +44 (0) 1865 843971 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.compseconline.com
Editor: Mark Lockie In-House Editor: Nova Dudley-Gough Production/Design Controller: Colin Williams
In next month’s issue In next month’s issue of Btt we will turn our focus onto the use of biometrics in national ID card implementations. Where are the major biometric ID card installations, what lessons have been learnt and how do the differing ID card models affect their performance from a privacy and national security standpoint. Plus all the regular sections, including news, comment, features and in-depth business analysis.
Biometric Technology Today • September 2005