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UK biometric enrolment trial results are in
NEWS id cards
UK biometric enrolment trial results are in Results from the UK passport Service’s biometric enrolment trial have been announced, and pounced upon by some of the world’s press as evidence that biometric technology is not up to scratch. This is despite the fact that the trial was not a technology trial, but designed to test the processes and record customer experiences and attitudes to the enrolment and subsequent verification of their face, fingerprint and iris biometrics. The eight-month trial involved 10,000 volunteers, but the research focused on a 2,000 ‘quota’ sample picked to reflect the general population, and 750 disabled participants. Of the three biometrics tested, the fingerprint and facial systems were able to enrol the quota group at a success rate of just under 100%. However, the iris recognition technology enrolment success was lower at 90%. This dropped even further to 61% for disabled participants. (Enrolment operators felt the lack of feedback from the iris camera made it difficult for them to establish reasons for enrolment failure and to advise corrective action.) Verification success rates also varied widely. The lowest verification success rate occurred with the face, with a 69% success rate for quota participants. The verification success for fingerprints was 81% – the fingerprint devices used in the study were criticised as being too small and unable to deal with some people possessing large fingers. The iris recognition success rate was the highest at 96%. It also proved to be the preferred biometric for both males and females. The trial was run by Atos Origin. NEC supplied the AFIS, while Identix provided the fingerprint capture and facial matching technology. Iridian Technologies provided the iris recognition technology. A full-length feature covering more aspects of this UK biometric trial will appear in next month’s issue of Btt.
iris recognition
Iris technology keeps an eye on missing children Iris recognition has become the latest technology to help in the task of identifying and locating missing children and adults across the USA. According to the US Department of Justice, on average, more than 2,000 children
Biometric Technology Today • June 2005
are reported missing every day across the nation and there are currently more than 47,000 active missing adult cases. Unlike existing fingerprint identification programmes in the USA, the Children’s Identification and Location Database (CHILD) project will create a national registry to give social service agencies, law enforcement, and other authorised users of the system, access to data that can positively identify children in seconds. The CHILD project will be maintained by the Nation’s Missing Children Organization (NMCO) and National Center for Missing Adults (NCMA), a non-profit agency providing nationwide assistance to law enforcement and families of missing persons. Using ProofPositive technology supplied by Iridian Technologies, and Panasonic Security Systems’ BM-ET330 readers, children will be asked to provide images of their irises, which will be stored in the national database. Participation in the project is voluntary, and if parents and guardians wish, they can instruct the person doing the enrolment to put the encrypted information on an ID card, rather than having it transferred to the NMCO’s national database. This would mean the parent can take the card away, and if they should ever want or need to enter the data into the national registry then they can take the ID card to a participating sheriff ’s office and have the encrypted data read and transmitted to NMCO. Hampshire County Sheriff ’s Office announced it would be the first county to introduce the new system. The county’s sheriff, Robert Garvey, presented the CHILD project idea to the National Sheriff ’s Association in June 2004 and received a ringing endorsement. Since that time more than 1,100 sheriffs in 46 states across the nation have agreed to participate in the project, which began in spring this year. Contact: Robert Garvey at the Hampshire County Sheriff’s Office, Tel: +1 413 584 5911 Kevin O’Reilly at the CHILD Project, Tel: +1 508 224 1600
registered traveller
Private traveller programme gets the all ‘clear’ The USA’s first privately run registered traveller programme is about to get under way at Orlando International Airport, the busiest in Florida. The contract to design and manage the Private Sector Known Traveller (PSKT) programme was won by a team comprising Verified Identity Pass and Lockheed Martin. Verified Identity Pass is
application news • St Andrew’s College, Dublin, has begun trials of a fingerprint recognition system to monitor student attendance. Students are asked to clock in to the TruancyGuard system when they get to school each morning. The trial began recently on approximately 100 students and it is expected the system will be fully rolled out over the next year. Developed by software firm Adrenalin, it is hoped that time will be saved registering students each morning. Parents are notified via text message if students fail to turn up and register. • According to media reports, the German Government is to introduce biometric monitoring methods at the FIFA football world cup in Germany, in 2006. Security plans include the use of camera systems to capture biometric facial features of fans and compare them against a watch list of known troublemakers. The police will also be equipped with mobile optical fingerprint systems. To ensure safety during the games, two security zones will be set up around the stadiums. Only football fans with official tickets equipped with an RFID chip will be allowed to enter the inner circle via electronic admittance checkpoints. • Birmingham City Schools in Birmingham, Alabama, USA are to use biometric hand geometry readers to record the attendance of their employees at 61 school district sites. Recognition Systems will supply 159 of its HandPunch 3000 units, which will be used by approximately 6200 employees. The total cost of the project is estimated to be US$1.25 million.
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UK biometric enrolment trial results are in Results from the UK passport Service’s biometric enrolment trial have been announced, and pounced upon by some of the world’s press as evidence that biometric technology is not up to scratch. This is despite the fact that the trial was not a technology trial, but designed to test the processes and record customer experiences and attitudes to the enrolment and subsequent verification of their face, fingerprint and iris biometrics. The eight-month trial involved 10,000 volunteers, but the research focused on a 2,000 ‘quota’ sample picked to reflect the general population, and 750 disabled participants. Of the three biometrics tested, the fingerprint and facial systems were able to enrol the quota group at a success rate of just under 100%. However, the iris recognition technology enrolment success was lower at 90%. This dropped even further to 61% for disabled participants. (Enrolment operators felt the lack of feedback from the iris camera made it difficult for them to establish reasons for enrolment failure and to advise corrective action.) Verification success rates also varied widely. The lowest verification success rate occurred with the face, with a 69% success rate for quota participants. The verification success for fingerprints was 81% – the fingerprint devices used in the study were criticised as being too small and unable to deal with some people possessing large fingers. The iris recognition success rate was the highest at 96%. It also proved to be the preferred biometric for both males and females. The trial was run by Atos Origin. NEC supplied the AFIS, while Identix provided the fingerprint capture and facial matching technology. Iridian Technologies provided the iris recognition technology. A full-length feature covering more aspects of this UK biometric trial will appear in next month’s issue of Btt.
iris recognition
Iris technology keeps an eye on missing children Iris recognition has become the latest technology to help in the task of identifying and locating missing children and adults across the USA. According to the US Department of Justice, on average, more than 2,000 children
Biometric Technology Today • June 2005
are reported missing every day across the nation and there are currently more than 47,000 active missing adult cases. Unlike existing fingerprint identification programmes in the USA, the Children’s Identification and Location Database (CHILD) project will create a national registry to give social service agencies, law enforcement, and other authorised users of the system, access to data that can positively identify children in seconds. The CHILD project will be maintained by the Nation’s Missing Children Organization (NMCO) and National Center for Missing Adults (NCMA), a non-profit agency providing nationwide assistance to law enforcement and families of missing persons. Using ProofPositive technology supplied by Iridian Technologies, and Panasonic Security Systems’ BM-ET330 readers, children will be asked to provide images of their irises, which will be stored in the national database. Participation in the project is voluntary, and if parents and guardians wish, they can instruct the person doing the enrolment to put the encrypted information on an ID card, rather than having it transferred to the NMCO’s national database. This would mean the parent can take the card away, and if they should ever want or need to enter the data into the national registry then they can take the ID card to a participating sheriff ’s office and have the encrypted data read and transmitted to NMCO. Hampshire County Sheriff ’s Office announced it would be the first county to introduce the new system. The county’s sheriff, Robert Garvey, presented the CHILD project idea to the National Sheriff ’s Association in June 2004 and received a ringing endorsement. Since that time more than 1,100 sheriffs in 46 states across the nation have agreed to participate in the project, which began in spring this year. Contact: Robert Garvey at the Hampshire County Sheriff’s Office, Tel: +1 413 584 5911 Kevin O’Reilly at the CHILD Project, Tel: +1 508 224 1600
registered traveller
Private traveller programme gets the all ‘clear’ The USA’s first privately run registered traveller programme is about to get under way at Orlando International Airport, the busiest in Florida. The contract to design and manage the Private Sector Known Traveller (PSKT) programme was won by a team comprising Verified Identity Pass and Lockheed Martin. Verified Identity Pass is
application news • St Andrew’s College, Dublin, has begun trials of a fingerprint recognition system to monitor student attendance. Students are asked to clock in to the TruancyGuard system when they get to school each morning. The trial began recently on approximately 100 students and it is expected the system will be fully rolled out over the next year. Developed by software firm Adrenalin, it is hoped that time will be saved registering students each morning. Parents are notified via text message if students fail to turn up and register. • According to media reports, the German Government is to introduce biometric monitoring methods at the FIFA football world cup in Germany, in 2006. Security plans include the use of camera systems to capture biometric facial features of fans and compare them against a watch list of known troublemakers. The police will also be equipped with mobile optical fingerprint systems. To ensure safety during the games, two security zones will be set up around the stadiums. Only football fans with official tickets equipped with an RFID chip will be allowed to enter the inner circle via electronic admittance checkpoints. • Birmingham City Schools in Birmingham, Alabama, USA are to use biometric hand geometry readers to record the attendance of their employees at 61 school district sites. Recognition Systems will supply 159 of its HandPunch 3000 units, which will be used by approximately 6200 employees. The total cost of the project is estimated to be US$1.25 million.
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