- Email: [email protected]
Viisage snaps up iris recognition leader
NEWS
Copyright Notice This newsletter and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by Elsevier Ltd, and the following terms and conditions apply to their use: Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier Rights & Permissions Department, PO Box 800, Oxford OX5 1DX, UK; tel: +44 (0)1865 843830, fax: +44 (0)1865 853333, e-mail: [email protected]. You may also contact Rights & Permissions directly through Elsevier’s home page (http://www.elsevier.com), selecting first ‘Support and contact’, then ‘Copyright and permission’. In the USA, users may clear permissions and make payments through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA; tel: 978 7508400, fax: +1 978 7504744, and in the UK through the Copyright Licensing Agency Rapid Clearance Service (CLARCS), 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP, UK; tel: +44 (0) 207 436 5931; fax: +44 (0) 207 436 3986. Other countries may have a local reprographic rights agency for payments. Derivative Works Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution. Permission of the publisher is required for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations. Electronic Storage or Usage Permission of the publisher is required to store or use electronically any material contained in this journal, including any article or part of an article. Contact the publisher at the address indicated. Except as outlined above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher. Address permissions requests to: Elsevier Rights & Permissions Department, at the mail, fax and e-mail addresses noted above. Notice No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independent verification of diagnoses and drug dosages should be made. Although all advertising material is expected to conform to ethical (medical) standards, inclusion in this publication does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement of the quality or value of such product or of the claims made of it by its manufacturer.
02265 Printed by Mayfield Press (Oxford) Ltd.
2
Continued from back page... The biometric system, which will expose many passengers to fingerprint technology for the first time, could even make its first official appearance in Heathrow Terminal 1 from next year. International and domestic passenger mingling does not currently happen at Heathrow because there is the risk that passengers could switch boarding cards, so allowing a foreign passenger to enter the UK without having to clear immigration control. Jill Murphy, T5 process solutions manager, T5live, Heathrow Airport Ltd, told Btt that, following extensive trials, they are now looking at a new fingerprint-based biometric system that would allow passengers to mix without the possibility of this sort of boarding pass switch taking place. The system would also allow all passengers to take advantage of the airport’s facilities – and, of course, has the added benefit of generating more customers for Heathrow Airport’s wide-range of shops and restaurants. The roll out of the system follows a comprehensive trial which looked at the feasibility of a range of biometrics. According to Murphy: “We looked at 3D face, fingerprint, palm vein and iris recognition.” Murphy said that the system needs to be greater than 99% accurate and the enrolment phase, which occurs as people enter the departure lounge, should take place within a 10 second time frame. Verification, which occurs when a passenger exits the lounge, has an even tighter requirement of 8 seconds. Live tests on volunteer passengers took place in the premium check in area of Terminal 1 last year. Following that, the system was introduced to the wider domestic passenger market in Terminal 1. After considering factors, such as accuracy, processing time and ease of use, the technology options boiled down to a 3D facial recognition system from A4 Vision and a fingerprint system from Dermalog. Murphy told Btt that fingerprint was subsequently chosen, notably because it is a biometric that will be taken for the next generation of ePassports and for the proposed UK national ID card. The project has had to consider privacy concerns surrounding its system and Murphy claims that the system will sidestep some of the issues under the Data Protection Act. This is because its purpose is not to check who the passengers are when enrolling or verifying their biometric, it is purely verifying that the person entering the departure lounge with a boarding card leaves the lounge with the same boarding card.
A area of concern to Murphy, is the amount of time needed to register the biometric in the first place, as a protracted process could lead to long queues of passengers. However, Murphy believes that there is scope to develop the design of the fingerprint system and the ergonomics of the layout to reduce waiting times. Murphy predicts: “I am confident that the system will perform to meet our requirements.”
acquisition
Viisage snaps up iris recognition leader Fuelled by a US$100 million injection of investment last year, Viisage Technology’s trail of acquisitions marches forward, with its latest purchase – Iridian Technologies – the most high-profile to date. The company announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the privately-held US company for US$35 million in cash. Iridian is best known for the initial development and commercialisation of iris recognition technology, and until recently held a strong patent position in the sector, effectively preventing serious competition. (Some of these patents have since expired and the market can now be seen opening up, although Iridian’s position is still dominant.) Combined with the imminent merger of Viisage with Identix, and the recent acquisition of SecuriMetrics, the move will create a powerhouse in the biometrics industry, with the company able to manufacture a full range of handheld and multi-modal biometric recognition solutions encompassing iris, finger and face. Iridian’s intellectual property portfolio and industry-standard iris recognition algorithm will be combined with SecuriMetrics’s offerings. Meanwhile, current Iridian licensees (including Panasonic and Oki Electric Industry Co.) will continue to have non-exclusive rights to deploy Iridian’s software and related intellectual property in integrated products manufactured by the licensees. Viisage will pay Iridian shareholders US$35 million in cash for the company. However, in parallel with the Iridian transaction, Viisage also secured a US$6.5 million reduction in potential contingency payments to SecuriMetrics (under the terms of Viisage’s February 2006 acquisition of SecuriMetrics), resulting in an effective “net” purchase price for Iridian of US$28.5 million. The acquisition of Iridian is to be funded primarily by proceeds from the initial US$100 million investment into Viisage by L-1 Investment Partners in December 2005. Iridian is
Biometric Technology Today • July/August 2006
NEWS expected to have positive net working capital and be debt free at the time of the close of the transaction. Meanwhile, the company is estimated to generate positive pro forma EBITDA of approximately US$3 million in 2006. Closing of the Iridian transaction is expected in August 2006, subject to various conditions, including Iridian shareholder approval. Iridian’s business operation, currently located in Moorestown, N.J., is expected to be integrated into Identix’ Jersey City, N.J. research facility once the pending Identix merger is consummated. According to Robert LaPenta, Chairman of the Board of Viisage: “With direct access to the IP that underpins the iris recognition market, our business will realize improved margins and cost synergies, as well as significant revenue opportunities. Most importantly, we believe the market will now be primed for accelerated growth as the development of critical services and products required for widespread adoption of iris recognition technologies can proceed ahead unencumbered.” Contact: Doni Fordyce at L-1 Investment Partners, Tel: +1 203 504 1109, Email: [email protected]
epassport
Fingerprint deadline for EU ePassports within three years EU member states have until 28 June 2009 at the latest to start implementing fingerprints in their new ePassports. A three-year countdown began as soon as the European Commission had adopted the second instalment of technical specifications required for the introduction of biometric identifiers into passports and other travel documents. The first instalment had been released in February 2005 and related to storing facial image data on a contactless chip. The specifications say that two fingerprints should be stored on the passport chip, and that these fingerprints are to be protected using “Extended Access Control”, which is an encryption mechanism using Pubic Key Infrastructure (PKI). The EU will be among the first worldwide to implement such a system. Vice-President Franco Frattini, who is the commissioner responsible for freedom, security and justice, commented: “The EU is among the first in the world issuing passports requirements with a high level of protection against unauthorised access by providing ‘Extended Access Control’, whilst at the same time complying with the
Biometric Technology Today • July/August 2006
ePassport history The passing of Council Regulation (EC) 2252/2004 in December 2004 allowed the European Commission to establish the technical specifications necessary for the implementation of the introduction of biometrics into passports and other travel documents with a validity of more than 12 months – except ID cards. The first set of specifications were adopted by the Commission on 28 February 2005 and related to the storage of the facial image of the holder on a contactless chip in the passport. This image is to be protected by “Basic Access Control” which requires the reading of the machine readable zone in the passport in order to open up the chip. The deadline for implementing these specifications is 28 August 2006, which is just under two months earlier than US demands for US visa waiver countries to implement ICAOstandard biometric passports.
recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in order to ensure interoperability.”
speaker verification
ABN AMRO to roll out speaker verification system for telephone banking Up to four million ABN AMRO customers could soon encounter a speaker verification system when accessing the financial institution’s telephone banking service. The system, which will be used to authenticate up to 28 million calls per year, prompts customers to say their account number and a password in order to be verified. The contract to supply the system was awarded to Biometric Security Limited, which acquired the well-known Irish speaker verification company, VoiceVault, in 2005. In the initial stages five suppliers were invited to bid, of which two were selected. ABN AMRO then visited customers of the suppliers in the USA before selecting the VoiceVault system. According to ABN AMRO, 95% of all transactions are now conducted through direct channels (the internet and telephone) and that these direct channels are gaining in popularity. ABN AMRO told Btt, the problem was that many people were forgetting their five digit verification code, or TIN. “We wanted to
application news • The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan has awarded a multi-million dollar contract to Cogent Systems to provide a county-wide Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). The new system will serve the CLEMIS (Courts and Law Enforcement Management Information System) law enforcement community of 105 police departments. Under the contract, Cogent will convert existing records and provide a range of products. Cogent’s AFIS will store palm prints, the web-based archive system will store criminal records on-line and, using BlueCheck, Cogent’s mobile identification handheld device, law enforcement personnel can remotely submit fingerprint searches for real-time identification. • A new convenience store in Florida has become the first retailer in the state to offer a finger scan payment system. Coast to Coast, a family convenience store located in Tampa supplying groceries and fuel, offers the service powered by Pay By Touch. The technology provides customers with faster checkouts and more secure transactions. • West Virginia University’s Student Recreation Centre is to use biometric hand geometry technology provided by Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies. The readers will be used in addition to the card swiping system already in place to control access to the facility. Once registered for the program, recreation centre patrons will no longer use their ID cards to gain admittance. When entering the facility, students enter their WVU identification number into the HandKey’s keypad and place their hand on the platen for approval. According to the centre approximately 30 to 40 percent of students have already signed up to use the system.
3
Copyright Notice This newsletter and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by Elsevier Ltd, and the following terms and conditions apply to their use: Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier Rights & Permissions Department, PO Box 800, Oxford OX5 1DX, UK; tel: +44 (0)1865 843830, fax: +44 (0)1865 853333, e-mail: [email protected]. You may also contact Rights & Permissions directly through Elsevier’s home page (http://www.elsevier.com), selecting first ‘Support and contact’, then ‘Copyright and permission’. In the USA, users may clear permissions and make payments through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA; tel: 978 7508400, fax: +1 978 7504744, and in the UK through the Copyright Licensing Agency Rapid Clearance Service (CLARCS), 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP, UK; tel: +44 (0) 207 436 5931; fax: +44 (0) 207 436 3986. Other countries may have a local reprographic rights agency for payments. Derivative Works Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution. Permission of the publisher is required for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations. Electronic Storage or Usage Permission of the publisher is required to store or use electronically any material contained in this journal, including any article or part of an article. Contact the publisher at the address indicated. Except as outlined above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher. Address permissions requests to: Elsevier Rights & Permissions Department, at the mail, fax and e-mail addresses noted above. Notice No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independent verification of diagnoses and drug dosages should be made. Although all advertising material is expected to conform to ethical (medical) standards, inclusion in this publication does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement of the quality or value of such product or of the claims made of it by its manufacturer.
02265 Printed by Mayfield Press (Oxford) Ltd.
2
Continued from back page... The biometric system, which will expose many passengers to fingerprint technology for the first time, could even make its first official appearance in Heathrow Terminal 1 from next year. International and domestic passenger mingling does not currently happen at Heathrow because there is the risk that passengers could switch boarding cards, so allowing a foreign passenger to enter the UK without having to clear immigration control. Jill Murphy, T5 process solutions manager, T5live, Heathrow Airport Ltd, told Btt that, following extensive trials, they are now looking at a new fingerprint-based biometric system that would allow passengers to mix without the possibility of this sort of boarding pass switch taking place. The system would also allow all passengers to take advantage of the airport’s facilities – and, of course, has the added benefit of generating more customers for Heathrow Airport’s wide-range of shops and restaurants. The roll out of the system follows a comprehensive trial which looked at the feasibility of a range of biometrics. According to Murphy: “We looked at 3D face, fingerprint, palm vein and iris recognition.” Murphy said that the system needs to be greater than 99% accurate and the enrolment phase, which occurs as people enter the departure lounge, should take place within a 10 second time frame. Verification, which occurs when a passenger exits the lounge, has an even tighter requirement of 8 seconds. Live tests on volunteer passengers took place in the premium check in area of Terminal 1 last year. Following that, the system was introduced to the wider domestic passenger market in Terminal 1. After considering factors, such as accuracy, processing time and ease of use, the technology options boiled down to a 3D facial recognition system from A4 Vision and a fingerprint system from Dermalog. Murphy told Btt that fingerprint was subsequently chosen, notably because it is a biometric that will be taken for the next generation of ePassports and for the proposed UK national ID card. The project has had to consider privacy concerns surrounding its system and Murphy claims that the system will sidestep some of the issues under the Data Protection Act. This is because its purpose is not to check who the passengers are when enrolling or verifying their biometric, it is purely verifying that the person entering the departure lounge with a boarding card leaves the lounge with the same boarding card.
A area of concern to Murphy, is the amount of time needed to register the biometric in the first place, as a protracted process could lead to long queues of passengers. However, Murphy believes that there is scope to develop the design of the fingerprint system and the ergonomics of the layout to reduce waiting times. Murphy predicts: “I am confident that the system will perform to meet our requirements.”
acquisition
Viisage snaps up iris recognition leader Fuelled by a US$100 million injection of investment last year, Viisage Technology’s trail of acquisitions marches forward, with its latest purchase – Iridian Technologies – the most high-profile to date. The company announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the privately-held US company for US$35 million in cash. Iridian is best known for the initial development and commercialisation of iris recognition technology, and until recently held a strong patent position in the sector, effectively preventing serious competition. (Some of these patents have since expired and the market can now be seen opening up, although Iridian’s position is still dominant.) Combined with the imminent merger of Viisage with Identix, and the recent acquisition of SecuriMetrics, the move will create a powerhouse in the biometrics industry, with the company able to manufacture a full range of handheld and multi-modal biometric recognition solutions encompassing iris, finger and face. Iridian’s intellectual property portfolio and industry-standard iris recognition algorithm will be combined with SecuriMetrics’s offerings. Meanwhile, current Iridian licensees (including Panasonic and Oki Electric Industry Co.) will continue to have non-exclusive rights to deploy Iridian’s software and related intellectual property in integrated products manufactured by the licensees. Viisage will pay Iridian shareholders US$35 million in cash for the company. However, in parallel with the Iridian transaction, Viisage also secured a US$6.5 million reduction in potential contingency payments to SecuriMetrics (under the terms of Viisage’s February 2006 acquisition of SecuriMetrics), resulting in an effective “net” purchase price for Iridian of US$28.5 million. The acquisition of Iridian is to be funded primarily by proceeds from the initial US$100 million investment into Viisage by L-1 Investment Partners in December 2005. Iridian is
Biometric Technology Today • July/August 2006
NEWS expected to have positive net working capital and be debt free at the time of the close of the transaction. Meanwhile, the company is estimated to generate positive pro forma EBITDA of approximately US$3 million in 2006. Closing of the Iridian transaction is expected in August 2006, subject to various conditions, including Iridian shareholder approval. Iridian’s business operation, currently located in Moorestown, N.J., is expected to be integrated into Identix’ Jersey City, N.J. research facility once the pending Identix merger is consummated. According to Robert LaPenta, Chairman of the Board of Viisage: “With direct access to the IP that underpins the iris recognition market, our business will realize improved margins and cost synergies, as well as significant revenue opportunities. Most importantly, we believe the market will now be primed for accelerated growth as the development of critical services and products required for widespread adoption of iris recognition technologies can proceed ahead unencumbered.” Contact: Doni Fordyce at L-1 Investment Partners, Tel: +1 203 504 1109, Email: [email protected]
epassport
Fingerprint deadline for EU ePassports within three years EU member states have until 28 June 2009 at the latest to start implementing fingerprints in their new ePassports. A three-year countdown began as soon as the European Commission had adopted the second instalment of technical specifications required for the introduction of biometric identifiers into passports and other travel documents. The first instalment had been released in February 2005 and related to storing facial image data on a contactless chip. The specifications say that two fingerprints should be stored on the passport chip, and that these fingerprints are to be protected using “Extended Access Control”, which is an encryption mechanism using Pubic Key Infrastructure (PKI). The EU will be among the first worldwide to implement such a system. Vice-President Franco Frattini, who is the commissioner responsible for freedom, security and justice, commented: “The EU is among the first in the world issuing passports requirements with a high level of protection against unauthorised access by providing ‘Extended Access Control’, whilst at the same time complying with the
Biometric Technology Today • July/August 2006
ePassport history The passing of Council Regulation (EC) 2252/2004 in December 2004 allowed the European Commission to establish the technical specifications necessary for the implementation of the introduction of biometrics into passports and other travel documents with a validity of more than 12 months – except ID cards. The first set of specifications were adopted by the Commission on 28 February 2005 and related to the storage of the facial image of the holder on a contactless chip in the passport. This image is to be protected by “Basic Access Control” which requires the reading of the machine readable zone in the passport in order to open up the chip. The deadline for implementing these specifications is 28 August 2006, which is just under two months earlier than US demands for US visa waiver countries to implement ICAOstandard biometric passports.
recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in order to ensure interoperability.”
speaker verification
ABN AMRO to roll out speaker verification system for telephone banking Up to four million ABN AMRO customers could soon encounter a speaker verification system when accessing the financial institution’s telephone banking service. The system, which will be used to authenticate up to 28 million calls per year, prompts customers to say their account number and a password in order to be verified. The contract to supply the system was awarded to Biometric Security Limited, which acquired the well-known Irish speaker verification company, VoiceVault, in 2005. In the initial stages five suppliers were invited to bid, of which two were selected. ABN AMRO then visited customers of the suppliers in the USA before selecting the VoiceVault system. According to ABN AMRO, 95% of all transactions are now conducted through direct channels (the internet and telephone) and that these direct channels are gaining in popularity. ABN AMRO told Btt, the problem was that many people were forgetting their five digit verification code, or TIN. “We wanted to
application news • The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan has awarded a multi-million dollar contract to Cogent Systems to provide a county-wide Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). The new system will serve the CLEMIS (Courts and Law Enforcement Management Information System) law enforcement community of 105 police departments. Under the contract, Cogent will convert existing records and provide a range of products. Cogent’s AFIS will store palm prints, the web-based archive system will store criminal records on-line and, using BlueCheck, Cogent’s mobile identification handheld device, law enforcement personnel can remotely submit fingerprint searches for real-time identification. • A new convenience store in Florida has become the first retailer in the state to offer a finger scan payment system. Coast to Coast, a family convenience store located in Tampa supplying groceries and fuel, offers the service powered by Pay By Touch. The technology provides customers with faster checkouts and more secure transactions. • West Virginia University’s Student Recreation Centre is to use biometric hand geometry technology provided by Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies. The readers will be used in addition to the card swiping system already in place to control access to the facility. Once registered for the program, recreation centre patrons will no longer use their ID cards to gain admittance. When entering the facility, students enter their WVU identification number into the HandKey’s keypad and place their hand on the platen for approval. According to the centre approximately 30 to 40 percent of students have already signed up to use the system.
3