Pennsylvania to use Animetrics facial recognition system

The Pennsylvania Justice Network (JNET) has selected Animetrics, a leading developer of advanced 3-D facial recognition and identity management solutions, to supply it with quality facial recognition and forensic analysis tools to assist the state’s police, sheriffs and forensic analysts identify images of witnesses and suspects from surveillance video and photos.

“JNET’s Facial Recognition System has already proven to be a powerful and highly effective investigative tool for Pennsylvania law enforcement since its deployment earlier this year,” said David Naisby, Executive Director of Pennsylvania’s JNET. “Animetrics’ facial biometric technology provides critical capabilities within JFRS to identify suspects from surveillance video, enabling police to analyze, compare and ultimately resolve the identity of an individual from a facial image caught on camera. Before ForensicaGPS, most of the poor quality imagery from video of crime scenes was unusable. Now the JFRS is able to go back and reopen cold cases, gathering new evidence.”

In Pennsylvania, nearly 40,000 local, state and federal law enforcement and criminal justice professionals utilize JNET’s secure Web site to access public safety and criminal justice information from local, state and federal data sources during investigations.

The Pennsylvania Justice Network promotes safer communities throughout the state by providing justice information to all of Pennsylvania’s public safety partners in a secure and timely manner.

Since the deployment of its facial recognition system within JNET, more than 800 law enforcement professionals from more than 500 agencies have been or will be trained to use the Web-based facial biometric system.

“JNET’s Facial Recognition System delivers new efficiencies to the criminal investigation process,” said Paul Schuepp, Animetrics president and chief executive officer. “We are pleased by the initial success of the project and look forward to working with the Pennsylvania law enforcement community to integrate facial biometric technology further into their crime fighting efforts.”

JNET earned a 21st Century Achievement Award in June 2012 from IDG’s Computerworld Honors Program for the deployment of its facial recognition system and its effectiveness fighting crime. The addition of Animetrics technology to the system marks the first deployment of the firm’s ForensicaGPS product in the U.S. law enforcement market. In Europe, the facial identification and forensic analysis application is being used by Zurich Forensic Police Department in Switzerland. In the Middle East, police departments in Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia are also deploying ForensicaGPS.

ForensicaGPS analyzes and compares up to five images of a suspect, allowing for more accurate identity matching. It provides metric analysis of face similarity scoring, as well as 2-D or 3-D visualizations of facial structure, geometry and texture. The software’s precise comparisons include identifying features such as scars, moles and tattoos, along with distance measurements between facial features. Animetrics’ FACEngine technology is the algorithm engine powering all of the company’s products. This integrated technology renders accurate and useful 3-D avatars from 2-D images and video, even if the original facial image is distorted, obscured or not straight on.

Article Topics

Animetrics  |  cameras  |  facial recognition  |  identity management  |  law enforcement  |  surveillance