Bundesdruckerei, secunet and Cognitec to set up facial recognition eGates in Germany

Bundesdruckerei, secunet and Cognitec are set to begin work on the EasyPASS project, following a fresh contract award by the German Border Police.

“Cognitec has developed pioneering face recognition technology for border control solutions since the inception of our company. We are proud to bring another innovation to this market and to such an important project in Germany,” Alfredo Herrera, Managing Director of Cognitec said. “We also look forward to continuing a successful partnership with secunet and Bundesdruckerei.”

According to the companies, the EasyPASS project will equip passport control areas at all major German airports with eGates and will provide travelers with ePassports the option to pass through automatic passports checks. Cognitec’s role in this project is related to facial recognition hardware and software to be integrated into the gates.

Some of Germany’s busiest airports will be equipped with the eGates by the end of 2014.

“The expertise offered by Bundesdruckerei and secunet was the key factor for winning the pan-European tender,” Ulrich Hamann, CEO of Bundesdruckerei GmbH said. “Together, we will install the world’s most innovative eGate system in Germany and will also set international standards in doing so.”

Cognitec’s facial recognition captures images of passengers and then compares the image to passports photos to verify identity. Cognitec says the system fully complies with the guidelines published by the European Border Police.

Also, reported in Planet Biometrics, this contract is among the largest of its kind in Europe.

Reported previously, Cognitec’s FaceVACS facial recognition SDK is now available for Android development. According to the company, the SDK contains functionality for finding human faces and eyes in images, tracking faces in video streams and for analyzing and checking face characteristics.

Article Topics

airport biometrics  |  Cognitec  |  eGates  |  facial recognition  |  immigration