FBI biometrics facility, border security, heartbeat and fingerprint authentication most popular news this week

Here’s a recap of the most popular biometrics industry news that appeared on BiometricUpdate.com this past week.

FBI opens biometrics facility in Clarksburg

One of the week’s top stories came from the FBI, which opened a new four-story, 360,000-square-foot biometrics technology center on August 11 at the agency’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division campus in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

FireEye uncovers flaw in Android fingerprint smartphones

In another top story this week, FireEye have developed a new spoofing method for acquiring fingerprints from Android smartphone models embedded with biometric sensors such as the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One Max.

Lumia smartphones to feature iris and facial recognition

In continuing with news related to biometric-enabled Android smartphones, Microsoft is reportedly preparing to release two new Lumia smartphone models that will feature iris and facial recognition capabilities, as early as October.

Border control

One of the more popular applications of biometrics is in border control, and the number of stories related to biometric integration in border technologies truly reflected this.

In what has felt like a never-ending bidding process, hindered by multiple procurement delays, the Department of Homeland Security has finally awarded the $47 million professional contract for biometric support to BAE Systems.

The Department of Homeland Security has updated its visa waiver program with stricter air travel requirements on foreign governments including the mandatory use of biometric passports.

Turning our attention to the other side of the world, the Sri Lankan government announced it has begun capturing the fingerprint data of applicants for biometric passports.

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport is currently testing Advanced Optical Systems’ (AOS) fingerprint sensor device in an effort to expedite the security process for travellers.

Finally, the Australian Senate has passed new legislation which would allow Immigration and Border Protection officials to collect the biometric data of children as young as 10 without acquiring parental consent.

Fingerprints

Fingerprinting proved to be a popular topic this week, starting with the New York Yankees’ announcement that the Major League Baseball team has partnered with Clear to provide biometric fingerprint identity technology for an expedited-access entry points at Yankee Stadium.

Synaptics Inc. has collaborated with Microsoft to provide biometric fingerprint authentication and TouchPad technologies on Windows 10.

Finally, Next Biometrics Group ASA partnered with iWallet Corporation to incorporate Next Biometrics’ fingerprint imaging sensor modules into iWallet’s portfolio of products, which feature its patented BIO-BLU Biometric Bluetooth smart locking technology.

Wearables

In the first of two wearables-related stories this week, the Nymi Band, a wearable authentication device that uses electrocardiogram technology, has been used to make the world’s first credit card payment at a cash register verified by the user’s unique heartbeat.

Next up, Japan’s National Institute of Informatics announced it has developed a pair of eyeglasses that enables users to protect their privacy by disabling facial-recognition systems integrated in cameras.

The FIDO Alliance

This week brought along two stories relating to efforts by The Fido (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance. First, Synaptics Inc. announced that four of its Natural ID fingerprint solutions are now FIDO certified by the FIDO Alliance, including VFS7500S (Match-in-Sensor), VFS7500 (Match-on-Host), FS4200 (Match-on-Host), and VFS6100 (Match-on-Host).

Finally, the FIDO Alliance announced there are 62 FIDO Certified products after the second round of FIDO Alliance testing of products for compliance to the FIDO 1.0 specifications.

Article Topics

Advanced Optical Systems  |  Android  |  Australia  |  BAE Systems  |  biometrics  |  CLEAR  |  DHS  |  FBI  |  FIDO Alliance  |  Microsoft  |  Next Biometrics  |  Nymi  |  Sri Lanka  |  Synaptics