Biometrics and border management, voice, fingerprint and facial recognition trending this week

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

Border management

The International Biometrics + Identity Association (IBIA) released a new white paper titled “Closing the Loop: Completing Biometric U.S. Entry-Exit” that outlines the growing need for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to partner with the biometrics industry and fulfil its longstanding mandate for biometric exit. The paper discusses arguments against biometric exit and shows how common assumptions about costs and logistics of a biometric entry-exit system are out of date and misleading.

The United State’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, recently commented that the U.S. is looking for much more information sharing from Canadian officials to better protect both countries against terrorism. “We have to do it carefully, we have to do it with very clear understandings and protocols,” said Rice. “Our ability to share information and to exchange biometrics information is vital to both sides.”

DERMALOG announced last week that it has been providing fingerprint scanners for refugee registration in Germany. The registration process uses a new biometric authentication system that is integrated with DERMALOG’s LF10 scanner, which scans and records all ten fingerprints of the individual. The system will gradually be introduced nationwide by mid-2016. The scanners were on display this past week at CeBIT in Hanover.

Fingerprint technology

id3 Technologies announced this past week that its fingerprint on-card comparison technology has achieved the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) MINEX III compliance. According to the company, the biometric on-card comparison technology, also known as “match-on-card”, provides better security and privacy for end-users by integrating both the storage and matching subsystems into a secure integrated circuit chip.

Integrated Biometrics has released its new Kojak FAP 60 Appendix F Certified ten print and roll live scanner. Kojak can capture ten fingerprints in ten seconds or less and runs off of a laptop, tablet or mobile phone without an additional power source for hours, faciliating fast enrollment and identity verification of large groups of people in any environment. The company says the new solution is currently being integrated into an unattended kiosk-based identity management program for border security at air and sea ports.

The growing need to deliver identity verification and access control in areas of high activity, along with an increasing emphasis on health and hygiene, will drive the adoption of contactless biometrics solutions. According to Guillaume Lefevre, VP of sales and market development for Morpho’s access control and OEM division, contactless biometric solutions such as the new MorphoWave contactless fingerprint scanner are on the verge of monopolizing new biometrics implementations.

Voice biometrics

VoiceIt Technologies is now offering a plug-in for the Avaya Aura Orchestration Designer, which enables all VoiceIt developers to quickly embed voice biometrics authentication. The Avaya VOIP platform is currently used by organizations at over one million locations around the world, in applications ranging from banking to apartment security.

TalkTalk has selected voice biometrics technology by Nuance Communications to improve the customer experience in its automated phone system. The biometric authentication solution is being integrated with TalkTalk’s interactive voice response system. TalkTalk is the first telecom company in the UK to leverage voice biometrics for a more seamless and secure path to customer service and support.

Facial recognition

UK Biometrics Commissioner Alastair R. MacGregor recently released his second annual report and warned the Home Office that its delays in addressing police use of facial recognition technology on innocent people’s custody photographs risks inviting a legal challenge. While the commissioner’s role only extends to DNA and fingerprint profiles, MacGregor has been tracking facial biometrics, accepting the view of a parliamentary committee that the currently unregulated area of police use of facial recognition technology requires urgent action.

Facebook recently urged a California federal judge to deny a request to conduct more discovery in a lawsuit that alleges the company’s facial recognition and tagging features violate the Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The Illinois statute requires companies that gather biometric data to notify people about the practice before collecting data, and to publish a schedule for destroying the information.

Payments technology

The FIDO Alliance is hosting an open seminar later this month to discuss key trends in strong authentication for the financial services community and beyond. Experts from eBay, Google and Aetna will describe FIDO’s approach to simpler, stronger authentication. The seminar will be held on March 31, 2016, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the New York City Marriott Downtown. The seminar is free and open to all, including media, but registration is required.

Amazon has filed a patent application titled “Image Analysis for User Authentication”, revealing the ecommerce giant’s plans to launch a payment option that will allow consumers to authenticate purchases with a photo or video of themselves. Built-in security features, like prompting the user to perform certain actions, motions, or gestures, such as to smile, blink, or tilt his or her head, prevent the chance of someone falsely authenticating a purchase using a photo of the account holder.

SmartMetric is moving ahead with licensing and operational testing of its biometric payment card with an unnamed global payments network. SmartMetric’s biometric payments card fits a fully functional fingerprint reader inside an EMV smart card. Company CEO and President Chaya Hendrick commented: “This is a major step forward in bringing our biometric card to market as we continue to work in cooperation with the existing payments card networks, infrastructure and card issuers.”

Airport applications

This past week at the Passenger Terminal EXPO, SITA revealed Smart Path, a solution that lets passengers move through an airport and board aircraft using biometrics to verify their identity instead of having to present a boarding pass, a passport or travel documents. SITA says the solution can be easily integrated into existing airport infrastructure and airline systems, including standard common-use, self-service equipment, which would make rapid deployment easy and cost-effective.

Changi Airport in Singapore has selected a biometric airport control system by Morpho (Safran) that includes self-bag drop, integrated border clearance and self-boarding gates to increase the airport’s operating efficiency and improve the passenger travel experience. The solution is based on the MorphoPass Biometric Applicant Management System and MorphoWay automated gates. It will be the first time that facial recognition technology will be used at Changi and will eliminate the need for manual identity verification by staff.

Elections

Smartmatic’s CEO Antonio Mugica has expressed his support for President Obama’s call to action to make online voting, or e-voting, a reality in the United States. Mugica says Obama’s call for change is backed by company research. A recent survey of registered US voters revealed that 81% of respondents want changes to the current US voting system and more than 50% agreed that many people do not vote because the voting process is time-consuming and inefficient.

Market reports

ABI Research published a new market analyst report that forecasts the global biometrics market will exceed $30 billion by 2021, representing a 118% increase from 2015. This latest biometrics report is a part of ABI Research’s Biometric Technologies and Applications Service, which includes research reports, market data, insights, and competitive assessments.

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Article Topics

ABI Research  |  Alastair MacGregor  |  Amazon  |  biometrics  |  DERMALOG  |  DHS  |  Facebook  |  FIDO Alliance  |  IBIA  |  id3 Technologies  |  Integrated Biometrics  |  morpho  |  MorphoWave  |  Nuance Communications  |  SITA  |  Smartmatic  |  SmartMetric  |  Talk Talk  |  VoiceIt