The rollout of biometric identification systems with remote fever detection continues

The wave of announcements by biometrics companies adapting and upgrading their systems with facial recognition technology and temperature detectors to deliver new capabilities that respond to the rules enforced due to the covonavirus pandemic continues, with three businesses releasing new systems for access control.

Pangea adds thermal imaging cameras to biometric access control system

Pangea has added thermal imaging cameras to its biometric access control and incident management solution to screen people when entering buildings to detect potential COVID-19 cases, the company announced.

The upgraded technology, which includes biometric authentication, thermal imaging and incident management systems, has been introduced in a municipal government system and a geriatric medical center in Israel, and in two enterprises in the U.S. and the Netherlands. Its capability of scanning thousands of people makes it scalable for large organizations.

“Our Geriatric Hospital serves residents with a high risk of contracting COVID-19,” said Deborah Goldberg, Head Nurse, Beit Hadar Geriatric Medical Center, in a prepared statement. “The installation of the Pangea Bio-Thermal Imaging Access Control solution gives us and our residents another solution for protection against the virus in these troublesome times.”

Thermal Imaging Access Control technology was previously used in Asia in 2002 during the SARS outbreak, because it can screen the temperature of large numbers of people at the same time without creating queues.

“The outbreak of COVID-19 has changed the world and is expected to have a significant impact on our daily lives, today and in the future,” says Rafi Kaminer, CEO and founder of Pangea, in the statement. “We think government and enterprise organizations need to take on a new ‘social role and responsibility’ to keep people safe from potential COVID-19 individuals who may infect others. In Israel, only Pangea has the expertise and technology to help public and private sector organizations roll out an automated bio-thermal imaging solution as part of our broader safety and security infrastructure solution for any type of facility, at any scale, anywhere in the world.”

The company notes that thermal imaging checks and biometrics at scale, as they have been used in South Korea’s COVID-19 containment efforts, are considered by experts to be a key to outbreak control.

With more than 25 years of experience in large-scale digital identity and security projects, Pangea says automated thermal imaging technology seemed the next logical step. The technology is contactless, non-intrusive, and can be deployed in office buildings, shopping malls, educational campuses, sports arenas and cultural centers. Pangea’s digital heat sensors can be embedded in digital security mechanisms such as biometric facial recognition to boost security infrastructures.

Last month, Pangea secured a deal with the Madagascan government, as it increases citizen surveillance measures.

Pangea acquired biometrics company NIP Global in 2018 for an estimated $30 million.

Everis adds fever detection to biometric identity system

everis Aerospace, Defense and Security (everis ADS) has upgraded its biometric identity solutions with temperature control system integration in its kiosks, facepods, and biometric and document identification totems, and also in its ABC (Automated Border Control) gates, the company announced.

By adding two kinds of contactless body temperature control based on thermographic devices, facial recognition technology does not require any type of effort from the person screened. The system is meant for deployment at airport registration kiosks or ABC gates to speed up passenger evaluation. Additionally, a wrist temperature detector requires the person to move their hand around the sensor, but provides higher accuracy, according to everis ADS.

everis ADS has also developed a secure health certificate using high-density QR codes that health or government agencies can use to issue secure and self-contained health certificates.

“The objective is to continue advancing in our commitment to paperless biometric identification and registration systems, integrating technologies and systems that also help prevent and fight against COVID-19 or other possible diseases,” said David Antonio Pérez Herrero, Director of the Identity Area of everis ADS, in a prepared statement. “These are especially useful technologies in the context of passenger control, but they can also be integrated in other fields, such as access to public or private buildings or business establishments.”

Currently there are over 200 ABC systems installed at the Spanish airports of Alicante, Barcelona, Mallorca and Menorca. At Menorca airport, everis ADS launched the country’s first self-boarding pilot project. This year, everis ADS entered a partnership with dormakaba to launch a self-boarding pilot system at the Airport of Linate in Milan for passengers to register through a mobile app or kiosk, and access security and board the plane without showing ID or a boarding pass.

Brazilian startups roll out eye temperature screener with facial recognition

Brazilian startups Hoobox and Radsquare have released the AI-enabled Fevver, a technology currently being rolled out at Albert Einstein Jewish Hospital in São Paulo to prevent coronavirus transmission by automatically taking people’s temperature at the front desk, writes EurekAlert.

The screening is performed by a computer vision system that is equipped with biometric facial recognition and a thermal camera. If fever is detected, the system sends a notification to a smartphone and the person will be isolated by hospital staff.

“We knew that if we combined the technologies developed by us, we’d be able to detect fever with a high degree of accuracy,” Paulo Gurgel Pinheiro, CEO of Hoobox, told the publication.

To detect fever, the system uses facial recognition to analyze the face and measure eye corner temperature with using infrared energy-detection technology developed by Radsquare.

“Tear ducts have no skin covering and relatively stable moisture levels. In vascular terms, they’re very close to the brain, which controls body temperature. All this makes them ideal for the purposes of measuring temperature by thermography,” Felipe Brunetto, Tancredi, founder and CSO of Radsquare told EurekAlert.

Pleased with the results, the hospital has extended deployment to other parts of the hospital.

Article Topics

access control  |  airports  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  Everis  |  facial recognition  |  fever detection  |  Pangea  |  thermal