Final demo of EU’s D4FLY spots ID fraud

European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex has revealed its participation in the final demonstration of the D4FLY biometric project at the end of June, under a research and innovation initiative funded by the EU Horizon 2020 program.

Executives at Veridos, the project coordinator, shared the first results of the biometric border-crossing initiative last May. An update arrived Monday.

Frontex says in the announcement that agency officials gave an overview of techniques developed through the initiative to improve verification technologies and augment systems in place to counter emerging threats in document and identity fraud.

These included forged documents, impostor fraud and morphed faces, particularly at manual and highly automated border crossing points.

The D4FLY systems were tested in two scenarios: One was an automated border post and the other a coach in which border guards were verifying identities in a crowded, confined space.

“The demonstration participants pre-enrolled using a specifically designed kiosk and then passed through a biometric corridor,” Frontex wrote.

“During the enrolment, the passport was scanned by the kiosk, and different cameras captured biometric features,” using 2D, 3D and thermal face scans as well as iris and somatotype (body shape) features.

Frontex further explained that all encrypted reference data was stored in a database and that a phone was used as a “carrier of identity” while passing through the corridor.

“The sensors installed in the corridor area captured participants’ biometrics, compared them with those stored in the database and either confirmed or rejected the border crossing to a border guard carrying a tablet as border check equipment,” according to the post.

In the coach scenario identity verification is performed on smartphones by border guards.

In the tests, Frontex said, the biometric systems spotted two types of masks and contact lenses with fake iris biometrics, as well as a passport with a morphed photograph.

The agency confirmed it would continue to follow the project’s developments. The announcement comes two months after Frontex called on developers to look at software tools designed to manually compare biometric data.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  border security  |  D4FLY  |  document verification  |  Europe  |  face biometrics  |  face morphing  |  fraud prevention  |  Frontex  |  identity verification  |  pilot project  |  research and development