USAF considers adding face biometrics to plate reading at base

The U.S. Air Force wants to add facial recognition in a proof of concept to an already partially automated entry gate at its Scott base in the state of Illinois.

The 375th Contracting Squadron is seeking potential private-sector software developers to create a facial recognition reader to a vehicle-access lane into the air base. The Air Force also wants the contractor to supply hardware that can work in the local environment.

The lane already has a plate reader, but officials want more security and faster processing at Shiloh, the gate in question. Vehicles will stop while the driver and plates are scanned.

Although the government is not requiring a system that combines plate and face biometric scanning, officers would not mind seeing such an attempt.

The deadline is January 20 and only U.S.-based companies are eligible. Applicants should have algorithms that rank in the top five globally both in verification and authentication, against a database of up to 10,0000 images, by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The Air Force is mandating full-stack facial recognition software that can be deployed on edge devices.

Officials also want the proof to operate in a dual-factor access control environment.

The Air Force increased its funding to Paravision to develop a biometric access control solution at a separate facility last year.

Article Topics

access control  |  biometrics  |  face biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  military  |  NIST  |  U.S. Air Force