Biometrics launch for gumshoes and robot restaurants

The developments in biometrics that drew readers’ attention this week are split between traditional, established applications and innovative, even futuristic ones. Thales has launched a new fingerprint forensic algorithm, a Toppan subsidiary has a contract to make biometric passports, while on the other end of the spectrum, PopID biometrics have been deployed to a new kind of restaurant, and Worldcoin has added selfie biometrics to its three-level digital ID. A series of policy advances by the EU relating to mDLs, digital wallets and AI also made headlines this week.

Top biometrics news of the week

The EU Council has proposed changes to legislation in development that would provide a legal basis for issuing mobile driver’s licenses for storage in European Digital Identity Wallets. The amendments would make the mDLs equal to physical driver’s licenses, and also technically align them with eIDAS 2.0 regulations.

A draft legal framework for the EUDIW has been approved by an EU Parliamentary committee in the meanwhile, as part of eIDAS 2.0. The framework is based on principles of security, privacy, interoperability, usability and availability, allowing people to access public and private services while keeping control over their data.

Negotiations over the EU’s long-awaited AI Act concluded successfully with a provisional agreement that will place conditions on the use of remote public biometrics by police and ban certain automated categorization systems based on biometric data. Some business groups say the Act will impose disproportionate burdens on companies, while some lawmakers and rights advocates wanted stronger restrictions.

Mobbeel reviews the rules introduced by the AI Act and the penalties for breaking them in a blog post, along with the implications for the company, and by extension many biometrics providers.

The planned timeline for Malaysia’s role-out of a national digital ID system has been unveiled. It includes the launch of full registration operations in March of 2024, and public availability beginning in July. Government officials have also begun public awareness efforts, and government-owned system integrator Mimos will open an information counter to push back against misinformation.

A trio of researchers affiliated with the University of Technology Sydney including a former Australian Human Rights Commissioner have proposed a set of guardrails for New South Wales’ digital ID system. Fostering public trust in face biometrics and liveness detection is one of their report’s top take-aways, along with emphasis on data privacy and security.

Ethiopia has contracted a joint-venture subsidiary of Toppan to make its biometric passports in-country, and is reportedly about to scale up the network producing and distributing biometric ID cards for the country’s Fayda ID program. Officials hope the new passports will improve security in the troubled country.

A new latent fingerprint biometrics matching algorithm has been developed by Thales and assessed by NIST. The algorithm scored strong accuracy marks in NIST’s ELFT, and Thales says it can save forensic investigators time on reviews, while taking less time and power than competitors’ latent print matchers.

Two patent applications from Google covering liveness detection techniques for both fingerprints and voice biometrics have been published by the USPTO. The fingerprint liveness method involves different strengths and colors of light being emitted by a screen, and the print reflection analyzed. The voice liveness method involves training a model to spot synthetic voice data, and sending extracted features to the model for analysis.

A fully autonomous restaurant is opening in California with face biometric payments from PopID and robot cooks. CaliExpress by Flippy sells burgers, fries, and according to the robot-maker the quality, consistency, and speed of service will benefit from complete automation.

Worldcoin has announced a major update to its ecosystem, which includes three tiers of assurance for its digital ID, the strongest of which is secured with selfie biometrics. World ID 2.0 also moves the platform to a “Personal Custody’ model, and increases support for OIDC and OAuth, among other changes.

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Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  facial recognition  |  identity verification  |  week in review