Indian military-backed startup presents dual face and gait biometric system

India’s defense, law enforcement and other agencies may soon have a new authentication system that combines facial recognition with gait analysis.

The software solution is named Divya Drishti and was created by Ingenious Research Solutions, a startup backed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), an agency tasked with military research and development.

The company, which is based in Noida in the state of Uttar Pradesh, says that its solution enhances the accuracy of identification thanks to its dual approach. Divya Drishti, which means “divine sight” in Sanskrit, is aimed at defense, law enforcement, corporate and public infrastructure organizations.

The startup’s founder Shivani Verma is a winner of the Dare to Dream 2.0, a pan-Indian contest innovation competition organized by DRDO. The agency has been making headway into AI research by collaborating with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar on AI-driven surveillance projects, according to Indian tech news outlet Medianama. The Indian army also announced in March that it’s preparing an AI roadmap for the next 20 to 25 years.

The development of Divya Drishti under the Technology Development Fund (TDF) is a successful example of DRDO’s ability to promote startups in the defense and aerospace industry to achieve the vision of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” – a self-reliant India, DRDO’s secretary Samir V Kamat says in a release.

Aside from the authentication system, Ingenious Research Solutions has also developed a facial recognition system called Divya Netra as well as an unmanned ground vehicle, a satellite image analysis system, a drone detection and tracking system and other products.

DRDO backed the development of a facial recognition system to identify people despite occlusions like face masks, as revealed in 2022.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  facial recognition  |  gait recognition  |  India  |  Ingenious Research Solutions  |  law enforcement