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Biometrics cycle from innovations to scale-up opportunities

Biometrics cycle from innovations to scale-up opportunities
 

Biometrics integrations range from the experimental to the everyday in the most-read articles of the week on Biometric Update. Yesterday’s novelties are todays scale-ups, from boundary-pushing projects with consumer electronics, contactless fingerprints and ChatGPT to expanding airport deployments, CCTV networks and a law enforcement RFI. Of course, not all ideas are winners. We hear from leaders of PimEyes, Sindh Safe City Project Karachi and the IBIA, along with comments from a FaceTec exec, among the week’s top stories, to help sort the progress from the problematic.

Top biometrics news of the week

A pair of American university students have integrated PimEyes’ facial recognition service with Meta’s smart glasses for what they describe as a demonstration of how widely available technology can be used to violate people’s privacy. PimEyes Director Giorgi Gobronidze told Biometric Update accuses them of providing a blueprint for malicious actors and says his platform is blocking the access of accounts that use it in this way.

Foreign residents and visitors to India will be able to use Digi Yatra next year to pass through airport processes with face biometrics, starting with a pilot project planned for June. Digi Yatra is also going live at more airports, and SITA, NEC, Vision-Box and parent Amadeus, Idemia and Thales are all positioned to compete for contracts as the program expands.

A team of researchers the Idiap Research Institute, Mizani Research Institute and NTNU delved into the biometrics capabilities of ChatGPT, and found that it is considerably accurate for facial recognition and gender classification, though a little less accurate for age estimation. The research indicates the safeguards of large language models can be bypassed to make them vulnerable to disclosing sensitive information.

Karachi is rolling out a Safe City Project with real-time facial recognition and vehicle identification supplied by Hikvision. Sindh Safe City Project Karachi DG Asif Aijaz Shaikh tells Biometric Update in an exclusive interview that the system also includes object detection and tracking, anomaly and behavior detection and crowd monitoring capabilities for proactive monitoring and fast incident response.

Nigeria is standing up a contactless fingerprint biometrics capture capability for online passport renewals, through local technology providers Iris Smart and Newworks. The NIS is planning for a launch next April of the system, which also collects face biometrics, first with Nigeria’s diaspora, as it continues its reforms to ease passport issuance. Tech5 Chief Strategy Officer Rob Haslem says in a LinkedIn post that his company believes the implementation is a world’s first.

Ethiopia is enrolling people in the capital Addis Ababa for the national digital ID in a month-long campaign. NIDP is also enlisting support from Ethio Telecom in its drive to get to 90 million registered for Fadya by 2030, a goal with challenges outlined by Laxton in a recent case study.

An evaluation of identity verification systems with selfie biometrics by the U.S. GSA had some significant failings, according to FaceTec SVP for North America Jay Meier. The agency tested five of TransUnion, Socure, Jumio, LexisNexis, Incode and red violet, but Meier points out that they mostly outsource the biometric function and all use 2D imaging.

A UK police force responsible for trafficking, cyber and financial crimes is seeking information ahead of a possible tender for facial recognition software. The agency is interested in NIST or NPL-tested software than can perform 1:1, 1:many and many:many matching. The use of facial recognition by Met Police, meanwhile, has skyrocketed this year.

Between the policy proposals being presented and the fear of voter eligibility problems in the upcoming U.S. elections, the nation could have an opportunity to advance social dialogue, if not legislation, for digital identity. But IBIA Managing Director Robert Tappan cautions that prospects for federal action on digital ID is probably dependent on the future emergence of leadership from somewhere within government.

Bodies like the G7 and G20 are charging ahead with digital public infrastructure investments, and Google is working with India on a turnkey “DPI in a Box” software suite. India estimates its DPI is already returning annual value equivalent to 1 percent of its GDP in savings.

Please let us know about any editorials, podcasts or other content we should pass along to the people in biometrics and the digital identity community through the comments below or social media.

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