Idemia reveals Armenia JV details, Saudi Arabia MoU, WVU biometrics research lab

Idemia is busily establishing new partnerships to develop biometrics for national projects, from Armenia to Saudi Arabia, and to further research into biometrics, in the United States.

A Memorandum of Understanding signed with Saudi Arabia’s Technology Control Company (TCC) sets out a plan to collaborate on biometric identification solutions at land, air and sea borders for improved security, efficiency and passenger experience. It also sets the terms for joint work on smart city initiatives and local capacity-building related to biometrics and digital identity.

“We are excited to expand our partnership with TCC to bring our world-class biometric and digital identity solutions that work to positively impact the experiences of travelers across the globe to Saudi Arabia,” states Gaurav Gupta, SVP and global head of sales, travel and transport for Idemia Public Security. “This collaboration underscores our commitment to enhancing the security and efficiency of the Kingdom’s travel, transportation, and smart city infrastructure, while also supporting the Saudi Vision 2030.”

Armenia consortium details revealed

The joint venture formed by Idemia and partner ACI Technology S.à.rl to deliver biometric passports and ID cards to Armenia is called CJSC HAYPASS, and it plans to open offices with modern equipment across the country to support the rollout next year, Arka News reports.

The partners will also work together to roll out new solutions for biometric data capturing and build up the country’s IT infrastructure, according to the report. The consortium won the contract a month ago.

Another report from Arka News specifies that the plan is to open 23 offices. Applications can be made online, however.

With the introduction of biometric passports to Armenia, the cost is rising from 1,000 drams (approximately US$2.57) to 25,000 drams ($64.19).

Armenia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs noted that “the presence of a viable and modernized biometric system is a prerequisite for the process” of visa liberalization in line with commitments made to the EU.

American research collaborations

Idemia National Security Solutions, the group’s business unit focussing on U.S. national security interests, is launching a new stateside biometrics research facility.

The Idemia NSS Biometrics Lab is located at the West Virginia University (WVU) Advanced Engineering Research Building in Morgantown. It is dedicated to advancing biometrics, identity and access control technologies. The facility officially opened on Friday.

The new lab compliments the active engagement of Idemia in independent testing by American public sector bodies, like NIST and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T).

Idemia Public Security CTO Vincent Bouatou discussed the importance of these evaluations to ensure the accuracy, fairness, reliability and ethical performance of biometric technologies in a post to the company website.

Bouatou points out that Idemia has received high scores in several of these benchmarks, including the Face Recognition Technology Evaluation (FRTE), the Proprietary Fingerprint Template (PFT) and Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies (ELFT) tests. He also argues that NIST’s Face in Video Evaluation (FIVE) is important for understanding the unique challenges that accompany biometrics processing in videos.

Article Topics

Armenia  |  biometrics  |  biometrics research  |  digital ID  |  IDEMIA  |  Idemia NSS  |  Saudi Arabia  |  United States  |  Vision 2030  |  West Virginia