NEC launches fused face and iris biometrics system for on-the-move authentication

A new multimodal technology from NEC can identify people in motion with face and iris biometrics. The technology authenticates people with high accuracy whether indoors or outdoors, enabling hand-free identity verification and strong security in high-throughput scenarios.

While NEC does not mention airport applications specifically in the announcement, it is an obvious area for potential application, between the prominent place of the company in the aviation security industry and the trend in that sector towards on-the-move passenger verification.

The hardware needed consists of a compact camera, infrared light, a processing unit and a display, and can be installed with existing entrances and gates, NEC says.

Proof-of-concept trials are launching with NEC customers this year, with the aim of completing production implementations in 2027.

NEC refers to its consistent high marks for accuracy in NIST evaluations of facial recognition and iris biometrics, and says that fusing the two allows for instant identification of subjects from a database of 100 million while they are walking at up to six kilometers per hour (3.7 mph). It works up to three meters away, the company says.

The technology is built with NEC’s foundation model learning, which self-teaches tolerance to adverse conditions for capturing biometric features, like blurring caused by motion, people looking away or wearing glasses.

The company launched a new technology for multimodal face and iris biometrics with a single, low-resolution image in late-2024, months after introducing a facial recognition system for identifying multiple people in motion at the same time.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  contactless biometrics  |  face biometrics  |  iris biometrics  |  multimodal biometrics  |  NEC  |  on-the-move