4

against images stored in Queensland Transport’s database. Enrolment systems are being provided by Daon.

The contract was originally given to Unisys in April 2009 and the project to fully convert to the new licences is expected to take another four years.

Australia’s passport service is to get over AUS$100m to upgrade its IT, which will include a biometric visa system. Within the next year, visa applicants from 10 countries will be required to provide fingerprint and facial images. The Australian Government will not only match these against its own databases but also those of other governments.

The South Australian Government is considering the deployment of biometric ID systems across all 14 prisons run by its Department for Correctional Services. A trial is planned for the Adelaide Remand Centre: if that’s successful, further trials will be mounted at two prisons. The aim is to provide secure ID verification for all those entering, leaving or moving around the facilities – staff, inmates and visitors.

Separate systems are envisaged for enrol-ment, entry to the facilities and exit. Dual iris scans, facial recognition and hand scanning are all under consideration. Data will be shared between facilities and may be stored for up to 25 years.

The project is following the example set by New South Wales, which has been using iris scanning and fingerprinting to identify visitors at its 32 prisons.

Biometric ID for job guarantee scheme

India’s Aadhaar (UID) project has spawned another spin-off, with plans

to issue biometric ID cards for people in rural areas receiving help under a job creation scheme.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a government scheme that guarantees a minimum of 100 days work to adults willing to provide unskilled labour on public projects. But there have been concerns over so-called ‘fund leak-ages’, fake muster rolls and delays in making payments – with the latter particularly damag-ing to the poorer members of rural societies for whom the scheme was conceived.

India’s rural development ministry plans to issue biometric ID cards that are compatible with the standards developed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The

data collected under this plan will be shared with UIDAI.

The system will integrate with current web-based systems that track attendance. According to a senior ministry official, the new biometrics cards and supporting IT systems, “will cover the entire MGNREGA process right from the registration, demand of work, issue of receipt, allocation of work up to payment of wages. This will help us reduce the delays and ensure timely payments.”

The State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) says that by the end of July it expects to issue over 1.4m biometric smart cards, which are used by customers for cash withdrawal and other serv-ices requiring ID authentication. The project is being managed by Tata Consultancy Services with HCL Technologies and Coromandel Infotech.

New research focuses on terrorists

Experts at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) – a

collaboration involving the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University and North Carolina State University – is working with Cambridge Intelligent Systems (CIS) on improving the biometric systems used to track and identify suspected terror-ists as they enter and leave the US.

CIS, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, specialises in intelligent image analysis technologies. The project with RENCI is funded by the Institute for Homeland Security Solutions (IHSS), a collaboration based in the state’s Research Triangle and involving RTI International, local universities and the North Carolina Military Foundation.

IHSS is providing $200,000 in funding to RENCI and CIS to research next-generation biometric systems that can reliably identify people of interest under challenging, real-world conditions.

“Biometric technologies currently used by the DHS and others operate very well with stationary, co-operative subjects in a controlled environment,” says Charles Schmitt, director of RENCI’s informatics division and principal investigator for the project. “Fingerprint, iris, and face recognition all have very high recogni-tion rates under these conditions, but the big unsolved problem is how to identify people in surveillance-like video. Identifying a per-son who is moving, unco-operative or a long distance from the surveillance system is a very

Biometric Technology Today June 2010

P R O D U C T N E W S

C-true has a new model in its C-Entry line of facial recognition access control systems. The DH-2 offers wireless networking, support for a wide range of input devices multimode RFID, multifactor authentication, built-in illumination, and a GUI system displayed via a touchscreen. As well as access control, the company is aiming the product at time and attendance, two-way communication and self-service applications. It’s compatible with C-True’s BioGate management server.

The new MaxIdentity Suite from MaxID Corp comprises a range of ready-to-use software applications to verify identity and government-issued credentials including smart cards such as PIV, PIV-I, CAC, TWIC as well as Seafarer ID cards, driving licences and e-passports. Customers can opt to license the software con-ventionally or via a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. It’s expected to become available in the summer, following ICE certification.

Evidian has incorporated BIO-key biometrics software into its enterprise single-sign-on solu-tion. The system allows users to log into systems using a single fingerprint scan, with no addi-tional passwords or tokens. The solution has already been sold to two pharmaceutical com-panies with a combined total of 15,000 users.

The Matrix M5, a mobile phone designed specifically for the African and Middle East markets, will incorporate the ATW310 fin-gerprint sensor supplied by AuthenTec. The phone uses a fingerprint swipe to unlock the phone and provide access to certain features, including the contact list and SMS messaging.

Accsys, a South African firm that supplies payroll, HR and access control solutions, is teaming up with neaMetrics which distrib-utes the SupreMOBILE biometric timeclock system. Together, they plan to offer a portable, fingerprint-based time and attendance system.

Accu-Time Systems (ATS) is now incor-porating Lumidigm’s Mercury Multispectral fingerprint reader in its Maximus time and attendance system. ATS says the new technol-ogy allows fingerprint-based solutions to be deployed where they were previously unusable due to environmental conditions.

Schlage has unveiled a new time and attendance terminal, the GT-400 HandPunch. It uses hand geometry for authentication, has a large LCD screen, programmable soft keys and runs on Linux.

Microsoft has added facial recognition features to its Windows Live Photo. The facial recognition tool automatically finds and tags people in your photo albums.

NEWS

india

homeland security

5June 2010 Biometric Technology Today

C O M P A N Y N E W S

Biometric Intelligence & Identification Technologies (BI2) has won a contract from the Massachusetts Sheriff ’s Association to sup-ply facial recognition systems to all 14 of the state’s sheriff ’s departments as well as a number of police departments. The plan is to use these systems – supplied by Animetrics – to identify ‘persons of interest’. The departments can also opt to use BI2’s multimodal Mobile Offender Recognition and Identification System (MORIS). This works on the Apple iPhone and uses facial, iris and fingerprint recognition to identify individuals.

Ideco has won contracts to supply biometric components and systems for a number of government projects in South Africa. The company says it is also waiting for a decision on a number of other tenders for biometric readers. Ideco AFISwitch currently runs the country’s criminal records checking service.

BIO-key has reported Q1 revenues of $976,175, an increase of 81% over the same quarter in 2009. It made operating losses in the quarter, of $118,734, but these were better than its $727,614 losses in Q1 2009. Gross margin improved 14% and expenses fell by 13%. The company has also just announced a deal for its TruDonor system with the Oklahoma Blood Institute.

Healthcare IT firm ScriptRX is integrating DigitalPersona’s U.are.U fingerprint recogni-tion systems into its kiosk solutions. ScriptRX provides touchscreen-based electronic medical record and discharge systems for emergency rooms and urgent care centres.

The Luxembourg passport authority has selected Speed Identity to supply biometric capture equipment for its e-passport service. The Speed Capture equipment selected has been in use with Swedish police forces for several years for capturing facial images, fin-gerprints and digital signatures.

Another hospital has chosen the Imprivata OneSign single sign-on solution, which uses fingerprint biometrics to ease access to com-puter systems. The Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital is using the system both at its main facility and three branch hospitals.

New hires: Databac now has a new sales and marketing manager in the shape of Alain Picard. He will head up the UK sales team and be responsible for growing Databac’s business in the European ID solutions market. And AOptix has hired Dale Bastian as vice president of biometric sales. He was previously executive VP of worldwide sales at 2Wire Corporation.

challenging problem – one that homeland secu-rity officials are extremely interested in solving.”

Land-based border crossings are among the most difficult environments for biometric identification systems. Ideally, the DHS wants the ability to iden-tify people crossing the borders in cars and on foot without having to stop every individual or car.

“To do that, you need a robust, multi-modal, video-based biometric system,” Schmitt says. “ It has to be video-based because it has to be opportunistic; you never know when you’ll get a good look at someone’s face or iris.”

During phase one of the project, RENCI and CIS will define the requirements for a land-border-exit biometric system, evaluate a wide array of exist-ing and near-future biometric technologies against those requirements, and develop an architecture for deploying the best technologies in a robust biometric system for day-to-day use by the DHS.

The team will evaluate data capture challenges, including how close video cameras can be placed to subjects and at what angles; how people tend to cross the border (car, foot, motorcycle, public transit); environmental factors such as ambient noise, traffic congestion and numbers of vehicles with tinted windows; and whether the site has access to electricity and the Internet.

From that data the team will produce a report to the DHS that outlines basic requirements for reliable video-based, multi-modal biometric identification systems and that evaluates specific

biometric identification modes. As part of this work, RENCI and CIS will create a reference biometric architecture for use at border crossings and will evaluate leading video identification technologies to determine the gap between cur-rent capabilities and the DHS’s needs.

First biometric ATMs roll out in Poland

Polish bank BPS has claimed a first in rolling out biometric ATMs.

Customers of the bank can now use their fingers rather than a bank card to identify themselves when making cash withdrawals.

“Our bank is the first in Europe to pro-vide its clients with a new means to secure transactions to complement the secret code of their banking card,” says BPS vice-president Krzysztof Jagielski. The bank believes the technology provides better security than cards, which are vulnerable to skimming or theft.

The system uses a finger vein scanner from Hitachi integrated in an ATM system devel-oped by Wincor Nixdorf, which specialises in banking and retail solutions.

Continued on page 12...

NEWS

immigration

2 July 2010 Wellington, New ZealandNZ Member Meeting of the Biometrics InstituteHosted by Immigration New Zealand (Department of Labour), Eyede, NZ. General overview, current work and case studies and industry trend spot-ting. Free to members. Non-members welcome (NZD$220).More information: bit.ly/bttev-nzbio

11–17 July 2010Spokane, Washington, US95th Annual IAI Educational ConferenceThe annual conference of the International Association for Identification (IAI) will include over 100 lecture presentations and more than 100 workshops. Presenters will focus on the trends and technologies that have the greatest impact on forensic identification professionals and their organisations, and will provide hands-on work-shops.More information: www.theiai.org/conference/2010

23 Aug 2010Washington, US (venue TBA)2nd Annual Identity Management for DoD & Government conferenceThis conference aims to investigate different biometric data collection techniques as a signifi-cant tool for national security, peacekeeping, and stability operations all over the world. Organised by The Institute for Defense and Government

Advancement (IDGA).More information: bit.ly/BTTevAIMDOD

13–16 SeptemberWashington, DC, USIdentity Management for GovernmentPlanning for the operation, use, implementation and interoperability of identity credentials.More information: bit.ly/bttevim4gov

21–23 September 2010Tampa, Florida, US2010 Biometric Consortium Conference & Technology ExpoThis is one of the largest biometrics events in the world. It is supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Security Agency (NSA). The show is focused on biometric technologies for defence, homeland security, identity management, border crossing and electronic commerce.More information: www.biometrics.org

19–21 October 2010London, UKBiometrics 2010The largest biometrics event in Europe and visited by a global audience, this diverse conference and exhibition covers all aspects of biometrics, with a cutting-edge programme and large exhibition of all the leading players.More information: www.biometrics2010.com

EVENTS CALENDAR