• U.K. government drops voice biometrics as anti-fraud tool

    The U.K. Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) has to contend with fraud on a massive scale — fraudulent claims are estimated at 5.2 billion Pounds (or 2.1 percent of all expenditure) a year; since 2007, DWP has spent 2.4 million Pounds on testing voice biometrics as an anti-fraud tool, but has now abandoned the trial

  • Eye-movement biometrics holds promise, but skeptics want to see more

    Each of us has a unique pattern of eye movements; an Israeli company says its eye-movement biometric system exploits this fact for a simple, hard-to-fool approach; the system tracks the way a person’s eye moves as they watch an icon roaming around a computer screen; the way the icon moves can be different every time, but the user’s eye movements include “kinetic features” — slight variations in trajectory — which are unique, making it possible to identify him; the system can also be used as a lie detector, or a drug and alcohol test

  • Biometrics revenues to reach 8.9 billion Pounds by 2015

    Worldwide revenue from biometric technology is set to treble in the coming years, reaching 8.9 billion Pounds in 2015; as well as the usual access control uses of biometrics, corporations are beginning to utilize the technology to protect their data

  • Manchester Airport biometric gate unilaterally imprisons traveler

    Manchester Airport has been testing biometric gates in one of its terminals; the gates work by scanning the passenger’s face using a camera and matching this to the image stored on the passport; if there is a match, the gates open and the passenger is allowed through, removing the need to speak to an immigration officer; the watchdog for the U.K. Border Agency says, however, that the facial recognition checks at Manchester Airport are being undermined by unreliable IT

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  • Salmat offers voice biometrics to mid-market

    A 2009 Identity Verification Study conducted by callcenters.net highlighted that the most preferred method of verifying identity among consumers was biometric voice identification; Aussie company Salmat has launched a suite of speech recognition and voice biometric solutions designed specifically for mid-market companies

  • Suprema to provides palm-print scanners to Poland, Lithuania

    Korean company Suprema win contracts to equip the Polish and Lithuanian police forces with palm-print live scanners; the contracts are part of EU-funded effort to upgrade the two countries’ criminal identification methods so these methods could be integrated with the European Union’s Schengen Visa Information System (VIS) project

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  • Manchester Airport conducts distance biometrics trial

    Manchester Airport begins a 2-week trial of a system which can recognize an individual’s iris while they walk around; the system might allow international transfer passengers to mix with domestic passengers in a departure lounge because they can be securely identified before boarding their flight

  • NYPD begins iris scanning of crime suspects

    The New York Police Department bought 21 iris scanning systems for $24,000 each; the scanners are used to take photographs of the irises of crime suspects along with their fingerprints and mug shots

  • New biometric system harder to fool than other approaches

    Each of us has a unique pattern of eye movements; an Israeli company developed a new biometric security system which exploits this for a simple, hard-to-fool approach; the system tracks the way a person’s eye moves as he watches an icon roam around a computer screen; the way the icon moves can be different every time, but the user’s eye movements include “kinetic features” — slight variations in trajectory — which are unique, making it possible to identify him

  • U.S. State Department interested in iris recognitions

    U.S. Department of State official says he is interested in examining deployment of iris recognition as part of the department’s biometric requirements for future e-documents; the official said the chief reasons for preferring iris biometrics was its high accuracy with a small footprint when compared to other more widely used biometric technology like face recognition

  • India's ambitious UIDAI project launched

    India’s ambitious UIDAI ID scheme aims to assign a biometric ID to country’s 1.2 billion inhabitants; Morpho helped the Indian prime minister officially launch to project by issuing the first 12-digit UIAID number during the inauguration ceremony

  • Facial-recognition technology comes to mobile phones

    Scientists at the University of Manchester have developed software for mobile phones that can track your facial features in real time; eventually it will be able to tell who the user is, where they are looking, and even how they are feeling

  • New U.S. naturalization documents more secure

    The new computerized naturalization certificates will have all that information embedded in the document and also will have ink patterns that are harder to duplicate; the new green cards have more security features, including a personalized holographic image, a laser-engraved fingerprint of the person, and improved identification technology

  • Avoiding fraud in biometric identification

    The field of biometric anti-spoofing consists of trying to detect all of the possible attempts at fraud that a biometric system might suffer, especially with regard to an action in which the user presents the biometric proof to the system; Spanish researchers analyze possible attempts at fraud in various biometric identification systems in order to improve the security of facial, iris, fingerprint, or vascular recognition, among other types

  • SAIC in $23 million contract for biometric help to U.S. Central Command

    Collecting and registering personnel into biometric databases is key to helping identify insurgents throughout the U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility; SAIC awarded a $23 million contract to help