Chris BurtAviation sector investments into biometrics and digital healthcare pass adoption feature in Biometric Update’s most-read news coverage this week, as air travel slowly returns to pre-pandemic levels. The Ada Lovelace Institute offers advice on vaccine passports, while executives at SITA and Telos ID offer advice. Yinda Infocomm continued to invest in biometrics and pumped $8 million into Tech5.
DoD Biometrics Project Manager Colonel Senodja “Frank” Sundiata-Walker shared an in-depth explanation of the U.S. Defense’s biometrics work in a Security Industry Association event. The topics covered included the state of multi-modal fusion matching, providing troops with more information about their enemies, and the growing interest of DoD voice biometrics.
In light of new Virginia legislation, the DC-area National Capital Region Facial Recognition System was shut down. This comes as a Brazilian judicial decision is made to block the launch of a face-biometrics system in major public transport systems. Privacy advocates have been advocating transparency on the subject and provided expert opinions in the court case against it.
Rob Watts, CEO of Corsight AI, writes in a Forbes Technology Council blog that facial recognition with masked faces is improving rapidly even though it has been a year since its inception. Ethical implementation is more than choosing an algorithm that works. It requires “research” and “distinctiveness” throughout the deployment, usage, and maintenance process.
Tech5 has received $8 million more in investment from Yinda Infocomm shortly after a $2.5million commitment. This is to continue its expansion efforts in Asia-Pacific. The company plans to use some of the funds for research and development as well as increasing brand awareness for its face and fingerprint biometrics.
Sven Bockler, Dermalog’s Head Marketing, explains to Biometric Update that the company focused on user-friendliness as well as cost-efficiency when developing its Iris Face Temperature Camera. This resulted in a camera that has a wider detection area than similar cameras and features multi-modal recognition and high biometric accuracy.
In Korea, a push to biometric digital identity has been made by a bank for another app, specifically for air travel. This includes palm vein enrollment in branches, and boarding via a smartphone app, one of several new deployments in this sector. A $400 million investment by Guyana’s airport to screen passengers and the latest Simplified Arrival deployment were announced. Telos ID is calling on all sectors to align on the term “digital identity”.
Professor Steven Furnell, a senior IEEE member and University of Nottingham Cybersecurity, discusses the rapid growth of biometric technology adoption and whether or not it has stalled in an IT Pro Podcast. The discussion covers biometrics for consumers and enterprises, multi-factor authentication, and where the technology is headed. Furnell often answers the IT Pro hosts’ questions with “it depends on how you implement them.” This may be indicative of the current state in biometrics awareness.
As part of its public education campaign, the Philippines has begun to distribute PhilSys cards. This is in preparation for a variety of services. The launch of the online sign-up portal for the Philippines’ national digital identification system has helped boost registrations. However, those who use it will need to enroll their biometrics in person later.
The market for remote identity verification using selfie biometrics is maturing on both the regulatory side and the product side. In Switzerland, the financial regulatory has approved chip-scanning of biometric identity documents. Verify 365 launched NFC document scanning. iDenfy revealed an IP address screening algorithm. Basis ID announced a customer victory.
NFC scanning has been added to the IATA Travel Pass. The technology will be tested on flights between Japan, the United States and Japan. SITA’s executive stressed the importance of data management for the sector. Hawaii also added semi-anonymous facial biometrics technology from NEC as part of its health-screening process at State-airports.
In a new report on digital healthcare passes, the Ada Lovelace Institute recommends trust and clarity. Or at least their vaccine passport variant. One of the six recommendations in this report addresses system design. It warns that privacy and saving lives can be incompatible.
Vice suggests that the lucrative target market for tech companies selling video-based surveillance solutions has been created by the federal government’s investment in the U.S. education system for COVID recovery. Vice mentions that there are a few companies targeting this market and cites a study that shows over-surveillance can have adverse effects on educational outcomes.
KXAN, NBC Austin affiliate, examines the deluge of fraud in the U.S. that has cost Texas $893 Million. Officials from Texas Workforce Commission claim that identity fraud has not stopped since the outbreak of the pandemic. This has created a backlog in fraud holds that has cost Texas $893 million. KXAN, NBC Austin affiliate, examines the contract ID.me. Curiously, the entire Dark Web appears as a single cybercriminal network via U.S. Justice Department statistics.
For the enforcement of age minimums online in the UK, a new Online Security Bill has approved biometrics-based age controls. Children below 12 years old, and some apps up to 16, could be blocked. According to social media companies, the measures will increase inequalities.
According to a new study, deepfake detection could be affected by the same problem of skewed data that has plagued many other computer vision applications and biometric applications. Deepfake detectors had error rates up to 10.7 percent between different races and genders. They were most effective with white male faces.
Jannis Prriesnitz presented the state of the art in touchless 2D fingerprint biometrics in an online event hosted by the EAB. Priesnitz spoke about techniques to improve and assess image quality and the challenges of making touchless systems compatible.
Todd Mozer, CEO of Sensory, joins Tech Entrepreneur on a mission podcast to discuss the evolution and future of neural networks and how to build a business. He discusses how the company’s vision to change the way people interact digitally with them led to early profitability and the benefits of being small, especially in the tech sector.