Biometrics Security News and Information

Keeping Safe During The Holiday Season

Traveling These Holidays

Well, as Christmas now looms only 3 weeks away, the two things (or actually three) things that come across people’s minds is vacation, travel, and flight cancellations and delays, due to who knows how many circumstances.  But as you travel (assuming its by flight), assume one thing which will not change:  security, baggage checks, and magnetometers.  These will be in full swing, as people swoon in on the airports.  And with this mass migration of people, you can always bet for sure that the lines will be long, and filled with extremely cranky passengers just wanting to get to their destination. 

And what to these long lines mean to another group of people:  Increased business and revenues for the security vendors, and even the Biometrics ones.  And during these times, it is when this certain segment of society can really shine out with their products and solutions. 

One such Biometrics Vendor has recently come out in the news like this is known as “Human Recognition Systems”, and here are the details of this: “Human Recognition Systems is delighted to announce it received the award for “Best Small Business” at the Airport Operators Association (AOA) Annual Awards. This is in recognition for its contribution to the aviation industry . . . the winners are decided democratically by the AOA Board and were selected for their outstanding work in their particular field. The award was presented at the AOA Annual Awards Ceremony at The Hilton Metropole London.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9409/). 

My Take

The exact details of the award, the solution in question, and why it was awarded was not specifically mentioned.  But hey, my hats off to them anyways.  Getting any kind or type of award, I think personally, is great news.  But this small news headlines just underscores, the long term thinking security at airports.  Long before 9/11, airport security here in the United States was very lax, and really, very horrible.  Then after the horrible incidents, everybody paid attention to security, and long story short, it all was implemented in an extremely haphazard fashion, ranging from the legislations passed at Congress to the people implementing the technology at the airports (as well as other points of entry). 

Even to this day, even more than a decade later, security at US airports still, in my opinion, sucks.  Yes, we have the technology in place, but human vigilance still remains at extremely long time lows.  But, no need to rehash all of this again, I have made my points very clear in many blog postings in the past.  But, traditional security methods, such as the magnetometer, are probably way too outdated.  A terrorist who is intent upon inflicting damage on human lives will find a way around it.  And when we are talking about long lines at the airport, it is a guaranteed fact that the security guards will just simply let passengers walk through the magnetometers without any further regards to doing the job they have been tasked and paid to do.  And this, would be a great time for a terrorist to inflict their damage. 

And this is where, Biometrics can take a great role (if of course, it is implemented properly).  With Biometrics, large numbers of people can be scanned walking at once, and within a reasonable range of accuracy, be identified and/or verified.  This is very true of iris and facial recognition.  The technology has now evolved to the point where it can hundreds of people all at once.  For example, take into account this very general setup:  Iris recognition can be used to track the people, and that information and data can then be triggered into the facial recognition system, which could confirm the identity of terrorist suspects. 

A very simplistic example, yes, but this is how it would work.  Biometrics will be the new de facto and model of security at airports, there is no doubt about that.  I even envision a time and a place where airports of the future will all be controlled, primarily, via Biometrics.  For example, a business traveler could walk through customs and immigration with the ease of their e-Passport, and on their return journey back, pass through security with the various iris and facial recognition scans. 

So, as you can see, Biometrics will replace all of these legacy systems we have in place at US airports.  In order to keep up with the pace of the latest threats, we need to implement the latest technologies, and this is where Biometrics will fit the bill.  But of course, nobody can forget either the good ‘ole pair of human eyes to be watchful for any threats or breaches.  But it takes the best of both worlds in order to have an awesome security solution where people will feel 110% safe as they travel.

The Children Are The Future

Our Future

When I was at church yesterday with my beautiful fiancé Anita, I read a poem at the literature table which really struck a chord with me.  It was a very beautiful poem which talked about the plight of our homeless and missing children here in the United States, and how much they mean to our society, despite how neglected they are, in the face of our current economic times.  And it, just by coincidence, I came across a unique solution which addresses how we, as a society, can help find these poor and innocent children. 

 Here we go:  “Merkatum, a leading developer and provider of identity resolution solutions and services, announced today that the Company has successfully launched online service denominated “HelpID” (www.HelpID.com) aimed at searching for Lost / Missing Children (MC) and Disappeared / Missing People (MP) . . . It is a combination of an internet portal and a social network powered by a robust identity resolution and alerting engine. The site uses pictures provided by its community members in combination with advanced people identification technologies to generate leads (Alerts) for its Registered Members. Uploaded MC and MP cases are also disseminated throughout social networks (Facebook: HelpID), search engines, and other Internet sites to increase traffic and thus the possibility of directly generating relevant and timely Alerts for HelpID members and their families.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9411/). 

My Take

I have to be honest, this is probably one of the very few times that I have actually felt something about this topic.  Now, please don’t take me as a cold hearted person.  I am far from that.  I very much love and adore children, but when you keep hearing about missing and homeless children, you tend to turn a deaf ear, strictly as a psychological defense mechanism.  Seriously, wouldn’t you want to hear something much more pleasant and happy, rather than this awful topic I am talking about today??? 

 But this content really hit me home today, for a number of reasons, which I guess, are kind of hard to describe and verbalize.  But from a technical standpoint, I guess I can be more non-emotional.  I think this is the first time I have read about a solution for finding missing children which is strictly all based through the Internet and other online mechanisms and tools, such as social media, like Facebook.  And it only makes sense to do this, as millions upon millions of people everyday are online at the social media sites.  There is a much better and wider reach with this, as opposed to the current Amber alerts and pictures on milk cartons.  In other words, you are talking about some five hundred million plus users on Facebook whom can potentially identify a missing child versus the twenty or so who by the milk cartons at the grocery store. 

 But, I was sort of surprised to see Biometrics not being used (or at least it was not mentioned directly) in this regard.  After all, doesn’t Biometrics give a great deal of certainty as to the identification of an individual???  Well true, obviously you really can’t use technologies such as fingerprint recognition or iris recognition, but in my opinion, a great tool to use would be facial recognition.  It’s going to take me some time to figure out how such a configuration would be set up, but I think it can be done.  Facial recognition has evolved to the point of great miniaturization like its other counterparts, so there is no reason why it can’t be used on local computers, such as laptops and desktops.  To me, this would be an extremely powerful combination:  The use of social media + Biometrics. 

It would be a great multimodal tool to help find our missing and homeless children.  Perhaps just like the AFIS database, maybe a facial recognition database could be created of all of these poor children who need to be found and located into a loving home.  The social media sites can easily tap into this huge and gargantuan database.  But, on a much more serious note, as we approach the holiday season, I am sure we are all under pressure to save money due to the current economic crisis at hand.  But, I don’t think that we are all that poor. 

I challenge everybody this holiday season to donate some money to a homeless shelter, volunteer at a food giveaway, or just simply donate a few dollars to the person ringing the bell at the Salvation Army post at your local grocery store.  These innocent children are in much worse shape that we are in. 

Let me put it this way:  As we cuddle in our blankets and around the fireplace on Christmas Day, there will be thousands of children who will be shivering in the awful cold without any shelter or any blanket.  It’s about time these treasures of our society get our aid, and I for one, will do everything I can to help.  And, it is a promise I intent to keep with all my heart.

Ending 2011

Biometrics Awards Galore

Well, as we wrap up the first weekend of the last month of 2011, I thought I would I end things on a good note, with some good news from our industry which provides our bread and butter.  And what is this good news, you may ask?  Well, it is not about any contract awarding per se, but rather, is what I call the “awarding of the awards.”  So, here we go . . .

India In The Limelight

The CEO of a major Biometrics Vendor in India has just received a major recognition.  The goop:  “An able thought leader and a successful architect of Identity innovation, Dr. Sreeni Tripuraneni, Chairman & CEO of Hyderabad based 4G Identity Solutions has received the prestigious Indiamart ET Now ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’ Award 2011, at an award function held at Mumbai. The award was presented by the chief guest Legendary N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman Emeritus, Infosys Technologies. 'Leaders of Tomorrow' salutes the spirit of entrepreneurship and celebrates the success of India's best Small and Medium Enterprises . . . More than 50,000 nominations have been received across 13 different categories for the Leaders of Tomorrow Award 2011 and after thorough review of the nominations by the process experts Ernst & Young around 70 companies per category have been shortlisted, which were invited for the preliminary jury round. After the preliminary jury round, 5 companies per each category have been invited for the final jury round.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9405/). 

As you can see from the above quote (the last part), this was quite a rigorous process in order to achieve this honorable, and not to mention, prestigious, award.  We will probably be hearing more from this Biometrics Vendor, as they comprise a major component to the world’s largest Biometrics project, and in fact, have received an award for that effort as well.

Morpho Once Again

This is a huge Biometrics Vendor I have written about many a time before, so it comes to of no surprise to me, that they would also win an award:  “Morpho (Safran group) is proud to announce that MorphoAccess  VP has won the Detektor International Award for “Best Access Control Product”. MorphoAccess  VP is the world’s first multimodal physical access control terminal combining finger vein and fingerprint recognition. This award recognizes innovative products that contribute to advancing the security industry . . . Suitable for authentication or identification of individuals, this stylish, easy-to-use terminal brings the benefits of finger vein/fingerprint multimodality to physical access control systems. This new multimodal technology guarantees unrivalled levels of security, accuracy and performance as compared with monomodal biometric devices.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9396/). 

As you can see, this is an award for a multimodal solution, which means more than one layer of security is being used.  Most solutions I have written about have been Biometrics which utilize different parts of the human body, such as finger and the eye, or the finger and the eye, so this solution is truly from the sense that it uses physiological components from the virtually the same body part (the finger, and its associated vein pattern underneath the skin).  In my view, multimodal solutions will be the ultimate wave of the future for our industry. 

I mean, who wants to pay for two (or more) separate technologies in order for the two (or more) to come together as one cohesive solution???  This solution as mentioned exists, but now as the technology has advanced to the point where virtually the same physiological components can be used, this will get huge attention, especially as the learning curve for the end user will become much narrower, acceptance will be greater. 

Also, as this specific technology continues to make rapid advances like this, it will become much smaller, and find great market applications like security for wireless, especially for all of the types and kinds of Smartphones on the marketplace now, and into the future.

Good Ol'e Fashioned Marketing 101

A Conference

OK, when you read today’s blog posting, you may even wonder why I am writing it.  Well, there is a reason.  It is about a Biometrics Vendor who just hosted a conference. 

The details:  “AOptix Technologies, Inc., (AOptix) (www.aoptix.com), a leading developer of advanced biometrics-based identity solutions, will present their recent iris recognition deployments in the Middle East and United Kingdom at a first-of-its kind media roundtable event. Speaking to invited media at the ACI – Airport Exchange show November 27-30 in Abu Dhabi, AOptix will discuss these groundbreaking deployments within the context of its new biometric solutions whitepaper entitled, “The Future Passenger Experience – Integrating Iris Recognition . . . Joining AOptix will be representatives from three top-tier solutions providers who have deployed the InSight iris recognition system in high throughput airport and border control environments: Integralis for all air, land and sea borders for the Ministry of Interior in Qatar; Human Recognition Systems for MFlow track at the new South Terminal at Gatwick Airport; and emaratech, the system integrator for UAE Government customers.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9397/).

My Take

Yea, I know this content is a little outdated, as this conference was held back in the latter part of November.  When I first read this, I was even thinking to myself, that this is not really worth writing about. But when I read through a couple more times, the actual meaning of the content really resonated with me.  And that is, this Biometrics Vendor actually has the guts to come out into the limelight and actually talk about its products, solutions, and successful deployments.  What is the one thing I have always talked about?  The need of the Biometrics Industry to meet face to face with the public and explain what Biometrics is all about in plain speak, and how the public can benefit from it. 

Now, granted this type of forum was in front of the press, but none the less, this Biometrics Vendor is actually talking in front of people, exclusively devoted to them.  So, my hats off to them in this effort.  I greatly applaud the main objective of this get together.  But, how about if the Biometrics Industry were to use this as a shining example of what to do more often?  Meaning, instead of talking about specific products and solutions (true, this was probably a PR tactic too), actually have a get together with people and talk about Biometrics in general, and the benefits which can be derived from it???  By this I mean having actual one on one sessions in a large forum, where there is actual people interaction, and having questions, fears, doubts (especially privacy rights issues) addressed and allayed? 

I really can’t think of anything better than this.  By reaching out to the public, acceptance of Biometrics will really proliferate.  To many, Biometrics is still a “black box” kind of thing.  One can only understand so much through documentation and doing web searches on Google.  It actually means taking initiative and bridging the gap face to face, and in a brute force manner (OK, maybe a bad choice of words here, but I mean here is the direct public contact).  These types of forums and gatherings should be done worldwide, and especially here in the United States.  These public forums should be kept as simple as possible (and down to earth), so that the public can understand with great ease what Biometrics is all about.  Remember, there is no rocket science associated with Biometrics (well, except for the mathematical algorithms involved), it is just another piece of technology just like anything else. 

It just takes a matter of some simple reaching out to people and conveying to them the true meaning of Biometrics, which I try to do this blog site.  And remember, and this is something the Biometrics Industry should really keep in mind, is that by reaching out to the public, this will actually translate to greater sales and revenues by way of purchasing products and solutions, as the perceived benefits will be much greater understood. 

Remember in this world of technology, it is always very easy and of course cost effective to do all of the marketing via the social media channels.  But many times, it simply takes a matter of taking some time, some hard work, and some dedication, and meet with people directly to tell what the benefits are of anything.  In my view, perhaps the Biometrics Industry should embrace this tactic more, as exemplified by this Biometrics Vendor pointed out in this posting.

The Power Of The Paw

Protecting Our Pets

To all my subscribers out there, how many of you own a pet?  I am not talking about the normal dog and cat thing, but this includes all types and kinds of animals, ranging the gamut from rabbits to snakes to guinea pigs to ferrets to hamsters, etc.  You name it.  Here in the United States, pets are often treated as part of the family, and under most circumstances, will go to great lengths to ensure their health, well being, and longevity.  A perfect example of this is me, and my fiancé Anita.  There are now 3 cats in our family, and boy, do they get pampered.  We want to make sure they are in the best health possible, so they have their normal vet check ups.  But, what would you do if your pet is lost or stolen? 

The common alternative, of course, if it is a dog or cat, it is the normal ID tag.  The newest method, though is to have an RFID chip implanted just underneath the fur of the animal, which contains the information of the owner.  So, if you see a lost dog or cat, and turn them in, very likely this chip will be scanned, and in just a few seconds, the owner can be identified.  But, there could be a newer, and much more reliable solution: Biometrics. 

Here are the details:  “Global Animal Management proudly announces the launch of eyeD(TM), a revolutionary equine identification solution utilizing iris scan technology. eyeD was officially introduced this week during the 57th Annual Convention of American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) in San Antonio, Texas . . . eyeD is more accurate than tattoos or markings, more secure than paper documents and completely non-invasive. The eyeD Solution is the first equine identification system that is safe, easy-to-use and accurate. It offers an easy alternative to the complication and uncertainty of traditional ID methods . . . How it works Utilizing the unique features of the animal's iris, eyeD establishes an identification code similar to how iris identification has been perfected in humans. A digital photo, called an eyePrint, is taken by a veterinarian of each of the horse's eyes using a special camera. The images are electronically stored along with photos to pedigree registrations and medical records, among other information. An eyePrint is more accurate than a fingerprint, and no two irises are alike. Even clones have different iris patterns.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9394/). 

My Take

How about that, using Iris Recognition for animals?  Although the app described in this posting talks about horses, obviously, the technology can be used for just about any animal in existence.  After all, they have two eyes also, right?  Using this cutting edge technology offers a number of very distinct advantages, which include:

*Using the iris is probably the most reliable for identifying an animal, as it is the case with humans.  So, a lost dog or pet will be have a higher probability of being identified than just the RFID chip;

*With the iris, it is non invasive, meaning the animal does not have to endure the pain of surgery to have something implanted, like the RFID chip;

*Using Biometrics in this regard will be quick and easy to use, and in the case of animals as crazy as it may sound, there are no privacy rights associated with it (I mean is a dog or cat going to complain about their privacy rights being violated?  Probably at most, you will just get a bark or meow);

*Although RFID chips are implanted by the vet, it is not further managed by the vet.  Meaning, the owner is responsible for it, which means you. But by using Biometrics, all of the Iris Templates will be stored at the vet’s office, thus offering the distinct advantages of centralized management;

*From what I have read, registering for the  Iris Recognition for your dog or cat (or heck, any animal for that matter) can be done online very quickly and easily;

*Also, it appears that using something like Iris Recognition is a much cheaper route to take than using an RFID chip.

All in all, I am for total support of using Biometrics to positively identify our pets.  The underlying technology will still be the same, because after all, the iris in animals (as far as I know) are very similar to that of humans.  I hate to put any animal through type of pain, especially when it comes to surgery. 

So, Biometrics will tremendously help in this aspect.  But best of all, it will be much, much, much more reliable than the RFID chip.  Who knows, could this be another venue for the Biometrics Industry to take???  Paw Recognition!!!