12Biometric Technology Today March 2009

NEWS / COMMENT

It is hoped the wesearch will also take forward new advanced face finding and tracking technology for use with CCTV footage; and improved automatic detection and understanding of behaviour and events, for multi-camera systems.

The £1.5 million project is being funded by BAE Systems through its Investment in Innovation programme. The Investment In Innovation programme was set up in 2008 to encourage and support innovative small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the development and delivery of new technology to improve security, in the UK and world-wide. The face recognition and behavioural biometric work with OmniPerception is one of the programme’s first projects.

According to OmniPerception, BAE Systems’ presence not only supports the development of state-of-the-art technology but also ensures that the core biometric technology is bringing real benefit to the operators of UK law enforcement and secu-rity systems.

David McIntosh, CEO of OmniPerception said: “The full potential of CCTV as a defensive security measure and as an investigative tool has yet to be real-ised. One of the keys to it is better automa-tion – faster and more accurate. At a time when many agencies need improved con-fidence in these areas, our work with BAE Systems is designed to deliver new high tech solutions that make a real difference.”

The 18 month-long project will see BAE Systems provide financial, project management and engineering support to OmniPerception, who is conducting the main Research & Development programme.

Contact: Barney O’Kelly at BAE Systems,Tel: +44 1252 384717, Email: barney.okelly@baesystems.com

telecoms

Precise Biometrics’ Match-on-SIM is a winner

Precise Biometrics has come first in the global SIMagine competi-

tion, held annually at the prestigious GSMA World Mobile Congress – the world’s largest event for mobile com-munication. The company’s BioXpress

entry – a mobile aviation solution based on Precise Match-on-SIM – ena-bles fast-lane service using finger-print recognition and mobile phones.

SIMagine is a global competition focusing on new solutions for mobile communication and Java cards. Last year, Precise Biometrics came in second place with its Precise Match-on-SIM solution, which enables secure authentication to any high value transaction using a mobile phone.

Jonas Andersson, vice president of busi-ness development at Precise Biometrics com-mented: “This year, we take the technology one step further and demonstrate an entire solution for airline travel – how biometrics is utilized throughout the entire process of book-ing, check-in, boarding, and other services related to travel where authentication is need-ed The concept is based on our experience from the aviation industry and also developed in dialog with Scandinavian Airlines.”

Thomas Marschall, CEO at Precise Biometrics said: “As Match-on-Card is by nature tied to smart cards, and since the SIM card segment is close to 80% of the

entire smart card market, this is where we want to be.”

Precise Biometrics has approximately 20 million deployed card licenses and over 80 million contracted licenses for its Match-on-Card technology.

COMMENTDespite this newsletter’s relatively negative item on iris recognition in last month’s issue – see our news story on the United

Arab Emirates, where it had tested an iris at a distance product and found it did not perform at all well in the field – we remain hopeful that the latest market entrants to this particular niche will find greater success.

This month we can read that AOptix Technologies in the US has announced the commercial product release of InSight, its own version of an iris recognition system which operates at a distance (two meter stand-off ).

To anyone on the biometric exhibition circuit it may feel like this product has been around for ages – probably because the vendor has been demonstrating the technology at trade shows for at least two to three years. Until now, however, the company has been demonstrating an engineering prototype. The new InSight product is now properly ‘productized’ and ready for commercial deployment. It establishes a capture volume of about 0.75 cubic meters that is 1 meter deep and 1 meter tall at mid-plane allowing for a range of heights including coverage of wheelchair users. The

system is also housed in a single, compact enclosure that contains all optics, electronics and interfacing hardware. As well as this, it is configured as a network appliance for easier integration into end-user identification and authentication systems, including physical access control, for which it offers an optional Wiegand and RS-485 interface.

I think, more importantly, the performance of the device could well exceed expectations, from an image quality standpoint. Certainly, upon trying out the prototype, the image quality of iris images captured (at ease, I might add) was outstanding, which of course is the crucial foundation upon which to build any biometric system.

This will be a major factor at our other iris deployment announcement this month. Schiphol Airport has announced that it (like the UAE – although using technology from a different vendor) will be testing Iris on the Move (IOM) technology. This system is to be provided by Sarnoff Corporation – and for fast throughput environments, such as border control, it could prove to be ideal.

For both products the proof will be in the testing – and I wish both the best of luck!

Mark Lockie

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BioxpressPrecise Biometrics’s winning smart travel solution at the SIMagine competition was ‘BioXpress – The Queue-less Travel Experience’.

BioXpress uses Precise Match-on-Card for automated identity check supporting airline services through the SIM card and NFC (Near Field Communication). It enables remote ticket purchase, automatic baggage drop, self service boarding and baggage reconciliation. All these services are secured by automated Match-on-Card biometric verification to enable a fully automated passenger flow.