November/December 2013 Biometric Technology Today EVENTS CALENDAR 3 NEWS the same person with a different appearance. The researchers used computer face recognition systems to find pairs of pictures in which facial characteristics were difficult to use for identity. Overall, participants discerned whether the images showed the same person when they were provided complete images that showed both the face and body. Participants were just as accurate in identifying people in the image pairs when the faces were blocked out and only the bodies were shown. But, similarly to the computer-based face recogni- tion system, participants had trouble identifying images of the subjects’ faces without their bodies. Participants thought they were using primar- ily facial features to identify the subjects but the researchers used eye-tracking equipment to deter- mine where participants were actually looking. They found participants spent more time looking at the body whenever the face did not provide enough information to identify the subjects. Biometric tech has mixed fortunes in education A s 2013 draws to a close, biometric technology is seeing increased penetration into education, but con- cerns around privacy and border con- trol issues remain. Human Recognition Systems (HRS) has implemented a student identity and attendance verification platform for over 1,500 students at the University of Sunderland’s London Campus. The institution aims to simplify meeting UK Tier 4 immigration requirements through HRS’ MVerify platform, which enables the automated capture and verification of stu- dent identity documentation. The solution also helps the university to reduce the impact of the student registra- tion process during teaching sessions via the automated capture and reporting of student attendance. Using handheld devices featuring an integrated fingerprint reader, students verify their identity and register their attendance by presenting their finger to the device. MVerify also allows the university’s London Campus to automate the capture of document data from student passports and visas, with images of the document and its information verified and stored within five seconds. Elsewhere, academics have expressed con- cern around the use of biometric technology to address immigration issues within further educa- tion. Nearly 300 academics from universities across England wrote to The Independent, reports The Belfast Telegraph, expressing concern over the fingerprinting of international students at the universities of Sunderland and Ulster, stating: “The latest move by universities of Sunderland and Ulster, singling out international students to give fingerprints to prove attendance at lectures, is reprehensible.” It is implemented at Ulster’s Birmingham campus, according to the letter, but not at its Northern Ireland ones. Goretti Horgan from the University and Colleges Union (UCU) told The Belfast Telegraph, “The implication of this is that lec- turers are immigration officers, and we are not. We would be mobilising to resist this.” In Michigan, US, privacy concerns have led to the introduction of a Bill to prohibit facial recognition software, biometric scans or eye tracking during education testing. However, globally there has been increasing implementation and acceptance of biometric technology in education. In India, biometrics attendance systems are being implemented to ensure lecturers turn up. For example, Continued on page 12... education 3–4 December 2013 London, UK World BORDERPOL Congress The Borderpol Conference and Exhibition is aimed at those in the border protection, management or security industry who supply products or services to border agencies and security forces. More information: http://www.borderpol- event.org 5–7 December 2013 India Expo Centre, Greater Nioda, India IFSEC India 2013 IFSEC India 2013 is billed as India’s largest commercial, government security and fire safety show. It will showcase latest tech- nologies, products, innovations and act as a launch pad for introducing new products and technologies, as well as being the platform for generating leads, one-to-one interactions and generating enquiries. More information: www.ifsecindia.com 11–12 December 2013 Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, Cambodia 10th Government Forum on National eID The forum is for government agencies that issue national electronic identity cards, manage population registers, work with citizens’ electronic identities and facilitate the delivery of eGovernment services and benefits to citi- zens. From 2004 to 2012, an average of 80-100 government representatives from over 40 gov- ernment agencies in 30 to 35 countries across Asia, the Gulf, Africa, Europe and the Americas have participated in the forum. More information: http://www.apsca.org/ events/event.php?event=147 19–21 January 2014 Dubai, UAE Intersec 2013 More than 1,000 exhibitors from more than 54 countries are expected to attend the trading platform and networking event for security and safety professionals in the Middle East. More information: www.intersecexpo.com 19–21 February 2014 Washington DC, US 7th Annual IDGA Biometrics for Government and National Security This summit provides the venue to learn what key decision makers and technology experts antici- pate being the future of securing our warfighters, citizens, government employees, and borders. This year the event will expand to include federal government and commercial applications. With the vulnerability of financial, health and other personal data today, it is vital to consider the potential of biometrics not only for the warfight- er, but the American citizen as well. There will be speakers from the DoD, DHS, FBI and the Intelligence Community, as well as speakers from health, NIST, and private banking. More information: www.biometricsevent.com Pairs of photographs that face-recognition software failed to identify correctly. The top two photos are of the same person, while the bottom two photos are of different people.
Transcript
November/December 2013 Biometric Technology Today
EVENTS CALENDAR
3
NEWS
the same person with a different appearance. The researchers used computer face recognition systems to find pairs of pictures in which facial characteristics were difficult to use for identity.
Overall, participants discerned whether the images showed the same person when they were provided complete images that showed both the face and body. Participants were just as accurate in identifying people in the image pairs when the faces were blocked out and only the bodies were shown. But, similarly to the computer-based face recogni-tion system, participants had trouble identifying images of the subjects’ faces without their bodies.
Participants thought they were using primar-ily facial features to identify the subjects but the researchers used eye-tracking equipment to deter-mine where participants were actually looking. They found participants spent more time looking at the body whenever the face did not provide enough information to identify the subjects.
Biometric tech has mixed fortunes in education
As 2013 draws to a close, biometric technology is seeing increased
penetration into education, but con-cerns around privacy and border con-trol issues remain.
Human Recognition Systems (HRS) has implemented a student identity and attendance verification platform for over 1,500 students at the University of Sunderland’s London Campus. The institution aims to simplify meeting UK Tier 4 immigration requirements through HRS’ MVerify platform, which enables the automated capture and verification of stu-dent identity documentation.
The solution also helps the university to reduce the impact of the student registra-tion process during teaching sessions via the automated capture and reporting of student attendance. Using handheld devices featuring an integrated fingerprint reader, students verify their identity and register their attendance by presenting their finger to the device.
MVerify also allows the university’s London Campus to automate the capture of document data from student passports and visas, with images of the document and its information verified and stored within five seconds.
Elsewhere, academics have expressed con-cern around the use of biometric technology to address immigration issues within further educa-tion. Nearly 300 academics from universities across England wrote to The Independent, reports The Belfast Telegraph, expressing concern over the fingerprinting of international students at the universities of Sunderland and Ulster, stating: “The latest move by universities of Sunderland and Ulster, singling out international students to give fingerprints to prove attendance at lectures, is reprehensible.” It is implemented at Ulster’s Birmingham campus, according to the letter, but not at its Northern Ireland ones.
Goretti Horgan from the University and Colleges Union (UCU) told The Belfast Telegraph, “The implication of this is that lec-turers are immigration officers, and we are not. We would be mobilising to resist this.”
In Michigan, US, privacy concerns have led to the introduction of a Bill to prohibit facial recognition software, biometric scans or eye tracking during education testing.
However, globally there has been increasing implementation and acceptance of biometric technology in education. In India, biometrics attendance systems are being implemented to ensure lecturers turn up. For example,
Continued on page 12...
education
3–4 December 2013London, UKWorld BORDERPOL CongressThe Borderpol Conference and Exhibition is aimed at those in the border protection, management or security industry who supply products or services to border agencies and security forces. More information: http://www.borderpol-event.org
5–7 December 2013India Expo Centre, Greater Nioda, IndiaIFSEC India 2013 IFSEC India 2013 is billed as India’s largest commercial, government security and fire safety show. It will showcase latest tech-nologies, products, innovations and act as a launch pad for introducing new products and technologies, as well as being the platform for generating leads, one-to-one interactions and generating enquiries.More information: www.ifsecindia.com
11–12 December 2013Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, Cambodia 10th Government Forum on National eIDThe forum is for government agencies that issue national electronic identity cards, manage population registers, work with citizens’ electronic identities and facilitate the delivery of eGovernment services and benefits to citi-zens. From 2004 to 2012, an average of 80-100 government representatives from over 40 gov-ernment agencies in 30 to 35 countries across Asia, the Gulf, Africa, Europe and the Americas have participated in the forum.More information: http://www.apsca.org/events/event.php?event=147
19–21 January 2014Dubai, UAEIntersec 2013 More than 1,000 exhibitors from more than 54 countries are expected to attend the trading platform and networking event for security and safety professionals in the Middle East.More information: www.intersecexpo.com
19–21 February 2014 Washington DC, US7th Annual IDGA Biometrics for Government and National Security This summit provides the venue to learn what key decision makers and technology experts antici-pate being the future of securing our warfighters, citizens, government employees, and borders. This year the event will expand to include federal government and commercial applications. With the vulnerability of financial, health and other personal data today, it is vital to consider the potential of biometrics not only for the warfight-er, but the American citizen as well. There will be speakers from the DoD, DHS, FBI and the Intelligence Community, as well as speakers from health, NIST, and private banking.More information: www.biometricsevent.com
Pairs of photographs that face-recognition software failed to identify correctly. The top two photos are of the same person, while the bottom two photos are of different people.
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NEWS/COMMENT
Biometric Technology Today November/December 2013
...Continued from page 3recently, the Delhi high court directed Delhi University to implement a biometric attendance system to ensure participation of teachers in the teaching process, reports the Times of India.
Biometric systems to verify the identity of IELTS test takers have been implemented glob-ally. IELTS is the International English Language Testing System. The IELTS security protocols now incorporate finger scans in jurisdictions where this is permitted. John Gildea, head of IELTS at the British Council, says, “All necessary steps have been taken to comply with privacy laws and the framework of each local jurisdic-tion. IELTS is available in more than 900 loca-tions across 130 countries, so the British Council and IDP IELTS have taken a deliberate and respectful approach to implementing these new biometric measures in a manner that is in keep-ing with the integrity of the IELTS test.”
Synaptics snaps up Validity Sensors
Synaptics Inc, human interface solu-tions provider, has agreed to acquire
Validity Sensors, Inc, a provider of biometric fingerprint authentication solutions for smartphones, tablets and notebook PCs.
“Biometrics has long been of interest to Synaptics as it complements our existing touch-based solutions and offers an exciting new way to interact with devices,” says Rick Bergman, president and CEO, Synaptics.
Synaptics will pay approximately $92.5m in stock and cash at the closing plus potential per-formance payments over a multi-year period for total potential consideration of up to $255m.
Global biometrics revenue to be $6.15bn in 2019
The global biometrics market earned revenues of $1.48bn in
2012 and analyst firm Frost & Sullivan estimates this will reach $6.15bn in 2019. Its report ‘Analysis of the Global Commercial Biometrics Market’ covers hand geometry, voice, and signature technologies in addition to fingerprint, facial and iris biometrics.
Frost & Sullivan believes increasing aware-ness of biometrics across industries will spur the global commercial biometrics market. While
historically the adoption of biometrics has been concentrated in the government sector, recent years have witnessed considerable demand for applications such as ATMs, retail points of sale, and finance. Iris and face recognition algorithms have undergone substantial advance-ments and are gaining prominence, while fin-gerprint technologies remain the most popular, reports Frost & Sullivan.
“Better end user recognition of the unique capabilities of biometric technologies, includ-ing enhanced security as well as physical and logical access control in applications, has helped vendors win a number of projects and contracts,” says Frost & Sullivan senior research analyst Ram Ravi. “Focus on building robust, error-free and efficient solutions will create added revenue-generating opportunities for biometric vendors.”
Ohio reviews law gateway after facial biometrics furore
In Ohio, US, Attorney General Mike DeWine has created the OHLEG
Advisory Group to examine not only facial recognition, but the entire Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway (OHLEG) system in the face of controversy about the scope of the system.
Ohio has operated OHLEG, a platform allowing law enforcement to access and search databases for the past 10 years. No databases are created through OHLEG, which provides access to existing databases.
The education sector is one that holds great potential for the use of biometric technology, as there is a need to authen-ticate people reliably and
quickly en masse. However, the combination of young people and new technology is one that always raises concern and this has been the case in education.
In the UK, privacy concerns were met with legislation when the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 set out requirements for schools and colleg-es to obtain the consent of one parent of a child under 18 for acquiring and processing the child’s biometric information. It also gives the child the right to stop processing of their biometric infor-mation regardless of any parental consent.
In schools and further education colleges for 16-19 year olds, biometric technology is mainly used for registration or payment, for meals for example. In the higher education arena, at university level, there is increasing use of biometric technology too. Only last month Human Recognition Systems (HRS) implemented a student identity and attend-ance verification platform for over 1,500 students at the University of Sunderland’s London Campus. The institution aims to sim-plify meeting UK Tier 4 immigration require-ments, through HRS’ MVerify platform, which enables the automated capture and ver-ification of student identity documentation.
However, separately, academics have become concerned about the linking of biometric data collected at university and government immigration requirements. This
led to nearly 300 academics from universities across England writing to The Independent newspaper expressing concern over the fin-gerprinting of international students at the universities of Sunderland and Ulster, reports The Belfast Telegraph. Lecturers were objecting to being appointed immigration officers by the back door and warned that they will be mobilising to resist this.
This comes against a backdrop of increasing use of biometric technology to make sure people are who they say they are when taking tests and exams. The IELTS global English language test for higher education and global migration has introduced security protocols that incorporate finger scans in jurisdictions where this is permitted, along with high resolution photography of each test taker.
IELTS is jointly owned by the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge English Language Assessment. They report that governments accepting IELTS test results have welcomed the measures and positive feedback has also been received from test takers themselves, who appreciate the time that is saved by the use of finger scanning technology to enter test rooms on test day.
The benefits of using biometric authentication for fast and reliable authentication of multiple students simultaneously, without the need for easily forgotten or forged documentation or cards, seem undeniable. And with the majority of privacy hurdles now overcome, it is to be hoped that border control does not become the stumbling block for biometrics acceptanceå in higher education.
