Biometrics To Be Used On IDs.
Minnesota to Use Facial Recognition Technology on IDs --
State will add biometrics component to prevent fake driver's licenses
BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press via Knight Ridder
Minnesota soon will start using biometric face scans to prevent would-be crooks — and underage wannabe smokers and drinkers — from getting fake driver's licenses from the state.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday announced plans to add biometric facial recognition technology to driver's licenses as part of a broader effort to protect consumers from identity theft and unauthorized use of personal data. That effort will include stiffer criminal penalties for hackers and others who abuse access to personal data on computers.
"Identity theft causes great trauma, inconvenience and damage to a lot of people and families," Pawlenty said at a Capitol news conference. He said the state must do more to crack down on identity thieves and strengthen safeguards for personal information.
Driver's licenses are one of the state's most important forms of identification, he said, and biometric technology will help law enforcement officers ensure that individuals are who they say they are.
The new technology would match an individual's driver's license photo with images in the state's database.
Here's how Pawlenty's office described it: "Facial recognition technology converts an image into a mathematical computer algorithm as a basis for a positive match. It uses the structure of a person's face — such as width between the eyes, forehead depth and nose length — to assign mathematical points of reference creating a unique data file."
The face scans will enable the state to detect people attempting to obtain licenses using the same photo with multiple names and birth dates, or the same name and birth date with multiple people's photos, said state Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion. "The technology … will create a higher level of integrity for Minnesota's driver's licenses."
Pawlenty said 13 other states use the technology, and it has proved "highly accurate."
No new photos will be needed to develop the state's face-scan file. State workers will scan photos on current driver's licenses to create the new file.
The new technology will cost about $1 to $2 per driver's license. Pawlenty said an $800,000 federal grant will offset these costs and that he will ask the 2006 Legislature to pay the rest.
Although he believes he has the power to implement the new system on his own, he said he would ask the Legislature to approve it.
For Minnesota retailers, the new technology means customers will be far less likely to try to use fake identification cards to make purchases, especially of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, said Steve Rush, board chairman of the Minnesota Retailers Association. Businesses will not have equipment to read the face scans, however; only the state will have that ability.
The technology will not prevent counterfeiters from continuing to produce fake IDs. But it will help law enforcement officers detect them, said Scott Carr, a marketing executive for Digimarc, the company that makes the biometric system the state will use.
In addition to the face scans, Pawlenty said he will ask the Legislature to pass four other measures to protect personal data on computers and make it easier to prosecute hackers. The measures would:
• Make it a crime to use encryption to conceal a crime or the identity of another person who commits a crime.
• Increase criminal penalties for gaining unauthorized access to personal data through a computer.
• Authorize prosecution of hackers, even if they do not steal or destroy computer data.
• Establish a new crime for unauthorized disclosure of computer security information, such as passwords, if the person knows or has reason to believe it might be used to commit a crime.
"These are important steps that begin to modernize our identity theft laws in Minnesota," Pawlenty said.
Police advisory body installs 3D facial recognition system
Colin Holland
EE Times UK
LONDON
— The Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) has awarded a
contract to Premier Electronics, in alliance with A4 Vision and Global
Securities, to install a real time 3D facial recognition technology.
PITO, which provides information technology and communications
systems and services to the police and other criminal justice
organisations in the U.K., has selected the system to control access to
its Biometrics Demonstration Laboratory at its headquarters. In
addition to providing access control, it will be used for
demonstrations to staff and stakeholders from across the police service
and wider government, as well as for evaluation purposes.
The A4 Vision Access 3D face reader system combines standard digital
photography with real time 3D facial recognition, providing a very
powerful recognition and identification system with the ability to also
produce a standard digital photograph. The Vision Access 3D face reader
is commonly used to control physical access to buildings, banks,
hospitals, airports and other types of entry points for the commercial
and Civil ID market.
Geoff Whitaker, Head of Biometrics at PITO, said, "3D face
recognition systems have the potential to provide a very effective
means of controlling access as well as identifying suspects, and the
installation of this state of the art technology at PITO's offices will
offer us the opportunity to demonstrate its possible operational
benefits to the police service."
There are two parts to the A4 Vision Access 3D face reader, an
enrolment station and an identification/verification unit. The
enrolment unit provides both a colour digital picture of the subject
and a 3D facial template; it is possible to combine these two formats
to provide a 3D-face mask. The digital picture can also be used to
generate identity cards and with a special printer holographic prints.
The 3D template is taken in real time and requires only a few seconds
to be registered; personal details of the subject can then be added to
the template as required.
The unit works in the near infrared so controlled lighting
conditions are not required for the 3D template; up to 10,000 facial
templates can be stored in this unit. The unit also supplies a
100Mb-ethernet connection to allow interfacing with remote
identification/verification units and VA server.
The other unit just acts as an identification/verification unit and
is connected to the enrolment station via ethernet. Subjects walk up to
the unit and either present a card and look into the LCD if working in
the verification mode or just look into the LCD if in the
identification mode. Pictures are captured between 20 and 60 frames per
second giving identification and verification times at under one
second.
U.K. cops look into face-recognition tech
Police force is investigating whether to add biometrics to a national database of mugshots it is building.
By
Steve Ranger
Special to CNET News.com
Published: January 17, 2006, 11:00 AM PST
The U.K.'s police force is investigating how to incorporate
facial-recognition software into a new national mugshot database so
it can track down criminals faster.
The Police Information Technology Organization is already working
on a Facial Images National Database (FIND) project to deliver a
national mugshot database for law enforcement agencies in England,
Scotland and Wales. It aims to create a database of stills and videos
of facial images, marks, scars and tattoos that'll be linked to
criminals' details on the Police National Computer. The first FIND
pilot is planned for the first quarter of this year, with police forces
in the north of England.
Now the IT agency wants to look at the business case for the
national introduction of face-recognition technology by police forces.
The agency said it has awarded contracts to Aurora Computer
Services to install its facial-recognition technology to provide
demonstrations of the technology to the police service and other
government agencies.
Australian state police eye fingerprint biometrics
By
Sandra Rossi
Computerworld/Australia
October 14, 2005
SYDNEY -- Police in the Australian state of New South Wales are
set to introduce portable, handheld fingerprint scanners by the end of
2006.
Tenders are likely to be issued early next year with the proposal currently awaiting approval from the NSW Treasury.
Static biometric devices, known as LiveScan, are already in use in
NSW and Victorian Police stations, provided by French electronics
company Sagem, which is a supplier to military organizations across the
globe.
However, NSW police are keen to see the introduction of portable
biometric devices that can be used during routine traffic infringements
for on-the-spot identity checks.
The devices, showcased in Sydney at a recent launch of its new
mobile phones, hold up to 100,000 fingerprints and are extremely light
and rugged and ideal for law enforcement use, Sagem officials said.
A NSW Police spokesperson confirmed a submission has been made to
the Treasury Department and if approved, a "tender document will be
issued for all parties interested in providing a submission."
A Treasury spokesperson confirmed that the proposal is on the
agenda, adding that portable fingerprint devices are "among a list of
five or six priorities."
While NSW is keen to go ahead with portable biometrics, a
spokesperson for the Victorian Police fingerprint branch ruled out its
use at this stage.
Only last year the Victorian Police amended the Crimes Act 2004 to
accommodate the use of static, LiveScan units in police stations across
the state.
A spokesman for the Victorian Minister for Police, Timothy
Holding, said the fixed fingerprint machines were introduced only last
June, so there were no plans to extend their use outside of police
stations.
The Queensland Police are introducing static LiveScan systems in
mid-November and have no immediate plans for portable devices. The NSW
Minister for Police, Carl Scully was unavailable for comment.
A spokesperson for Sagem said the portable LiveScan units are new
to the market and not yet commercially available in Australia. The
official said the devices will be available locally by the end of this
year.
LiveScan technology also forms the basis of the federal law
enforcement CrimTrac system, an automated fingerprint identification
system. This is a central database of 2.4 million records and 180,000
prints from unsolved crime scenes, according to the CrimTrac Web site.
Sagem won the $11.2 million contract in January 2000.
Alabama Grips Crime With NEC Palm and Fingerprint Identification System
October 18, 2006
Huntsville Police Department Becomes Second NEC AFIS Implementation in
State With Automated Connectivity to the Alabama Bureau of Investigation
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif.-NEC Corporation of America, a premier provider
of IT, network and telephony solutions, today announced the City of
Huntsville, Alabama Police Department selected its Automated
Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) with palm print matching to
dramatically enhance its ability to quickly and reliably identify
crime-scene prints and match them to city and state databases.
"Beyond the obvious benefits of solving crimes and keeping impeccable
records, the Huntsville Police Department will see tremendous cost
savings associated with automated services like fingerprint and palm
print record loading, accurate database builds, record forwarding and
database searching, said Barry Fisher, vice president, Identification
Solutions Division of NEC Corporation of America. "In addition, the
Intuitive Graphical User Interface reduces the time required for
training, and allows the user to quickly take advantage of all the
features of the automated system."
The Huntsville Police Department joins the Mobile (AL) Police
Department as the second Full Use Access Agencies (FUAA) AFIS in the
State of Alabama with automated connectivity to the NEC AFIS located at
the Alabama Bureau of Investigation (ABI) in Montgomery. The NEC AFIS
installed at Huntsville Police Department is capable of automated input
and search/match functions for both fingerprints and palm prints.
"The installation of NEC AFIS will enhance the way crime is fought and
solved in Huntsville and the surrounding areas of Alabama," said Chief
Rex Reynolds, Huntsville Police Department. "NEC exceeded our
expectations with the resources, network and latent search capability
that could automatically connect our system to the Alabama Bureau of
Investigation AFIS."
The City of Huntsville Police Department NEC AFIS is pre-loaded with
electronically-converted fingerprint images from the Alabama Bureau of
Investigation (ABI) system, allowing the police department to
immediately search known Huntsville records, and expand the search to
the statewide database in the absence of matches at a local level. The
system at ABI then automatically forwards Huntsville Police Department
searches to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). ABI and the FBI
then both send notification back to the Huntsville Police Department
with an identification or non-identification response. This "quick
start" functionality offered by the pre-loaded fingerprint images is
enhanced by the system's ease of use, accuracy, and straightforward
entry process. Additional functionality includes Livescan, Latent Print
Enhancement sub-system, and interface to Criminal History System.
About NEC Corporation of America
NEC Corporation of America is a leading technology provider of IT,
network and visual display solutions. Headquartered in Irving, Texas,
NEC Corporation of America is the North America subsidiary of NEC
Corporation (NASDAQ:NIPNY - News). NEC Corporation of America delivers
technology and professional services ranging from server and storage
solutions, digital presentation and visual display systems to biometric
identification, IP voice and data solutions, optical network and
microwave radio communications. NEC Corporation of America serves
carrier, SMB and large enterprise clients across multiple vertical
industries. For more information, please visit http://www.necam.com.
Source: NEC Corporation of America
Eye Scan Technology Comes to Schools
A New Jersey School District Is Piloting the System Watch ABC news video
Phil Meara is superintendent of the New Jersey school district that is piloting the iris scan project. (ABC NEWS)
Jan. 25, 2006 — Parents who want to pick up their
kids at school in one New Jersey district now can submit to iris scans,
as the technology that helps keep our nation's airports and hotels safe
begins to make its way further into American lives.
The Freehold Borough School District launched this high-tech,
high-wattage security system on Monday with funding from the Department
of Justice as part of a study on the system's effectiveness.
As many as four adults can be designated to pick up each child in
the district, but in order to be authorized to come into school, they
will be asked to register with the district's iris recognition security
and visitor management system. At this point, the New Jersey program is
not mandatory.
When picking up a child, the adult provides a driver's license and
then submits to an eye scan. If the iris image camera recognizes his or
her eyes, the door clicks open. If someone tries to slip in behind an
authorized person, the system triggers a siren and red flashing lights
in the front office. The entire process takes just seconds.
This kind of technology is already at work in airports around the
country like Orlando International Airport, where the program, known as
Clear, has been in operation since July. It has 12,000 subscribers who
pay $79.95 for the convenience of submitting to iris scans rather than
going through lengthy security checks.
An iris scan is said to be more accurate than a fingerprint
because it records 240 unique details — far more than the seven to 24
details that are analyzed in fingerprints. The odds of being
misidentified by an iris scan are about one in 1.2 million and just one
in 1.44 trillion if you scan both eyes. It's a kind of biometrics, the
technique of identifying people based on parts of their body.
Phil Meara, Freehold's superintendent, said that although it was
expensive, the program would help schools across the country move into
a new frontier in child protection.
"This is all part of a larger emphasis, here in New Jersey, on
school safety," he said. "We chose this school because we were looking
for a typical slightly urban school to launch the system."
Meara applied for a $369,000 grant on behalf of the school
district and had the eye scanners installed in two grammar schools and
one middle school. So far, 300 of the nearly 1,500 individuals
available to pick up a student from school have registered for the eye
scan system.
"The price tag was high really due to the research and program
development," Meara said. "We're all aware that at that price, this
system couldn't be duplicated at other schools. But most of the money
paid for the development. So my prediction is that in the future, the
price of this system will be much lower."
Meara said they were trying to deny entry to anyone who wasn't
permitted in the building and ensure that when an adult came to take a
child out of school, he or she was who they said they were. Meara was
also involved with a pilot program that took place in 2003, in
Plumstead Township in New Egypt, N.J.
The superintendent found that teachers and parents often held the
door open for others as they entered the school, which allowed
strangers to slip right in behind.
This new eye scan system, however, catches strangers. Once the iris
scanner permits an individual to enter the school, it monitors how many
people pass through the door.
"Biometrics is the wave of the future," Meara said. "Everything
I've heard is that there will be a tremendous emphasis on making
schools as safe as possible. If our school process [shows] that this
system works, yes, it might just take off."
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