Biometrics

Biometric authentication technologies have been around for a while now and, if truth be told, vary considerably from the useless Flash drive at the bottom of my drawer that has only ever recognized my fingerprint once, to something a bit more dependable. NEC has now developed an identification system that is able to register the ridges of a fingerprint and the finger vein characteristics without any sort of physical contact. Read More

If you’ve got a lot of money to throw around, what better way to show it than by spending US$825 on the thing that you carry said money around in? That’s the going rate for the Biometric Wallet from Dunhill London. Its tamperproof locking carbon fiber outer shell, leather interior and stainless steel money clip are all nice touches, but what really makes it special – and biometric – is the fact that it will only open with a touch of its owner’s fingerprint. Read More

Biometric technology allows for the verification of an individual’s identity via parameters such as their fingerprints, iris, voice, DNA ... or facial features. However, given that most people’s faces have so much in common with one another (two eyes, a nose, etc.), it’s sometimes difficult for biometric systems to tell them apart based on flat two-dimensional images. With that in mind, researchers from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton have created a computer algorithm that is capable of creating 3D models of faces based on 2D images. Read More

Research company Juniper has drawn up a list of predictions for the mobile and wireless industry for 2011 and they portray humanity hurtling headlong towards a mobile-centric lifestyle. Juniper sees 2011 as a year where we'll see increasing use of Augmented Reality, the first Cloud-Based Operating Systems, Mobile Banking becomes a must, the beginning of the demise of the credit card, the rise of Mobile Lottery Tickets, biometrics coming to mobile and Social Purchasing moving to a whole new level. A must read! Read More

Facial detection technology is now pretty common in digital cameras, but has also found its way into things like taps, door locks, televisions and even ice cream machines. Recently, researchers from the University of Manchester developed software that allows mobile phones to detect faces too. Unlike some devices that simply identify faces, however, phones equipped with this software will be able to continuously track faces in real time. Read More

If you’ve watched any spy movies, then you’ll know that biometric security systems can recognize individuals based on physiological traits such as their fingerprints, handprints, faces and irises. Well, you may soon be able to add “ears” to that that list. Scientists from the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science have used a program called image ray transform to achieve a 99.6 percent success rate in automatically locating and isolating ears in 252 photos of peoples’ heads. Read More

It’s billed as “the most powerful tool ever developed for biometric identification,” and it could well be. L-1 Identity Solutions’ HIIDE is a rugged, portable device that can establish and then verify peoples’ identities using three separate biometrics - iris, fingerprint and facial recognition. It must be pretty impressive, as the US Department of Defense recently ordered ten million dollars worth of the suckers. Read More

Researchers at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas are developing new miniature camera technology and an iris recognition application built on a high-resolution, light and compact platform known as Panoptes. The technology is designed to help the military and border patrol to track combatants in dark caves or alleys and airport security personnel to quickly and unobtrusively identify a subject from an iris scan. Read More

As identity theft continues to rise, authorities are on the lookout for ways to use a person's physical characteristics to distinguish between an imposter and the genuine article. Whereas eyes change shape according to facial expression and ears can be hidden away, researchers from the University of Bath have discovered that the shape of a person's nose is rarely affected by such things and have developed a technique which shows distinct promise for biometric identify verification. Read More