ThirdFactor | Experts warn biometric standards may be too lenient

Monday, October 13, 2008

Experts such as David Chadwick, a senior solutions advisor for Identity and Biometrics for Unisys as well as a member of the Technical Committee in the Biometrics Institute, warns that while current biometric standards are a good base for functional operation, developers should be aiming to surpass them, according to a ZD Net Asia article.

Specifically Chadwick draws attention to facial biometrics standards requiring a minimum of 640x480 pixel ratio that leaves many details unable to be detected.

Chadwick says this may not be an obstacle for some proprietary system, but it may impedes many other possible uses for the systems. For example, forensic comparisons of facial data for court proceedings are not able to be completed at the low pixel rate. As a simple fix to the situation, Chadwick suggests a pixel rate of roughly 1600x1200 as it ought to fit most users’ bandwidth requirements while allowing for very detailed imaging.

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Experts warn biometric standards may be too lenient