News and insight into biometric identification and authentication

Canada promised biometric passports

Thursday, March 4, 2010

After first promising its citizens biometric passports in 2008, the Canadian government has promised to move the program back into items they intend to deliver to its citizens. The announcement came during a throne speech on March 3 that discussed multiple items that had been promised to be included in the federal 2008 budget, but were cut for various reasons.

Originally, the biometric passport was tabled due to worries over implementation costs and logistics as well as questions surrounding its proposed ten year validation span. While those behind the push for bringing the project back are interested in what the technology can do to improve national security, some politicians are still questioning if biometrics are accurate enough and if privacy concerns are being considered enough in the implementation of the project.

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International Biometric Group (IBG) announced that it has been awarded two research awards by the Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) for their Public Security Technical Program. The research awards stipulate that IBG work within a consortium that also includes other Canadian government entities as well as select experts from academia and the biometrics industry to look at various biometric technologies that can be utilized for national security in the country.

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Entrust Inc. has been selected to deploy its security solutions for Finland’s Population Register Centre. After implementing its Extended Access Control (EAC) e-passport solution more than two-years ago, Entrust has begun deployment of its Single Point of Contact (SPOC) infrastructure for e-passports.

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In a recent webinar hosted by transportation and defense industry consultant firm IHS Jane, experts weighed in on biometric usage specific to border control applications, what can be expected as a next step and what it means for travelers, according to a Transitional article.

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Italian citizens will be allowed to apply for their next generation passports at the end of this month (June 2010). The ePassports have embedded chips containing a digital facial image, a digital signature and two fingerprints. As only the police department is allowed to fingerprint citizens in Italy, the Italian government is also making year-long temporary passports available to those that are unable to get the necessary information for the new passports in time.  

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SecuGen has announced it has been awarded patents for fingerprint-based biometric technology in Japan and Canada. The two patents awarded in Canada are called “Method and Apparatus for Reduction of Trapezoidal Distortion and Improvement of Image Sharpness in an Optical Image Capturing System” and “Optical Fingerprint Image Capturing System” and the Japanese patent is called “High Contrast, Low Distortion Optical Acquisition System for Image Capturing.”

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3M and Cogent Inc. announced that they have entered into a agreement for 3M’s acquisition of Cogent Inc. for approximately $943 million, or $10.50 per share.

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