News and insight into biometric identification and authentication

BI2 awarded facial recognition contract

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Biometric Intelligence & Identification Technologies has announced it has been awarded a contract with the Massachusetts Sheriffs’ Association (MSA) for providing facial recognition systems to each county’s sheriff’s department as well as a number of individual police departments in the state.

The systems BI2 will be providing were created by Animetrics, a New Hampshire-based facial recognition technology developer.


The systems, which are expected to be installed across the state by this fall, do not only serve the purpose of better identifying individuals of interest for the law enforcement personnel, but also will serve as a means of better data sharing between the departments in the state.

BI2 is planning on making their multi-modal suite, called Mobile Offender Recognition and Identification System (MORIS), available to the departments as well. MORIS is designed for use on the Apple iPhone and utilizes iris recognition, facial recognition and fingerprint biometrics for authentication of an individual’s identity. [end] 

Neurotechnology announced that it has developed three versions of embedded solutions for Android-powered devices such as smart phones and tablets.

Specifically, Neurotechnology has ported its VeriFinger Embedded software development kit (SDK), which authenticates user identities via fingerprints, VeriLook Embedded SDK, which authenticates user identities via facial recognition, and MegaMatcher Embedded SDK, which authenticates user identities via both fingerprints and facial recognition. A version that utilizes iris recognition also is in the works.

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Viv.ie, a start-up located in Ireland working on face recognition technology, announced it is finishing a new type of facial recognition technology that does away with a number of the security pitfalls current facial recognition technology is commonly guilty of, according to a Sydney Morning Herald article.

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Federal Trade Commission staff is seeking public comments on the issues raised at a FTC workshop exploring facial recognition technology and the privacy and security implications raised by its increasing use.

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Human Recognition Systems (HRS) has added features and enhancements to its MForce latent fingerprint processing product.

In an effort to reduce operation times and costs, HRS has developed MForce as a mobile biometric product that enables law enforcement officers and military to obtain and process latent and livescan fingerprints in the field. By processing prints onsite, users are able to quickly provide investigators with intelligence.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded Accenture Federal Services a 13-month, $71 million contract to add biometric modalities and other enhancements to the US-VISIT program. US-VISIT uses digital fingerprints and photographs. A pilot program included in the contract will test facial and iris voluntary identification enrollment and matching.

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The facial recognition feature that’s part of the most recent incarnation of the Android mobile device operating system called Ice Cream Sandwich is being panned as very easily fooled, according to an Information Week article.

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