News and insight into biometric identification and authentication

Biometric industry improving security through new tech and adoptions

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

John Kendall, director of national security development for biometric technology developer Unisys, spoke on the new developments in the biometrics industry and how technology in conjunction with new trends in adoption are increasing the level of security by slowly edging out the easy-to-fool traditional fingerprint scanners, according to a ZDNet article.

Among the trends and developments are countries adopting new technologies for national ID programs such as fingerprint-based authentication moving towards newer, harder to fool systems such as subdermal and vascular authentication.


The technological developments in finger-based authentication that Kendall spoke of include subdermal and multispectral imaging, fingerprint scanners which scan below the surface of the fingerprint to get a more three-dimensional scan of the finger. Vascular biometrics use near infrared light to scan a user’s unique vein pattern in their finger or palm.

Among those adopting new technologies are India and Mexico, who are both incorporating iris-recognition into their national ID programs and using fingerprint as a secondary ID.

Bank of America, who is incorporating iris identification into its access control system. While iris recognition hasn’t been adopted at huge rates as of yet due to a higher price point than most other biometric, it is often hailed as among the most secure and accurate.

Kendall finished by noting that overall biometric acceptance is trending upwards as people are learning of the benefits of using the technology and he expects that costs will continue to drop as the acceptance continues to rise.

Read the full story here[end] 

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) announced that it intends to replace its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), reports the La Junta Tribune Democrat.

The 20-year old system contains almost 2.7 million master fingerprint records and is one of the oldest statewide law enforcement agency systems in the U.S. and can no longer keep up with demand. The system was designed to process 700 fingerprint cards in a 24 hour period, but today 1,000 to 1,500 fingerprint cards are put through the system.

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed and published a new protocol for devices to capture biometric data wirelessly and securely using Web services.

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M2SYS Technology has released an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) that enables the storage, search, retrieval, processing and editing of biometric data and subject records. The new system is built on multi-modal architecture, enabling users to combine the biometric matching of a fingerprint with that of an iris, face or palm print.

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The introduction of biometric multimodal fusion has helped lead to greater accuracy in biometric authentication, but its adoption rate is still overall fairly low, reports ZDNet Asia.

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