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Research & development
November 2007
U.S. Government Driving The Advance of Biometric Technologies
By Stew Magnuson
 BALTIMORE — Technology companies are developing devices that can scan 10 fingerprints at a time, instantly recognize facial features, irises, veins, voices, the way a person walks or even the shape of ears.
It all falls under the rapidly developing world of “biometrics.”
But privacy policies, the technology backbone to effectively connect the scanners — and perhaps most importantly — a market beyond the U.S. government, are lagging, experts said at the Biometric Consortium here.
The need to quickly and accurately confirm the identity of a person is driving the domestic market in the wake of 9/11. Although so far, the federal government is the primary consumer of such devices. Meanwhile, the Defense Department’s need to sort out the “good guys” from the “bad guys” in Iraq and Afghanistan is pushing the technology out into the field and challenging the industry to develop smaller and faster devices that can reach back to databases.
Peter Higgins, principal consultant at the Higgins-Hermansen Group LLC, and a leading expert in the field, said the current definition of biometrics is “automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic.”
Behaviors can be a person’s gait, for example, or strokes when signing a name or using a keyboard. Until recently the term “living person” was part of the definition, but it was recently discovered that irises can be scanned up to 48 hours after a subject’s demise, which proves how rapidly the field is changing, Higgins said.
The science of collecting fingerprints to identify a person has been around for more than a century. Married to high-speed computers and rapidly improving optics, the field is far beyond the image of Sherlock Holmes peering at fingerprints through a magnifying glass.
Measuring attributes of the human body can be used to verify a person’s identity before entering a secure facility, or keeping track of or searching for criminals and terrorists.
Massive biometrics databases are stored in the FBI’s automated fingerprint ID system in West Virginia, near the city of Morgantown, which is hoping to market itself as a biometrics innovation hub.
It has had some success. The Defense Department Biometrics Fusion Center and the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division are there. Lockheed Martin chose the area to host its biometric experimentation and advanced concepts division. And West Virginia University is positioning itself as an academic leader in the field. The FBI is also establishing a Biometrics Center of Excellence in the area, Higgins added.
The main customer for these technologies is the government with the Defense Department leading the pack, said Higgins.
George Schu, vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. and a consultant in the field, said within non-government markets, there has been “hardly any adoption of biometric technology. And there won’t be until there is a strong business case for it.”
Today, a person must currently rely on the so-called identity trinity: something you know (such as a password), something you have (like an identity card), or something you are, which is where biometrics comes in.
The potential market for biometrics may arrive in the shortcomings of the first two, Schu said. Memorizing multiple computer passwords, which must become more sophisticated to stay ahead of hackers, is growing difficult. Identity cards, which can be forged, are also problematic. They can be lost. With biometrics, “you always have it,” he said.
Some supermarkets have experimented with quick payment through thumbprint scans. Financial institutions may be the next to adopt the technology, Schu said.
Cameras that can scan crowds for familiar faces, sensors that peer into irises and massive databases kept in remote areas of West Virginia all conjure up images of Big Brother.
Along with a lagging market, the technology may also be leaping ahead of public acceptance, some experts noted.
“The National Biometrics Challenge,” a report produced by the office of the president’s National Science and Technology Council, said “a tipping point in the maturation of the technology has been reached, but individuals have varied understandings, and place varied importance on privacy and privacy protection.”
The biometrics community must work to implement policies that effectively govern the proper use of the data it collects, the report said.
“People are generally very reluctant to have their biometrics put into a database,” Schu noted.
While the council said the technology has reached a tipping point, researchers are attempting to address some of the technology’s gaps.
The current buzzword in the industry is “multi-modal.” One fingerprint is good. Two is exponentially better. If all 10 fingerprints can be collected to verify a subject’s identity, the likelihood of error is virtually nil, Higgins said. Combining iris scans or digital mug shots with the fingerprints is better still. However, all these collection methods need to be refined, experts noted. And the devices that measure, collect and transmit the personal data need to be rugged enough for extreme environments and small enough to be portable.
Christopher Miles, biometrics program manager at the Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology directorate, said some of the devices work great in laboratories, “but what is it going to do when it’s out there in a real operating environment?”
Other metrics have their own shortcomings. Voice recognition is flawed. What if a person has a cold? And the ability of computers to match faces is degraded as the subject ages, Higgins said. A fugitive wishing to escape detection from a camera that is scanning a crowd for familiar faces can disguise himself.
Higgins said these cameras are not as powerful as the public believes they are. A few police departments have tried automated face recognition systems — entering wanted felons into a database and setting them up in public areas in hopes of a “hit” — but with almost no success.
Mike Grimes, vice president of North American sales at Cross Match Technologies Inc., said it is all a matter of camera angles. How many times have surveillance cameras in convenience stores missed identifying robbery suspects because they were smart enough to wear a baseball cap and tuck their chins under their shoulders?
Simply place the camera underneath the counter, Grimes suggested.
Collecting fingerprints as a biometric has its own challenges. If 10 prints are to be collected rather than one, it must be done quickly and efficiently.
New scanners do not require ink, but they have their flaws.
Pressing a print down can distort the image. Scanner surfaces become scratched or dirty. A fingertip is not a static biometric. Those who work with their hands for a living have numerous nicks and scratches that make matching and scanning difficult.
Early versions of such scanners were easily spoofed with fake rubber fingers so researchers now have to insert sensors to ensure what is being scanned is living flesh.
There are several initiatives underway to create touchless 10-fingerprint scanners. That is trickier than it sounds. Placing the hand flat on a surface shows that the thumbs point in different directions, so the scanner must read them from different angles.
Hiroko Naito, business development manager for Fujitsu Computer Products of America, said a small percentage of the population cannot have their fingerprints read because the ridges are too shallow. Her company is marketing a touchless reader, PalmSecure, which uses infrared light to scan the vein patterns in a palm. After the age of eight, a person’s vein patterns do not change, she said.
Iris scans were considered an immature technology at the Defense Department a few short years ago. Now, handheld devices are used in Iraq to keep tabs on potential insurgents or to verify the identity of locally hired workers, police and military personnel.
Sarnoff Corp. of Princeton, N.J., is marketing its “Iris on the Move” system, which looks similar to a walk-through metal detector. It can scan and process 20 people per minute from distances of about 10 feet away, even those who are wearing glasses.
It can be placed above a door so it unlocks for registered personnel, or set up at vehicle checkpoints.
Multi-modal systems are “red-herrings,” said James Matey, a technical staff member at Sarnoff. All that’s needed are iris scans, he maintained. Sarnoff has about five customers for the portals so far. A few of them are at the Pentagon, and the others are confidential, he added.
Miles said the key to expanding the market, especially to customers such as local law enforcement agencies, will be reducing the costs.
“We’re not going to get products out to end users if they have to make decisions on [whether to adopt biometrics technology] or put fuel in their cars.”
Please email your comments to SMagnuson@ndia.org
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