The 18th Biometrics Consortium ConferenceA glimpse at the future direction of biometrics
The 18th Biometric Consortium Conference (BCC) was held in Tampa, Florida, last week; hundreds of exhibitors and speakers offered a window into the future of biometrics; attendees could not but notice the presence of large number of companies offering iris scan solutions, but NIST’s Fernando Podio, the event’s co-chair responsible for the development of the conference programs, is right: “Considering the number of high-level demonstrations, and highly detailed users’ and industry presentations, it would be impossible to pick out any program, company or product that was any more remarkable than the next”
Supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Security Agency (NSA), this year’s Biometrics Consortium Conference (BCC), which was held in Tampa, Florida, last week, was the eighteenth annual two-and-a-half day assembly which focuses on biometric technologies for DHS, identity management, border crossing, and electronic commerce.
The conference, which was open to the general public, and included an array of presentations, seminars, panel discussions, and technology demonstrations by internationally recognized experts.
The co-chairs responsible for the development of the conference programs were Jeffrey S. Dunn, research directorate and technical director for biometrics at NSA, and Fernando Podio, computer security division of the information technology laboratory at NIST.This year’s program featured six keynote speakers including Lt. Gen John R. Allen, USMC deputy commander, U.S. central command, and B. B. Nanawati, deputy director general, unique identification authority of India, and more than 120 other speakers.
“With over 1,800 attendees, I’d say the conference was very successful,” Podio said in an interview with Homeland Security NewsWire. When asked whether there was any aspect of the conference that stood out in his mind, Podio commented: “Considering the number of high-level demonstrations, and highly detailed users’ and industry presentations, it would be impossible to pick out any program, company or product that was any more remarkable than the next.”
Here are some numbers about participants in the BC conference:
- 67 federal, state, and local agencies
- 36 universities and other academic institutions
- 86 exhibitors in the Biometric Technology Expo
- 413 commercial firms represented
- 122 speakers and panel members
To combat the potential for redundancies in the field of biometric technology development, biometrics standards were established by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), International Standards Organization (ISO), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). These guidelines, to which all procedures, products, or research must adhere, create a more stable and quality-driven environment from which the industry can progress and which benefit both consumers and potential investors alike.
From school lunch programs to state of the art DHS implementations, the BC conference offered a diverse portfolio of presentations that cater to government managers and other end-users, industries, and academia.
Podio commented on NIST’s history with the BC conference and the biometric industry’s developmental leap following the events of 9/11:
NIST has been involved with the Biometric Consortium conferences since 1998. Over a decade ago, many companies and programs began to realize the wide range of applications in addition to law enforcement applications, biometric technologies could
