• New solution offers biometric security to mobile devices

    Aussie company offers a biometric security solution for mobile devices; a Bio-button token is authenticated by the user, and as long as the Bio-button remains in the range of the mobile device, the authentication will remain active. This means that if the phone or mobile device is stolen, lost, or moved away from the token, the pairing is disconnected and the authentication broken

  • Australia looks at facial recognition for law enforcement

    Police in Victoria, a southeast state in Australia, want to use facial recognition biometrics to assist its law enforcement personnel in apprehending wanted people; experts warn that the technology is not yet advanced enough to be used as evidence in court

  • Animetrics provides facial recognition systems to Massachusetts law enforcement

    BI2 Technologies awarded contract to implement statewide facial recognition system in Massachusetts to identify inmates, suspects and gang members; the facial recognition technology will come from new New Hampshire-based Animetrics; BI2 Technologies’ own iris biometric technologies are already being used by state and local law enforcement agencies in forty-seven states

  • Top biometrics students invited to contend for industry awards

    The European Biometrics Forum holds its annual competition for budding biometric enthusiasts; the award aims to encourage on-going essential research in biometrics

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  • New study confident about prospects of voice biometrics

    Commercial deployments of voice biometrics have been slow; in the past, this was because of the technology’s instability; yet, despite marked improvements and the ability to create robust solutions, voice biometrics still has not enjoyed the widespread proliferation which advocates of the technology anticipate; this is about to change

  • Apple patents heartbeat-recognition sensors for iPhone

    Apple’s new patent will allow iPhones to identify user’s heartbeats & mood; by integrating this technology with the iPhone, the handset can authenticate the user by seamlessly picking his or her heart rate instantly as soon as they pick up their phone; no password required or tedious scanning of fingerprints or faces

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  • Using behavioral biometrics for online IDs

    The federal Education Act of 2008 is driving schools to crack down on ID authenticity; it says that universities offering online programs need to put strict measures in place to make sure the students registered for those courses—and possibly receiving federal financial aid—are the same students getting credit for them

  • TIE Technologies unveils BIO Metric and intelligent video technology development project

    Edward Andercheck, chairman and CEO of TIE Technologies: “Today’s science has made it possible to identify and authenticate the ‘one of a kind’ unique BIO Signature generated by individuals entering or leaving designated areas, thereby enabling the protection of buildings and weapon systems, and empowering security in large cities everywhere.”

  • A new U.S. biometrics agency created to manage DoD-wide responsibilities

    The role of biometric information in U.S. national security is increasing, and the U.S. government creates the Biometrics Identity Management Agency (BIMA); BIMA, a component of the U.S. Army, will lead Department of Defense activities “to prioritize, integrate, and synchronize biometrics technologies and capabilities and to manage the Department of Defense’s authoritative biometrics database to support the National Security Strategy”; DoD says: “Biometrics is an important enabler that shall be fully integrated into the conduct of DoD activities to support the full range of military operations”

  • New biometric identifier: hand bacteria

    Each individual has a “personal” bacteria communities living on the fingers and palms of individual computer users; members of these communities are deposited on keyboards, mice and other things we touch; the link between the bacterial communities and the bacterial DNA signatures of individuals may soon become a tool in forensic identification

  • Animetrics chosen by Unisys for facial biometric contract for U.S. DoD

    Unisys selects Animetrics for U.S. Department of Defense synthetic identification project; the company uses 2D to 3D face creation technology for face recognition matching in difficult face imaging environments

  • Update: The FBI caps nearly 90 years of use of biometrics with its Biometric Center of Excellence

    The FBI has been using various forms of biometric identification since its earliest days — from photographs and fingerprints in its first years (and assuming responsibility for managing the U.S. fingerprint collection in 1924), to applying handwriting analysis in the Lindbergh kidnapping case in 1932, to its laboratory’s pioneering work on raising latent finger, palm, and other soft tissue prints from evidence, to today’s development of DNA analysis as a means of genetic fingerprinting

  • Proposed bill calls for ID card for U.S. workers to curb illegal immigration

    Advocates of immigration reform are pushing for a bill in the Senate which would create a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain; the biometric data would likely be either fingerprints or a scan of the veins in the top of the hand; employers will not be able to hire applicants who do not present a valid ID

  • Voice security technology advanced

    The acoustic parameters of the voice are affected by the shape of the vocal tract, and different people have different vocal tracts; new research will help improve the speed of speech authentication, without sacrificing accuracy

  • New identity authentication method: nose biometrics

    Unlike other facial features used for biometrics, such as eyes or ears, noses are difficult to conceal and also are not changed much by facial expression; researchers find that nose scanning showed good potential for use as a biometric, with a good recognition rate and a faster rate of image processing than whole face recognition