Biometric pilots, launches and investments herald further growth areas

Biometric pilot, patent, forecasts and acquisitions paint a picture of the week’s top stories Biometric update industry poised for growth in the face of falling interest rates. A Malaysian biometric border control trial with three new applications was a success, Global ID expanded its intellectual property to include a biometric authentication device, and panels at Identity Week discussed upcoming advances in technology and standards. Unico’s acquisitions of Oz Forensics and Trully are reminiscent of the investment frenzy that has taken place during the recent period of low interest rates. Investment is also paying off in post-coup Burkina Faso, where new passports manufactured by Emptech are being introduced, Mauritius, where the first ISO-compliant digital ID wallet is being introduced with the help of Thales, and Brazil, where Infant.ID trials are expanding.

Top biometrics news of the week

Burkina Faso has introduced a new biometric passport, manufactured by Emptech, which differs from the previous generation in that the country withdrew from ECOWAS earlier this year. This provides an interesting test case for how much trust is placed in passports themselves, given that before leaving the regional bloc, Burkina Faso passports and ID cards allowed visa-free travel to other ECOWAS member countries.

Malaysia’s biometric border control system at the Johor-Singapore maritime border and related border crossings has completed its pilot phase. The pilot involved three mobile apps, one of which includes facial biometrics. Meanwhile, at Singapore’s Changi Airport, a biometric system provided by Idemia is catching more people trying to enter the country fraudulently than the older manual system.

Identity Week panels explored biometric innovations and advances on the horizon, with one panel featuring Stephanie Schuckers of CITER and representatives from the U.S. Border Patrol, FBI CJIS, and Iris ID delving into how different modalities are being used. Another panel featuring SAIC, DHS S&T, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Biometrics Guru, and ROC highlighted areas that need improvement despite the tremendous progress made in recent years, while Will Graves of OBIM Futures Identity presented the agency’s roadmap to adapting image quality assessment. Digital ID interoperability, biometric startups, and facial recognition at sports venues were also among the keynote presentations at Identity Week.

Global ID has won a European patent for its BioID security protocol, which consists of a scannable, tamper-proof device used as a digital credential. The protocols described in the patent do not reveal digital evidence in the way passports do, and have been implemented in a proof-of-concept with finger vein biometrics. Also for vein recognition, the research paper on scanning suggests improving lighting to improve matching performance.

Brazilian selfie biometrics provider Unico has completed a string of acquisitions with the deals for Oz Forensics and Trully.AI. The moves give Unico a broader portfolio of proprietary technology and a stronger market position in Latin America, and Unico expects to close more deals.

Mauritius is rolling out a Thales-powered digital ID for use with a digital wallet app. The MWA digital wallet app, equipped with a new national mobile ID, is the first in Africa based on ISO standards, officials say, and will enable Mauritian residents to access a range of public and private sector services.

ConnectID Managing Director Andrew Black introduces Biometric update guest post that the gradual and decentralized implementation of bilateral agreements and consortia is the way to global interoperability of digital IDs. This is due to the different technical standards in force and the lack of a unified international legal framework.

ACI is pushing to be reinstated as the Philippine national digital ID card provider and is blaming the central bank, which manages the contract, for causing production delays. A think tank and the Senate minority leader want to launch an investigation into terminating the contract, while banks say the lack of a digital signature on the cards makes them unreliable anyway.

Parts of a Texas law that introduces age-verification rules have been struck down in court, and social media restrictions have been found to violate constitutional rights to free speech. The AVPA says the path forward for protecting children online is becoming increasingly clear in the U.S. as the Supreme Court prepares to take up the case.

The winners of the Global Media Deepfake Detection Challenge, largely managed by Ant Group subsidiary Zoloz, have been announced. A lone programmer and a team of academic researchers from Hong Kong and Macau won two tracks of the competition, using tools that can be used to mitigate the deepfake threat.

Brazil is considering setting up an infant biometrics system in the country’s hospitals to combat the persistent problem of child trafficking, and Infant.ID is showing off a second-generation fingerprint scanner specifically designed for the task at a major upcoming conference. The product is currently being tested in 13 hospitals, with more on the way.

Interesting industry interviews this week include Suprema founder and CEO James Lee answering questions from The Worldfolio about the company’s balance of domestic and international operations and addressing privacy issues. Crypto News Flash details Andrew Keys’ journey from Ethereum and SSI advocacy with ConsenSys to leading institutional blockchain investors with Darma Capital. Prembly co-founder and COO Niyi Adegboye discusses the fragmentation of KYC regulations in West Africa with Bendada.com, and Mitek’s Chris Briggs and Tim Berners-Lee discuss the optimism about the impact of EU digital identity wallets with The Next Web.

If you come across an interview, podcast, or other content that we should share with those working in the field of biometrics and digital identity, please let us know in the comments below or on social media.

Article Topics

biometric authentication | biometric identification | biometrics | digital id | digital identity | identity verification | weekly review