BT/ Apple, Google, and Microsoft increase FIDO, and W3C support to widen passwordless sign-in

Biometrics biweekly vol. 37, 25th April — 9th May

TL;DR

• Apple, Google, and Microsoft will work together to accelerate the acceptance of a passwordless sign-in standard set by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for their devices and platforms
• Microsoft says DOD needs to be better at detecting synthetic identities. And do it sooner
• FaceTec has a new neural network model that it says delivers authentication accuracy with 3D face biometrics 876.56 percent better than its previous algorithm, and an even more massive improvement compared to the leading algorithm reported in the industry-leading benchmark
• MOSIP partners with BixeLab for a global biometric device certification framework
• Idex Biometrics is now a Preferred Partner in Infineon’s Security Partner Network
• SecurID, Blink Identity awarded key cybersecurity certificates
• B-Secur updates heartbeat biometric software to improve the accuracy of ECG
• Mobai, authID.AI biometric PAD compliance confirmed with perfect scores
• DHS Biometric Rally 2021 results show accuracy gains, but masks and equality are still challenges for some
• FinGo unveils vein biometrics-based vending machines with age verification
• Synthetic AI startup raises $17M to train facial recognition with digitally-rendered people
• CyberLink launches facial recognition APIs for developers
• SecureAuth unveils 4 patent wins for biometric, behavioral fraud controls
• Integrated Biometrics completes compliance testing to MOSIP security standard
• Sumsub launches proof of address document recognition, plans $80M-$100M Series B
• AI improving at sentiment recognition, and is already good at the rash judgment, studies show
• Touch Biometrix unveils fingerprint sensors launch plans with Series B funding round
• Face Forensics extends tattoo matching and face biometrics suite for broad object recognition
• Nuggets collaborate on metaverse digital identity with the tokenized community management system
• Orbbec upgrades 3D camera with built-in AI for advanced applications, facial recognition
• Idemia releases new biometric ID Screen 60 tablet
• Berbix launches peer-to-peer biometric ID verification
• BIO-key adds native device biometrics, and pushes token authentication to MFA app
• Bonifii partners with Entersekt, chooses Mastercard affiliate for open banking
• Veridas ISO/IEC compliance confirmed for level 2 biometric liveness detection by iBeta
• Berbix launches peer-to-peer biometric ID verification
• LexisNexis buys BehavioSec, adds behavioral biometrics to fraud detection portfolio
• Plurilock behavioral biometrics surge in revenue from ASC acquisition
• Voice biometrics to reach $21B; Pindrop, PowerVoice pursue new partnerships
• Undisclosed face detection code in Hong Kong app turns out to be bundling error
• Europol finds urgent actions needed to counter criminals using deepfakes
• Norway to replace BankID on mobile with biometric apps for improved security
• Winning.I showcases fingerprint and palmprint biometric software at Korean IT exhibition
• Fingerprint Cards partners for biometric payment cards in India, 2021 results released
• Buenos Aires planning an ambitious decentralized digital identity system with biometrics
• Sri Lanka ready to launch biometrics registration for digital identity scheme
• France announces a user-controlled mobile digital identity app for use with a national ID
• Carnegie report suggests biometrics and digital ID adoption can help South Africa’s cybersecurity
• 14 Indian researchers are developing a new blockchain and machine learning-based digital ID and video KYC authentication system that will serve as the one-stop platform for all financial transaction requirements
• Elon Musk pledges to ‘authenticate all humans’ following Twitter purchase
• Biometric industry events. And more!

Biometrics Market

The Biometric system market size is projected to grow from USD 36.6 billion in 2020 to USD 68.6 billion by 2025; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 13.4% during the forecast period. Increasing use of biometrics in consumer electronic devices for authentication and identification purposes, the growing need for surveillance and security with the heightened threat of terrorist attacks, and the surging adoption of biometric technology in automotive applications are the major factors propelling the growth of the biometric system market.

Biometric Research & Development

Latest Research:

Researchers working on a blockchain-based digital ID system to improve India’s financial landscape

Considered as Aadhaar 2.0 in some way, 14 Indian researchers are developing a new blockchain and machine learning-based digital ID and video KYC authentication system that will serve as the one-stop platform for all financial transaction requirements, thus revolutionizing the financial space.

As The Times of India reports, the developers of the solution are based across the Institute for Research and Development in Banking Studies (IDRBT), the International Institute for Information Technology, Hyderabad, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhilai. They say it will be available in the next two and half years, and will also help drive financial innovation as money can be transferred to beneficiaries’ wallets using the system.

aadhaar: Aadhaar 2.0? Next-gen Digital Id Platform Being Built By City-based Research Bodies |…

The platform, which is being built thanks to funding from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, will be complementary to the Aadhaar system as it can serve as a digital wallet where documents other than Aadhaar that are needed for financial transactions can be stored. The funding is to the tune of Rs230 million (US$3 million), the report notes.

“Once this platform gets evolved, I think it’s going to become the basis for an auto-powered 24/7 system available for you to just finish your KYC requirements at any given point in time,” says D Janakiram, director of IDRBT as quoted by The Times of India.

“You may be able to interact with this platform through multiple modes such as phone or ATM kiosks, where you show all your documents on video and it then gets stored in the system.”

According to the researchers, the new video KYC system will not only spur financial innovation, but will also facilitate KYC checks by banks and other entities.

KYC processes with video biometrics have been taking root in India although they stalled at one point due to regulatory issues.

AI improving at sentiment recognition, and is already good at the rash judgment, studies show

When a person demonstrates a low emotional quotient (EQ), they are sometimes described as having robotic reactions. Normal human reactions also include making inaccurate judgments, however, like superficial first impressions based on the way someone’s face looks.

Understanding how someone will be perceived by others is a function of EQ, and a team of researchers from the Stevens Institute of Technology says they have trained an AI algorithm to do so with high accuracy.

A study published in the IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing by researchers from a pair of Japanese academic institutions and reported by Psychology Today suggests that artificial intelligence applied to normally unobservable physiological characteristics can significantly improve speech-based sentiment analysis.

Psychology Today frames the paper within the broader movement to build human-like EQ into automated services like chatbots.

The abstract for ‘Effects of Physiological Signals in Different Types of Multimodal Sentiment Estimation’ describes a fusion of linguistic data and physiological data to achieve higher-accuracy sentiment recognition.

“Our results suggest that physiological features are effective in the unimodal model and that the fusion of linguistic representations with physiological features provides the best results for estimating self-sentiment labels as annotated by the users themselves,” the researchers write.

Effects of Physiological Signals in Different Types of Multimodal Sentiment Estimation

Sentiment analysis is often differentiated from emotion recognition based on the type of data used, and both fall under the more general umbrella of affective computing.

A forecast from MarketsandMarkets predicts the global market for emotion detection and recognition will grow at a robust 12.9 percent compound annual growth rate to reach $43.3 billion by 2027. Speech-based systems are expected to take the largest market share, and in addition to chatbots, automotive applications are seen as among the market’s likely main drivers.

An article contributed to Tech Xplore by Stevens Institute of Technology outlines the research into predicting how people’s faces will be judged, which is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

‘Deep models of superficial face judgements’ describes the identification of 34 “perceived social and physical attributes,” such as trustworthiness and age, based on first impressions of computer-generated facial images. These impressions were used to label images and train a neural network to make similar judgements, with significant success, according to the paper.

“The algorithm doesn’t provide targeted feedback or explain why a given image evokes a particular judgment,” lead researcher Jordan Suchow says. “But even so it can help us to understand how we’re seen — we could rank a series of photos according to which one makes you look most trustworthy, for instance, allowing you to make choices about how you present yourself.”

This algorithm has opinions about your face

Main News

Apple, Google, Microsoft increase FIDO, and W3C support to widen passwordless sign-in

Apple, Google, and Microsoft will work together to accelerate the acceptance of a passwordless sign-in standard set by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for their devices and platforms.

On World Password Day, the companies said the changes will create a better experience and enable service providers to offer FIDO credentials without needing passwords as an alternative sign-in or account recovery method.

A Google blog post says a phone will hold a FIDO credential, or passkey, based on public-key encryption. The credential is shown to a locked site or app when a user unlocks their phone. Those working on a desktop computer will be notified to unlock their phones when they run into a gated site.

The credential is always in the cloud, so it will download to a new phone along with all other backed-up data, according to Google.

One step closer to a passwordless future

Password-only authentication is one of the biggest security problems on the web. Constant reuse of passwords leads to account takeovers, data breaches, and stolen identities.

While the three firms have supported FIDO standards for their passwordless authentication functions like face and fingerprint biometrics and PINs, the implementation has required users to sign into each site or app with every device before they can use passwordless functionality.

Now, the tech giants are enabling automatic access via FIDO sign-in credentials on multiple devices without having to re-enroll every account and using FIDO authentication on mobile devices to sign into an app or site on a nearby device, regardless of OS platform or browser.

“Ubiquity and usability are critical to seeing multi-factor authentication adopted at scale, and we applaud Apple, Google, and Microsoft for helping make this objective a reality,” says Andrew Shikiar, executive director and CMO of the FIDO Alliance.

There will be “a new wave of low-friction FIDO implementations alongside the ongoing and growing utilization of security keys — giving service providers a full range of options for deploying modern, phishing-resistant authentication,” Shikiar says.

In April, FIDO announced a new test window for experts seeking FIDO-certified authentication professionals to help organizations move beyond passwords.

Microsoft says DOD needs to be better at detecting synthetic identities. And do it sooner

AI and cybersecurity are converging, according to Microsoft’s chief scientist, and one result will be the long-term inability of the U.S. Defense Department to reliably detect deepfakes using algorithmic tools.

Eric Horvitz testified this week before the cybersecurity subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Horvitz says AI is getting better at detecting manipulated and synthetic identities, including deepfakes, but it is a losing effort.

Instead, software developers have to turn that solution upside down.

Offensive AI is improving the effectiveness of cyberattacks and algorithms. Defensive algorithms are, in turn, becoming more vulnerable to attack, Horvitz says.

It is starting to spook a lot of people. Europol’s concerns, for example, are mounting.

The first experimental and commercial software designed to spot synthetic identities are arriving, including Microsoft’s anti-cyber attack products. (Many of the world’s militaries are working on their own defenses.)

New research shows promise in spotting fake expressions in videos as a way of flagging deepfakes and new commercial software capable of detecting synthetic-ID fraud.

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, say their Expression Manipulation Detection framework can detect and then spotlight the emoting areas of a face that have been changed. Their paper is here.

Last month, Unite.AI reported a less unwieldy way to detect deepfakes using biometrics.

Meanwhile, a company called Early Warning Services says its newest AI-based software, Verify Identity, enables a business to determine in real-time whether a presented identity is valid or synthetic.

All that might be good for now, but Horvitz’s message is that none of it will win out.

He says the world needs to speed the development of technology that guarantees digital-content provenance — a way to put a figurative reality watermark on recorded events, including the actions and words of individual people.

Few of Horvitz’s recommendations to the defense establishment are surprising: Invest in its own research and development, follow security hygiene best practices, train employees, create its own networks to share information and experiences, and prepare for the worse.

Legislation focused on provenance efforts in the civilian world — the Deepfake Task Force Act — was introduced in the Senate last summer. It would seek mechanisms for determining who created and subsequently manipulated deepfake content.

FaceTec claims best-ever face biometric authentication accuracy with a new model

FaceTec has a new neural network model that it says delivers authentication accuracy with 3D face biometrics 876.56 percent better than its previous algorithm, and an even more massive improvement compared to the leading algorithm reported in the industry-leading benchmark.

The Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) does not test 3D data and therefore does not include FaceTec’s algorithms. The developer argues that NIST’s results are irrelevant as 2D facial authentication is not sufficiently accurate to provide robust security, and has not been for five years.

The new algorithm developed by FaceTec, however, achieves a 1-in-125 million false acceptance rate (FAR), according to the announcement. The ramifications of this are described by FaceTec as “game-changing,”, particularly in combination with liveness detection with 99.999 percent confidence.

“Our algorithms utilize the unique shape of the user’s 3D Face, not just 2D face data, and the results are exceptional,” states Josh Rose, FaceTec’s CTO. “When we compare them, our latest 3D face matching algorithm is approximately 8,600 percent better than the #1 NIST FRVT 2D algorithm.”

FaceTec has turned to the UK’s Age Check Certification Services (A.C.C.S.), which is accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), which will perform N:N testing using the company’s 3D face biometrics.

“We are committed to the certification of the latest, state-of-the-art biometrics, age estimation, and identity verification systems, and to that end, we are offering the first testing framework for 3D Face Matching accuracy, which will enable next-generation biometric modalities, like FaceTec’s, to be evaluated at scale,” says Tony Allen, CEO of A.C.C.S.

Like all FaceTec algorithms, the new model utilizes a short video selfie, captured on any modern smart device or webcam, to perform both biometric matching and presentation attack detection.

“FaceTec’s 3D FaceMaps are created using standard 2D cameras but contain much more data than a flattened, 2D photo ever can,” comments Kevin Alan Tussy, CEO of FaceTec. “Think of the copper phone lines used for both dial-up modems and DSL internet. Just as the latter achieves vastly better results with the same hardware, similarly our patented innovations collect 3D data from ubiquitous 2D cameras and the results significantly outperform 2D face matching.”

Idex Biometrics is now a Preferred Partner in Infineon’s Security Partner Network

Norway-based Idex Biometrics has extended its long-standing biometrics collaboration with Germany-based Infineon, joining its Security Partner Network as a ‘Preferred Partner’ to make it easier for manufacturers to integrate their combined technologies.

The enhanced partnership means close cooperation with the technical and sales team of Idex and the technical specialists of Infineon to tailor Idex’s turnkey biometric payment card solution based on Infineon’s secure elements.

The partners have been working together on biometric payment cards since 2018.

“We are pleased to welcome Idex Biometrics as a Preferred Partner and to further strengthen our collaboration” states Tolgahan Yildiz, head of the Payment and Ticketing Solutions product line at Infineon. Idex Biometrics, with the Infineon reference design, is meeting the expanding demand for fast and convenient payments secured by authentication. We are providing the increased security and peace of mind consumers are asking for in their daily lives.”

“With increasing demand for biometric smart cards, deeper collaboration with Infineon and their partners within the ISPN ecosystem should further accelerate the market growth,” comments Vince Graziani, CEO of Idex Biometrics. “We already collaborate with JNet, another ISPN member, for JavaCard software development, and look forward to broadening our relationships, addressing customer demand for market-leading fingerprint authentication across a range of high-security applications, including payment cards, crypto wallets, and secure identification for access control.”

The two companies stepped up their collaborations with the development of a reference design for the architecture of next-generation biometric smart cards with Idex’ TrustedBio authentication module and Infineon’s SLC38 security controller in 2021.

SecurID, Blink Identity awarded key cybersecurity certificates

SecurID, the identity and access management cloud platform of RSA secured with biometrics and multi-factor authentication, has been approved for use by the U.S. government.

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, an initiative by the federal government to accelerate the adoption of cloud services, issued the certificates.

RSA Federal, which sells SecurID, added 325 security and privacy controls based on NIST 800–53 for federal information systems, except those related to national security.

RSA says it enhanced core components in its platform throughout the certification process. Among those enhanced were the firm’s Cloud Authentication Service, a software-as-a-service platform for single sign-on and multi-factor authentication for SaaS, web and mobile applications; and a range of authentication methods like biometrics, one-time password, FIDO, hardware tokens, and risk-based authentication, all using machine learning and behavioral analytics.

The company says the COVID-19 pandemic, recent geopolitical crises, a rise in nation-state attacks, the adoption of the cloud and 5G, and government mandates like the Strengthening American Cybersecurity Act have pressured the government to bolster its cybersecurity.

Jim Taylor, chief product officer of SecurID, says, “We have the flexibility and focus to adapt to the needs of government agencies wherever they work — whether that’s on-premises, in the cloud, or both.” The certification improved SecurID for only government buyers, but commercial sales as well, he says.

In 2021, ID.me received FedRAMP authorization for Identity Gateway ahead of a series of government contracts.

• Blink passes SOC 2 type 1 audit

Motion and face biometrics company Blink Identity has passed a service organization control (SOC) 2 Type 1 audit that validates the credibility of its internal functioning for large organizations.

The audit was performed by Prescient Assurance. Blink Identity received support from ControlMap, a SOC 2 audit-readiness firm, and cybersecurity automation platform.

Blink Identity CEO Mary Haskett expresses confidence that the SOC 2 audit proves they can protect current and prospective customers’ data, work with larger enterprise organizations, and pass due diligence requirements faster.

A SOC 2 is conducted by a third-party auditor that measures the organization’s controls and safeguards based on security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy, according to the company.

“Obtaining the SOC 2 Type 1 certification reinforces our ongoing commitment to the security, availability, and processing integrity of our platform,” says Alex Kilpatrick, chief technology officer at Blink Identity. It shows the firm is investing to establish and maintain the highest level of security and compliance.

The company joins InnoValor and Clearview AI as biometrics providers that have recently met SOC 2 requirements.

MOSIP partners with BixeLab for a global biometric device certification framework

MOSIP has enlisted the help of BixeLab to draft a new modular, globally adaptable, certification framework for biometric devices and software.

MOSIP — the Modular Open Source Identity Platform — notes the mounting adoption of its technology around the world, and the need for a higher standard for the quality of biometric images to ensure the best possible performance of deduplication and authentication functions. To meet this request, MOSIP brought on BixeLab, the second NIST NVLAP-certified biometric testing lab in the world, to form a new certification framework.

BixeLab was also recently accredited for FIDO biometrics testing.

The goal of the framework, according to MOSIP, is to provide standardized assessment criteria and operating procedures to test devices and solutions and establish standardized MOSP biometric device certification programs to provide independent certifications to MOSIP users. It aims to outline the assessment of full compliance at the levels of image quality, software interfaces, and hardware-based security implementation to offer meaningful and realistic results. It adds that adopting countries should be able to rely on these results to make decisions for the biometric devices in their ecosystems.

The two partners decided that standard assessment criteria have to be independently adoptable by global labs, supported by global and geography-specific needs for compliance, and be usable by MOSIP-adopting countries.

These global labs will offer a MACP (MOSIP Advanced Compliance Program) certification to meet each country’s needs in mind and developed in consultation with the ecosystem, MOSIP states.

The benefit of an independent mechanism for biometric certification is the flexibility to either set up certification programs internally or rely on empaneled, independent laboratories to ascertain the quality of devices, MOSIP says. This will reduce the time-consuming and resource-intensive development of full-fledged programs, it claims while being especially useful for smaller countries that may lack the bandwidth for in-house certification schemes.

MOSIP says the framework will be developed in stages and be published regularly for feedback. It expects the qualification criteria for labs as part of the framework. Early drafts are expected by the third quarter of 2022.

MOSIP also provides Secure Biometric Interface standards for partners to self-test for compliance with, as was just completed by Integrated Biometrics.

B-Secur updates heartbeat biometric software to improve the accuracy of ECG

B-Secur announced an update to its HeartKey cardiac monitoring software to enhance the effectiveness of its biometric medical capabilities and applications.

The company describes the HeartKey 2.0 as a cloud-based software that reduces electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG) signal noise to refine data and give clinicians more accurate information during the diagnosis phase. It also says it will raise medical and financial efficiency by minimizing false positive matches and the need for additional testing.

With the intent to facilitate a greater trend towards medical wearables, including consumer electronics, B-Secur says HeartKey 2.0 is available for Holter monitors, wearables, and implantable devices. The software received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in 2021.

B-Secur says HeartKey 2.0 is timely, due to COVID-19’s impact on the heart leading to irreparable cardiac damage and arrhythmias, which places greater emphasis on heart health and remote monitoring through IoT medical devices. It is a sentiment echoed by Ben Carter, B-Secur’s chief commercial officer, in an interview with Biometric Update, who said the pandemic shifted its focus to health-related heart biometrics software and wearables.

Carter said the company is looking to resume its biometric authentication plans while it seeks to raise more Series B and Series C funding.

ECG biometric cannot be forged: study

Research from The Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lucknow, suggests that ECG identification may be the strongest biometric available because it cannot be forged or spoofed.

The research, published in the Pattern Recognition journal, performed ECG analysis using signal processing and machine learning techniques to discover that there is statistically “no chance of ECG resemblance in the whole world population of 7.9 billion,” according to professor YN Singh, who led the study.

ecg: 'ecg Safer Than Biometrics For Human Identification, Comes With Zero Forgery' | Lucknow News …

Singh refers to problems with tokens and passwords as security vulnerabilities, and cases where fingerprint biometrics are fooled by spoofs. He says the research shows that ECG can be a biometric modality that also features an inherent sign of life that robustly protects it against spoofing.

The results of the paper are similar to a study from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, which found a person’s heartbeat can be used as a highly accurate biometric to identify individuals.

Mobai, authID.AI biometric PAD compliance confirmed with perfect scores

Mobai and authID.AI have each received compliance confirmation for the ISO/IEC 30107–3 presentation attack detection (PAD) standard, demonstrating their effectiveness against biometric spoofs with error-free evaluations.

Mobai passed the test with both a Bonafide Presentation Classification Error Rate (BPCER) and an Attack Presentation Classification Error Rate (APCER) of zero percent. The Swiss Center for Biometrics Research and Testing within the Idiap Research Institute conducted the test.

“The ISO-certification is part of our policy of using recognized and qualified 3rd parties to test and verify our products and services. Openness and transparency are critical factors for building trust. We believe this ISO-certification will strengthen our relationships with key customers and partners” says Brage Strand, CEO of Mobai.

For authID.AI, which provides a face biometrics platform Verified, the Level 1 and 2 tests were conducted by iBeta Quality Assurance, found that the company’s passive liveness detection algorithms recognized and prevented all 720 PAD attempts equally split between Level 1 and Level 2, ending with a flawless score for both levels.

AuthID.AI says Verified detects PAD with active consent and passive liveness checks on the user’s selfie by first requiring them to smile when capturing the image. Then it analyzes the photo against quality metrics to filter through PAD algorithms to detect spoofing attempts. The aggregate scores are outputted to calculate whether the biometric sample is authentic and should be considered for facial recognition.

“This independent confirmation further demonstrates how Verified can provide additional fraud protection and security to authID customers,” says Jeremiah Mason, senior vice president of product. “Our ISO 30107–3 Level 2 compliant PAD system, along with authID’s ability to bind a user’s biometrics to their identity, prevent presentation attacks, and provide stronger safeguards against fraud and account takeover, by authenticating the person instead of what they know or have.”

In its March report on the company’s 2021 financial results, authID.AI said it has been investing in mobile facial recognition development.

Trustmatic launches API for liveness checks

Trustmatic is making a liveness API publicly available, adding it to its line of APIs and biometric onboarding platform.

The company notes the rise in presentation attacks to exploit weaknesses in facial recognition conducted for remote user onboarding and identity verification, and says its Liveness API can plug the holes by verifying the authenticity of selfies and ID photos. Its PAD has been confirmed to the ISO 30107–3 standard for Level 2 compliance with testing by iBeta, according to the Liveness API website.

Trustmatic says the API can process a selfie in under one second, is easily integrated as a plug and play code, and is free for users on a base level and scalable with an upgrade. It will be released to the public in June 2022, and open for a waitlist.

The Liveness API joins its FaceTrust API for facial recognition and the DocuTrust API for ID recognition.

FinGo unveils vein biometrics-based vending machines with age verification

FinGo has completed the integration of its biometric payment and age verification technology into a new vending machine solution.

The new FinGoVend biometric vending machines enable users to pay and to pass age checks by placing their fingers in a built-in sensor that scans their vein biometric finger patterns.

FinGo provides age verification capabilities along with remote payments through its partnership with VMC, which was formed earlier this year to allow FinGo to develop vending machines.

In-person cashless transactions and age checks are also being supplied for NYCE International by FinGo through a deal formed last month.

Using FinGoVend, users who have registered their unique vein pattern to provision their digital ID and digital wallet will be able to verify their identity to purchase age-restricted products, including alcoholic drinks, e-cigarettes, and vapes.

The vending machines were first presented as prototypes at the Vendex Midlands show in the UK on April 26th and featured a selection of drinks from Vagabond Wines and brewery First Chop.

The UK Home Office is currently carrying out trials of digital age verification technology, with FinGo among the participants. For context, FinGo is a subsidiary of Sthaler, and utilizes Hitachi’s vein biometric technology. The firm partnered with Croma in January to increase the reach of its biometric products.

FinGo’s competitors in the biometric vending machine space include American Green, which also performs age verification, and Popcom.

Face Forensics extends tattoo matching and face biometrics suite for broad object recognition

Face Forensics has expanded its biometric platform for facial and tattoo recognition with object and scene recognition capabilities with the release of the f2 Image Recognition Suite. The update also features improved tattoo and facial recognition algorithms, the company says in the announcement.

The Vancouver-based biometrics developer says in an announcement that its image-matching algorithm is an enhanced version of its crime scene matching technology that can now detect objects in a database and identify it, regardless of size, format, and partial visibility. The objects must be solid with distinguishing features and can be as big as a building or as small as a ring, Face Forensics adds. Some examples of objects it can recognize are vehicles, flags, logos, and jewelry.

The software’s automated capabilities also extend to analysis and enrollment of the pattern and characteristics of an image, batch import and enrollment of images, and detection and enrollment of images added to external databases. The software has no limit to the size of databases that can be searched, Face Forensics claims.

The company routinely adds new recognition features to its f2 Image Recognition Suite. In 2020, it upgraded the suite for recognition of partially-occluded tattoos.

The f2 Image Recognition Suite and its modules can be used alone or integrated into existing systems, and are available as a .NET software development kit or as a web service.

The suite is available for evaluation by government agencies and their suppliers at no charge, according to the announcement.

CyberLink launches facial recognition APIs for developers

CyberLink released its facial recognition APIs for the ‘FaceMe Platform’ to enable its integration into systems, workflows, IoT solutions, and web browsers.

“Our customers have expressed a desire to integrate FaceMe’s top-ranking facial recognition capabilities into their workflow while keeping the option to develop their own solutions,” says Jau Huang, CEO of CyberLink. “The FaceMe Platform offers a perfect balance between an all-encompassing software development kit and end-to-end packaged solution, giving developers the freedom and flexibility to deploy facial recognition in the manner that best meets their needs.”

The FaceMe Platform features a complete set of HTTP-based facial recognition APIs with management and testing tools designed for server deployment, scalable architecture for optimized deployment, and a web-based management console to monitor and manage databases and system services in one place, the company announcement says.

The platform is equipped with a facial recognition API set that includes face detection, face template extraction, 1:1 face match, 1:N face search, people grouping, age, gender, and emotion identification. The FaceMe Platform features tools that allow developers to quickly test or benchmark installed APIs with little coding required, CyberLink claims.

Other features include scalable architecture, an auto load-balancing design, and a set of the management console and testing tools. Besides software solutions, CyberLink mentions two out-of-the-box solutions that are packaged with the FaceMe Platform that are usable for any device with a web browser: the FaceMe TimeClock for employee management and time management, and FaceMe Smart Retail for customer analytics that utilizes facial recognition to draw data for retailers. FaceMe Smart Retail will be released in Q2 2022, the FaceMe Platform website states.

The Taiwanese face biometrics and AI company recently joined the FIDO Alliance and updated its FaceMe Security facial recognition software to integrate with AXIS Communications’ security cameras and systems.

SecureAuth unveils 4 patent wins for biometric, behavioral fraud controls

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted SecureAuth a series of patents for technologies to prevent fraud in access control by utilizing dynamic levels of assurance, biometrics, and behavioral modeling.

All four of the patents granted describe behavioral modeling for continuous passwordless authentication. Three were granted last year by the USPTO, but SecureAuth is only now announcing the entire series. Each was acquired as part of the Acceptto deal.

The term ‘Biobehavioral’ is registered as a way for SecureAuth to describe its derived credentials, and how the derivation works is explained in ‘System and Method of Biobehavioral Derived Credentials Identification’ and ‘Authentication and Authorization Through Derived Behavioral Credentials Using Secured Paired Communication Devices’.

Both describe credentials created “using biometric and behavioral-based information to provide proof of identity and a dynamic way of calculating a derived key.”

SecureAuth does not describe its Biobehavioral technology as behavioral biometrics, but as it appears to measure the behaviors of an individual for comparison, rather than comparing them against an aggregated norm, it would appear to qualify. The biometrics referred to in the patent documents are physical biometric modalities captured on a mobile device.

Where they differ is in the more general description of a “client device” in the ‘System and Method’ patent and the use of a third security key for access control.

The third patent for a ‘System and Method for Rapid Check-In and Inheriting Trust Using A Mobile Device’ and ‘System & Method to Identify Abnormalities to Continuously Measure Transaction Risk’, also filed by Acceptto, were granted to SecureAuth in February and in May of last year, respectively.

The former describes the use of behavioral modeling and a mobile device to provide a basis for derived trust and use for physical access control. The latter applies behavioral modeling to logical access control.

“The traditional password-based paradigm must be transcended. Digital authentication must be re-conceptualized beyond a simplistic ‘in’ vs. ‘out’ binary decision made in isolation. As we continue to innovate across new behavioral modeling techniques, SecureAuth delivers enhanced identity protection and ensures access is only granted and maintained for the true identity,” says Shahrokh Shahidzadeh, CTO, SecureAuth. “This game-changing technology uses machine learning to learn and leverage individual behaviors to increase assurance levels and security.”

Integrated Biometrics completes compliance testing to MOSIP security standard

Integrated Biometrics is the latest vendor in the digital ID space to join MOSIP as a partner by performing self-testing for compliance across its full line of contact fingerprint biometric hardware.

MOSIP, an acronym for ‘Modular Open-Source Identity Platform,’ provides Secure Biometric Interface (SBI) standards to ensure governments of the security of biometric transactions in trusted environments.

The company emphasizes the security of its multi-finger biometric sensors for identity management, between its patented LES technology and strong encryption platform.

“MOSIP is pleased to announce Integrated Biometrics as a MOSIP Partner in our self-compliance curriculum and the successful completion of the program,” Comments MOSIP Head of Biometric Ecosystem Sanjith Sundaram. “Events like this are an encouraging reminder of our dream of an ever-growing, global partner ecosystem.”

The Philippines, Morocco, and Togo have already adopted MOSIP, and pilots are underway in Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, and Guinea.

The platform was also updated recently to version 1.2 for increased multilingual support and an extended version lifecycle.

“Working with MOSIP to achieve self-compliance through its program was a straightforward, seamless process due to their excellent support,” states Integrated Biometrics Chief Scientist Fred Frye. “IB’s technical acumen once again exhibits our leadership in the identity management market. IB is excited to add this additional offering to our global partners and end-users.”

Arana Security announced in March it would use Integrated Biometrics fingerprint scanners for its new mobile biometric enrollment kits.

DHS Biometric Rally 2021 results show accuracy gains, but masks and equality are still challenges for some

Three-quarters of the errors encountered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) in its latest biometrics rally occurred during the photo capture part of the process, compared to only one in four during matching.

The results of the 2021 Biometric Technology Rally, held at the Maryland Test Facility (MdTF), have been released for public review. Masks were a particular focus of the 2021 Rally.

RequestResults - Maryland Test Facility

A total of 50 different combinations of hardware devices for biometrics acquisition and algorithms for matching were analyzed, and their performance disaggregated according to gender and skin tone. The five facial image acquisition systems and ten facial recognition algorithms are anonymized with code names, but past participants include NEC and Rank One.

DHS led 601 participants with diverse demographics through six steps, from informed consent to reporting, and analyzed the results according to the anonymized vendor, but also gender and skin tone. The scenario tested for is a high-throughput identity check, meaning less than five seconds per person, without staff operation of equipment.

People without masks have correctly identified an average of 95 percent of the time, across all systems, while people wearing masks were correctly identified 86 percent of the time. The median system in the 2020 Biometric Rally identified people wearing masks 77 percent of the time.

Error rates were observed to be 3 percent higher for women than men, on average, but the most accurate system did not make any errors matching women, and the worst scores for each gender were 79 percent for men and 81 percent for women.

People with darker skin were accurately matched 93 percent of the time, compared to 97 percent for those with lighter skin, though again, the best-performing system did not make any errors matching people with dark skin.

Paravision has revealed that it is the vendor code-named ‘Salt,’ which means it was one of the vendors found to perform matches with a 100 percent true identification rate (TIR) for people of all shades of skin when their biometrics were collected with the most accurate imaging system.

Undisclosed face detection code in Hong Kong app turns out to be bundling error

LeaveHomeSafe, a contact-tracing app built and deployed by the Hong Kong government to reduce cases of Covid, apparently is safe to leave home with.

An investigative news publisher in the Chinese territory reports that it had found inactive biometrics-based facial detection code in LeaveHomeSafe’s source code.

According to FactWire, it is likely that the code in question resided in an open-source framework called React Native. Developers can put the framework in their apps. The framework contained code that would tie into a phone’s camera.

LeaveHomeSafe works by recording QR codes posted at venues for contact tracing. The camera module seems to have come with some face-detecting functions that should have been stripped.

The camera code is only tied to the rear-facing cameras, not the front-facing lenses, making it unlikely to be a hidden surveillance feature.

News publisher The Standard reports that a deputy government CIO went on a radio program to say the biometric feature in question was never activated. It was unintentionally bundled with the camera code, and it will be removed in a planned app update.

It is not a paranoid reaction in Hong Kong to think of surveillance on finding undisclosed capabilities.

LeaveHomeSafe app to drop built-in facial detection feature

Biometrics can help smartphones work better and spot neurological disease

Biometric tools are getting a lot more information from a person’s eyes than just iris patterns. They are reporting how a user holds their phone and screening for ADHD.

Japanese researchers say they have found a way to automatically see how someone holds a phone and adjust the position of content on the phone’s screen. The biometric algorithm shifts the content, making it accessible to the user’s fingers and thumbs.

ReflecTouch: Detecting Grasp Posture of Smartphone Using Corneal Reflection Images - CHI '22

The pupil becomes a part of a device’s human-machine interface.

The selfie camera captures the reflection of the camera in the user’s eyes. Fingers are shadows on the rectangular image. The researchers say that the app, called ReflecTouch, is 85 percent accurate at recognizing one of six hand postures for holding a phone.

Other than loading the biometric software, nothing needs to be added to the phone for it to work, according to a team of scientists at Tokyo University of Technology, Keio University and Yahoo Japan. Yahoo is sponsoring this week’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems at which the scientists are presenting their work.

Meanwhile, University of California, San Diego, researchers say they have written an app people can use to screen themselves for neurological maladies including ADHD and Alzheimer’s disease. The work was done in the university’s Jacobs School of Engineering.

The scientists presented at the conference as well. They bill their work as at-home pupillometry using a phone’s near-infrared facial ID and color cameras. Together, they track absolute pupil dilation with sub-millimeter exactness.

DigiHealth Lab - UCSD - Smartphone pupillometry

The mean error rate for tracking pupil dilation was 3.52 percent according to the researchers’ paper. Tracking dilation is a standard test for cognitive processing and is also used in psychology.

A new round of tests on mDL function standards. Will the US take notice?

New logistical and process details have been published for the next mobile driving license test in Kentucky at the end of the month.

The International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission have been working since at least 2018 to make the world safe for internationally recognized digital driving licenses that include biometric identifiers.

The test party, as sponsors call the two-day event, will begin May 30 in Louisville, Ky., and May 11 is the deadline for registering. Interoperability functions will be tested.

Vendors have been encouraged to bring other digital ID functions to demonstrate, including a digital international vaccination certificate and a domestic vehicle registration.

Part five of the mDL standards-making effort (known as ISO/IEC 18013–5 mDL interoperability) will focus on three areas, including the interoperability of previously standardized functions as they have been implemented by vendors.

Members of the American Association of Motor Vehicles Administrators’ (AAMVA’s) subcommittee on mDLs contributed to the event’s organizations, and Ping Identity is hosting.

The ISO and IEC will also use the event to look for more functions to be standardized, to maintain industry momentum, and to nudge North America. That last part, which really refers to the United States, will continue to be a puzzle for backers of mobile IDs.

Little evidence exists that standardization can be found among the 50 states, much less between the nation and the rest of the world.

Organizers are cautioning anyone participating in the event and those wanting a final product that no formal certifications will be issued based on test results recorded in Kentucky.

Synthetic AI startup raises $17M to train facial recognition with digitally-rendered people

Startup Synthesis AI has raised $17 million in Series A funding from a number of funders to back its synthetic AI platform that generates a wide range of people to teach visual AI models like facial recognition.

Synthesis AI, founded and led by CEO Yashar Behzadi, received funding from a round led by 468 Capital with participation from Sorenson Ventures and Strawberry Creek Ventures, Bee Partners, PJC, iRobot Ventures, Boom Capital and Kubera Venture Capital, according to TechCrunch. The proceeds will support its product R&D, team growth, and further research, according to Behzadi. There are plans to develop products in verticals including photo enhancement, teleconferencing, smart homes, and smart assistants.

Synthesis AI raises $17M to generate synthetic data for computer vision

The company specializes in the generation of synthetic data on a cloud-based platform that creates synthetic image data with labels through a combination of AI, procedural generation, and video effects rendering technologies. It allows for modifications of bodily features like gender, age, weight, skin tone, ethnicities, and more specific appearance details like pose, hair, facial hair, and apparel. There is also an adjustment for environmental aspects like the lighting and even the lens type of the virtual camera.

Synthetic data is growing in popularity within the biometrics sphere to train algorithms for its relative ease of use, customization for humans and the environment, and potentially avoiding the ethical and legal pitfalls that accompany the collection of data from people.

Behzadi told TechCrunch that AR, VR, and metaverse companies are already using Synthesis AI’s platform to build “more realistic and emotive avatars,” as well as smartphone and consumer device customers adjusting their camera modules, and developers building a driver and occupant sensing system that use the synthetic data to figure out optimal camera placement in a vehicle.

The chief executive believes Synthesis AI can solve problems of gender and racial bias that affect the collection of face biometrics. He holds that the platform can generate a more diverse assortment of faces that would otherwise be uncollected in the real world. It is also said to not carry personally identifiable information and isn’t copyrighted, which adds privacy and fair use.

A research paper from Microsoft demonstrated the possibility of using synthetic data to train facial recognition algorithms, but a 2021 article in the MIT Technology Review suggests mixed results from attempts to bypass privacy and bias allegations with synthetic data. Matthew Guzdial, an assistant computer science professor at the University of Alberta, is quoted as saying in the TechCrunch article that Synthesis AI’s own whitepaper admits that a model trained on solely synthetic data will result in worse outcomes.

The funding of Synthesis AI joins the likes of Datagen which has raised millions for synthetic AI to train AI algorithms in human motion biometrics.

Sumsub launches proof of address document recognition, plans $80M-$100M Series

Sumsub adds proof of address (PoA) document subtype recognition to grant its fintech clients a more accurate picture of the kind of documents that are submitted to perform know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.

The customer onboarding provider supplies face biometrics to authenticate users, and says it now allows user verification flows to be adjusted to specific regulatory requirements because companies can set unique rules based on the type of document that was submitted. Some examples include telecom, mobile operator, and utility bills; government-issued statements like voter registration or tax bills; and bank statements and certificates.

Sumsub cites a problem around PoA where the legitimacy of the permanent residence document is not assured. Bank statements and tax bills are considered PoA, but other are associated with high forgery rates or high risk like mobile phone bills, due to SIM cards being purchasable regardless of long-term residence. With its document subtype recognition, Sumsub says its clients can now see what kind of document is submitted as PoA based on regulator requirements.

“With our Proof of Address document subtypes check, you can leverage risks with your service accessibility. It is now easy to differentiate rules based on the type of the document submitted,” says Andrew Novoselsky, chief product officer of Sumsub.

“For instance, you can offer a higher deposit for your application if they use a bank statement, or allow them less if they verify their address with a mobile bill,” he explains.

Sumsub says the document subtype recognition will add five to 10 more seconds to the PoA verification.

Sumsub doubles run rate in 6 months, prepares to raise funds

Sumsub Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Viacheslav Zholudev confirmed plans to raised $80 million to $100 million in Series B funding on a YouTube show hosted by Nathan Latka, who believes the company is a “secret unicorn.”

In an interview with Latka, Zholudev went through his journey with Sumsub, from its founding as an anti-Photoshop software in 2012 that did not go very far (“There was no market for it”), to a pivot in 2015 toward using face biometrics and document analysis to authenticate customers for KYC/AML and KYB. Zholudev says Sumsub currently has 1,000 total customers, with 40 tier 1 customers that pay more than $100,000 per year for its services, with some paying over $1 million. Its top client is billed $7 million per year, with the average customer paying $10,000 to $20,000 per year.

Sumsub recently released a case study showing how its selfie biometrics have helped improve KYC speeds and pass rates for fleet rental software company MyMove.

With Sumsub raising $6 million in 2020 and a half going to secondary funding, Zholudev said he’s happy the team built a product with “almost no external funding, and we’re cash-flow positive.” The company’s growth impressed Latka, who pointed to its annual run rate of $45 million to $50 million in 2021, up from $20 million to $25 million six months prior. Latka estimates that Sumsub is in the top 2 percent of fastest-growing SaaS companies in the world.

Responding to an inquiry over Sumsub’s future funding plans, Zholudev said it is aiming for $80 million to $100 million in Series B funding which they can pursue as it is not ‘burning money” with its “luxury position.” As he is a chief technology officer and not part of the financial team, he could not divulge what valuation range the company would be happy with, as even the financial team isn’t sure either.

“I’m afraid to lie right now because if I calculated and multiply something then it probably wouldn’t be the right number,” he said with a grin.

But Latka estimates that Sumsub could raise possibly 30-fold, feasibly 45 to 50-fold, their valuation at a $40 million to $45 million run rate. With that figure, Latka believes it would be valued at $1.3 billion, turning Sumsub into a unicorn.

Despite the goal of funding, Zholudev says it is currently more important for Sumsub to find strategic partnerships to expand into new markets to establish offices in new regions. They are also seeking interesting mergers and acquisitions partnerships. The funding would help the firm invest in stronger marketing efforts, as it is currently focused on the quality of its product and promoting its success via word of mouth.

According to Crunchbase, Sumsub has currently raised $7.5 million.

BEuropol finds urgent actions needed to counter criminals using deepfakes

Convinced that deepfakes already pose an unprecedented criminal threat, the European Union’s law enforcement agency says lawmakers and regulators need to step up now. Police need the resources to detect and prevent successful deepfakes.

Europol has published a report describing deepfakes and the danger they pose to EU citizens. Countering deepfakes will require governments to adapt tools and policies in order to combat “the new reality of deepfakes.”

The report goes through a list of risks that governments now face, the last of which was “maintaining trust in the face of an increase disinformation.”

As a demonstration of awareness, the report is encouraging to security experts of all kinds, but the top risk posed by deepfake algorithms is distrust. It is an important point, and it has been underplayed in the past.

Two years ago next month, a NATO Strategic Communications panel concluded that deepfakes were not a major threat. People — including troops — are either jaded or educated about misinformation and would not trust and act on the words of a deepfaked leader.

Relatively unsophisticated deepfakes of the Ukrainian and Russian Presidents were shared on social media but quickly recognized as fakes in March.

One of the NATO panelists talked about “the almost mythological subject of deepfakes.”

Risk prioritization aside, the Europol communicates urgency about deepfakes.

“In the months and years ahead, it is highly likely that threat actors will make increasing use of deepfake technology” to commit crimes or mislead public opinion.

Laws and compliance tools are needed. Social media platforms should be all but deputized to seek and remove deepfakes.

Likewise, police agencies have to train now for deepfake detection. Facial and voice biometrics are heady new avenues for crimefighting, and could eventually be compromised by deepfake media, the report suggests, leading to a recommendation not to rely on “specific deepfake detection systems.”

Researchers worldwide are working on countermeasures, but the technology moves so fast that it is difficult to feel confident advances will not quickly be overtaken by new threat techniques.

Meet 4 common requests to increase facial recognition trust, financial inclusion group says

A U.S.-based network of people advocating for an inclusive economy through technology and market innovation says the success of facial recognition depends on both the public and private sectors working hard to engender trust in AI tools.

The Financial Services Innovation Coalition, says ordinary people are worried that facial recognition systems will be an oppressive, biased, and unblinking eye stripping them of liberty.

While some are agitating for a ban on the technology, most have four requests, according to a new report published by the coalition with support from the Security Industry Association.

Facial recognition systems should be strictly regulated, and there needs to be transparency on the technology’s development, testing, operation and management.

Government and industry should be able to demonstrate that the technology can be created and used ethically.

And, last, compensation should be provided to anyone who is harmed by the biometric tools, according to the coalition, which is made up of industry players, lawmakers, academics and community groups.

The report does not say stakeholders should view this as a list of demands, per se. Its authors are pointing out that the industry might avoid the further city and regional bans by addressing these justifiable areas.

What follows are discussions of numerous pressure points that flow from the list. Most of them could easily have been cadged from B school or public policy texts.

Vendors and other AI developers need diverse teams to make products that address the many market needs and concerns.

Debates on public policy are critical to adopting the right technology and getting citizens’ buy-in, according to the report. A good place to start would be differentiating between police surveillance and public safety monitoring.

The suggestions are numerous, and worth considering, but one of the more unusual notes is this: Mandate the use of the best technology to get the best results. Naturally, that will be the pitch to governments and other would-be clients, but this time, at least, buyers might want to consider it.

Making price the primary consideration likely will mean getting AI systems that were poorly written and trained on problematic datasets. The result could at best be biased decisions.

Touch Biometrix unveils fingerprint sensors launch plans with Series B funding round

Touch Biometrix has announced a successful Series B funding round, and plans to launch a FAP60 fingerprint biometric sensor as the first product utilizing its thin transistor film (TFT) technology with ‘active pixels.’

The company declined to specify the amount of funding it has received in the latest round, which was led by the Deepbridge Capital Technology Growth Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) fund.

CEO Mike Cowin tells Biometric Update that Touch Biometrix may add to its head count over the next 12 months, but the team to deliver its biometric products to market is already in place, with more than 120 years of collective experience bringing TFT-based products to market.

The newest funding announcement follows a £2 million (approximately US$2.5 million) Series A funding round in 2019, and more recently a partnership on go-to-market strategy with SystematIC.

Touch Biometrix says in the announcement that its FAP60 sensors are planned for a sample product release in the third quarter of 2022, to demonstrate its high resolution and slim form factor.

Design and simulations completed over the past 12 to 18 months with Touch’s production partner give Cowin confidence that no barriers to producing the product remain to be solved before market entry.

“In addition to the sensor design we have developed our own read out IC (ROIC) with our development partner Systematic, so both the sensor and ROIC will delivered on time to issue samples to the customer pipeline,” Cowin explains. “Indeed, now that the heavy lifting has been done in proving our patented ‘active pixel’ design in product form, we’re considering a multiple product launch as the additional development is minimal in defining and delivering say a FAP45 or FAP30 sensor at the same time, so no major challenges remain.”

The fabless developer says its new manufacturing model enables high volume production of fingerprint biometric sensors at low cost and at any size, on glass or plastic, with different shapes possible with the latter material.

Internet of Behavior grows but can the industry get ahead of public misgivings?

Ethics concerns continue to delay the deployment of current and new biometric surveillance technologies. For every positive use case, there seem to be two cautionary tales, and many emanate from China.

A pair of articles published by the technology-collaboration association AFCEA picks up this narrative regarding the coming Internet of Behavior. The IoB combines all forms of biometric identifiers and the many related demographic datapoints to analyze and influence behaviors.

Unfortunately for the nascent industry, the fullest example of how the Internet of Behaviors can operate is autocratic China’s social credit score program.

Beijing is using its vast network of facial recognition cameras and the vaster database of personal information that it has collected on its citizens to coerce behaviors and loyalties in line with the ruling Communist Party.

The articles, in the AFCEA’s publication Signals, lean on a 2019 report by technology consultant Gartner Group that predicts the Internet of Behavior will influence the benefits and services eligibility of 40 percent of people globally by sometime this year.

Gartner Top Strategic Predictions For 2020 And Beyond

In 2021, the IEEE posted a short summary of IoB, concluding that it is “set to generate considerable momentum in the development of the sales industry.” The financial sector is keeping tabs on it, too.

Quoting Rand Corp. researcher Mary Lee, the publication notes “there’s not a lot of clarity” about who owns the data and how it is used and managed.

The same Signals author, in the second piece, suggests a solution to that ambiguity — train AI to explain it to people, an endeavor under development since at least 2018. The term reportedly was coined in 2012 by a University of Helsinki professor.

Explainable AI Can Assist Internet of Behavior Efforts

XAI, as the concept is known, could make the Internet of Behavior apps transparent, enabling them to be part of a “more trusted and understandable framework in changing human behaviors.”

U.S. military R&D lab DARPA has made the case for XAI. Officials say machine-learning systems need to be able to explain themselves and how they will operate.

Current social trends do not indicate a growing public trust of technology or even logic, but business investments are being made.

Azena, a German software startup funded entirely by the Bosch Group, is working on the technology. Its website promises that the “Internet of Behavior is here to stay.” BMC Software also is involved.

What Is the Internet of Behaviors? IoB Explained

New startup and product investments seek to capitalize on biometric access control successes

From dasGate registering soccer spectators in Spain to a South African solution performing employee sobriety checks, a new product debut from Spectra Technovision and over $1 million in funding raised for startup Nine Engineering, access control biometrics continue to make strides in the market.

• Belgian access control startup raises over $1 million

Nine Engineering, a Ghent, Belgium-based access management and SaaS company that incorporates biometrics into its products has raised €1.1 million (approximately US$1.16 million) to further refine its security and privacy offerings, according to an accouchement.

The startup’s line of products includes the NineGuard, a biometric access control solution with onboarding, facial recognition and smartphone scans to grant access to security points, and monitoring of people on site; and NineID, a contractor management SaaS platform for documentation centralization.

With its products, Nine Engineering says it is filling a security gap between the physical and digital world. Roy Jeunen, the co-founder of Nine Engineering, says the current access control technology is outdated, not privacy-compliant, offers limited security and safety, and are often not user-friendly. As a result, Frederik Keysers, another co-founder of Nine Engineering, points to demand from “big industrial players” seeking an integrated software package that centralizes and automates identity and access management, which they offer.

The company’s solutions are said to be scalable for use in production sites, airports, and ports, and also applicable for fraudulent shift time recording by employees.

Nine Engineering is supported by investors Pitchdrive and Noël Keysers, with loans from BNP Paribas and PMV. Jeunen says the company is ready to take its business international in 2023, with plans to expand beyond the Benelux region into the UK, Scandinavia, Germany, and potentially the U.S.

While biometric access control solutions exploded in popularity during COVID-19, a report from IPVM sees a decline in its popularity with the waning of the pandemic, with the exception of high-security environments, including data centers and server rooms.

• ERSBio partners on workplace sobriety check

ERSBio, a South African biometric access control and time attendance company partnered with fellow South African alcohol breath detector company ALCO-Safe to incorporate its technology into workplace sobriety checks in industrial settings.

According to Engineering News, the two companies collaborated on an integrated breathalyzer solution named the ‘Lion Alcontrol.’ The solution requires the employee to input a fingerprint biometric to confirm their identity as a registered employee, which activates an unmanned breathalyzer which needs a negative result to access the workplace. The Lion Alcontrol can be fitted on a wall as a voluntary device or affixed on a turnstile as an access control system with a siren that alerts others when a positive alcohol sample is detected. It can also be equipped with face biometrics technology to prevent ‘buddy clocking.’

Zander Els, a special projects consultant at ERSBio, says the Lion Alcontrol links to software that captures precise data on number of tests, clock-in times, and the number of employees who tested positive for intoxication, which can be reported to the company to detect trends and find repeat offenders.

“Our partnership is mutually beneficial, as we are able to offer the customised products ERSBio needs, while leveraging their established customer base and market expertise to tap new markets. We look forward to a longstanding relationship with ERSBio’s tailored solutions to meet the specific needs of the South African market,” says Rhys Evans, managing director at ALCO-Safe.

Biometrics and alcohol detectors have found a combined use previously with places like Thief River Falls, Minnesota, using the technology to reduce the time spent on low-level offenders.

• dasGate face biometrics testing for stadium entry expands

Spanish soccer team Osasuna used facial recognition from Spanish company dasGate, which uses Veridas face biometrics, as an expedited entry option for its El Sadar stadium, which dasGate says was a success, processing 20 fans a minute.

The biometric security gate is a facial recognition system that allows spectators to enter the stadium without lining up and without carrying the season ticket. Registering for the gate is said to take less than a minute, with the individual using their smartphone to scan an ID card, the QR of your season ticket, and a selfie image. Once registered, they can enter with just their face biometrics by standing in front of a kiosk.

The biometric access control system trials at El Sadar Stadium were announced in 2021.

First tested in one security gate for Osasuna’s match against Alavés, the promising results meant it was expanded to eight gates for the match against Real Madrid. With the second time, it resulted in five times the number of people who entered through the facial recognition turnstiles compared to the first use. The company says 20 people per minute entered through the biometric gates, which it calls “an unprecedented figure in the flow of fans entering a stadium.”

DasGate notes that there are two league matches left in the El Sadar Stadium, and eight gates will remain available with its biometric entry option.

Spanish facial recognition companies have built applications for their local soccer teams and their stadiums before. FacePhi’s face biometric technology is used in the Valencia CF stadium.

• Spectra develops biometric access control device for Indian SMEs

Spectra Technovision launched an IoT-based biometric attendance and access control system in conjunction with a mobile app to meet the needs of Indian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The device named the Biot, is said to feature a 2.8 inch thin-film transistor display, an anti-scratch fingerprint sensor of 500 dpi, an ARM Cortex 32-bit processor, built-in Wi-Fi, and 128 MB data flash memory that can store up to 48,000 transactions.

The Biot Mobile App is described as a user-friendly app to allow access to control of a user’s office.

“We have studied the SME market quite intensively and ensured that Biot fixes all those pain points like keeping a track of on-field employees, securing the owner’s cabin if they’re not present, and generating relevant reports that help calculate payroll quickly. Besides all this, Biot’s stylish look is something that no one else can top. It’s all about moving easily in stride with technology,” says Deepak Gulgulia, co-founder and CEO of Spectra.

Innovators honored for advances in edge AI, biometrics, and deepfake detection

Researchers and technology developers innovating in biometrics and adjacent areas have been recognized for patent achievements, new artificial intelligence models and influential ideas by various associations and publications.

The founder of Carnegie Mellon University’s biometric lab, who is also Oost’s chief AI scientist, was recognized as the inventor of the year by the Pittsburgh Intellectual Property Law Association while Singaporean analysis scientist Wang Weimin received $100,000 in prize money for his deepfake detection algorithm. Anonybit was named as an honorable mention on Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards and Hummingbirds AI will compete with four other startups at the Vision Tank Summit. Ambiq, a low-power semiconductor company with ties to the biometrics industry, took home four Stevie prizes for business innovation, including a gold award.

• Oosto chief scientist named Innovator of the Year by IP law association

Professor Marios Savvides, the founder of Carnegie Mellon University’s biometric lab, was named the Innovator of the Year 2022 by the Pittsburgh Intellectual Property Law Association for his role in technological achievements and development of patents that are deemed economically significant and/or have made a positive impact on society.

Savvides serves as the chief AI scientist for vision AI and face biometrics provider Oosto and a professor in AI at Carnegie Mellon University, where he also directs the CyLab Biometrics Center. He is profiled as a widely published expert in biometrics with 35 patents and patent publications, and 250 publications in facial, iris, pattern, and object recognition.

“The pace of innovations in biometric AI that translate into economic progress is accelerating and would not be possible without the support of many entities. Thus, it is an especially great honor to be the recipient of the Inventor of the Year 2022 Award from the Pittsburgh Intellectual Property Law Association,” says Savvides.

• ByteDance employee wins $72K prize for deepfake detection

Singaporean analysis scientist Weimin Wang, an employee at ByteDance, prevailed in a five-month challenge to develop the best AI model to detect deepfakes, according to Techy Insight.

The competition involving over 400 groups was organized by AI Singapore with its Trusted Media Program to find AI solutions for “fake media” like deepfakes. It provided the participants with a challenge dataset of original and fake videos and challenged them to build AI models that can output a probability that a given video is altered digitally.

Out of all the participants, Wang’s AI model was the most successful at noticing digital manipulations, with a 98.53 percent success rate. He received a SG$100,000 (approximately US$72,365) prize and a SG$300,000 (approximately US$217,098) startup grant.

Wang says he hopes to apply his AI model to ByteDance’s platform and supply deepfake detection as a service to its purchasers.

ByteDance is the parent company of TikTok.

• Anonybit biometric cloud infrastructure honored by Fast Company

Anonybit’s biometric cloud infrastructure earned an honorable mention by Fast Company as an ‘On the Rise’ technology.

The company’s decentralized biometric identity platform on the cloud did not make the list in the category that is part of the World Changing Ideas Awards, but was recognized for its role in positive social innovation.

Commenting on the listing, Frances Zelazny, CEO and co-founder of Anonybit, says, “This recognition from Fast Company validates our novel approach to securing biometrics and other personal data and digital assets. With a world increasingly on line and moving into the metaverse, our society is at a critical juncture having to solve multiple challenges at the nexus of identity, security, fraud prevention, and privacy. Our goal is to be the cornerstone for how we address these issues and establish trust and we look forward to making this vision a reality.”

Anonybit achieved an industry first when it added 1:N biometric identification capabilities to its decentralized biometrics cloud service, proving that large-scale deployments such as government ID applications can be securely decentralized.

• Ambiq wins four Stevie awards for innovation

Ambiq won a total of four Stevie awards from the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards and the American Business Awards in separate innovation categories for its low-power semiconductor solutions.

The company earned the gold statuette for Innovation in Technology and a silver award for Most Valuable Technical Innovation for its partnership with Singapore’s TraceTogether COVID-19 program. It took home the silver prize in the Achievement in Product Innovation and the bronze prize in the Most Valuable Technical Innovation.

A press release says Ambiq’s Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT) platform was recognized for its ultra-low power semiconductor solutions that have driven energy efficiency and productivity with wearables, smart homes and buildings, automotive end markets, and industrial applications.

Its role in the TraceTogether program involved its Apollo3 Blue system-on-a-chip to enable community contact tracing with COVID-19.

“We are passionate about innovation and strive to achieve our mission of enabling the intelligence in all endpoint devices,” comments Charlene Wan, vice president of branding, marketing, and investor relations at Ambiq. “The awards are a wonderful way to recognize our team members and their contributions in both the US and ASEAN region.”

The Stevie awards add to the accolades received for SPOT, with it winning the Business Intelligence Group Innovation Award in January.

• Hummingbirds AI to compete in startup competition

Hummingbirds AI will present its Guacamole biometric authentication platform on May 18 in front of a panel of judges at the Vision Tank Start-Up Competition to vie for funding and support.

The company will contend against four other finalists in the event that will examine their product for technology innovation, business plan, team, and business opportunity. It will pitch Guacamole in front of a panel of judges and a live online audience who will vote for the Audience Choice Awards.

The winner of the Judges’ Award takes home $5,000, while the winners of both awards will receive a one-year membership in the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, one-on-one advice from the judges, and introductions to potential investors, customers, employees, and suppliers.

The Vision Tank Start-Up Competition is part of the 2022 Embedded Vision Summit that aims to showcase ventures that use visual AI and computer vision to solve problems.

Hummingbirds AI pitched Guacamole at SXSW Pitch in March.

These Weeks’ News by Categories

Access Control:

• Apple, Google, Microsoft increase FIDO, W3C support to widen passwordless sign-in
• New startup and product investments seek to capitalize on biometric access control successes
• SecureAuth unveils 4 patent wins for biometric, behavioral fraud controls
• Data centers stand out for biometric access control adoption amid flagging demand

Consumer Electronics:

• Biometric data must be processed with ‘European values’: EDPS opinion on Data Act
• Concerns about SIM registration with biometrics are genuine, digital rights activists argue
• Biometrics can help smartphones work better and spot neurological disease
• Nigeria's government, telecom bodies collaborate on rapid digital ID issuance to unblock SIMs
• Group challenges order blocking 72M SIMs unlinked to biometrics in Nigeria
• Face biometrics for smartphones still evolving, eye and gesture tracking in development
• New automotive biometrics growth forecasts, patents and adjustments unveiled

Mobile Biometrics:

• Nuggets collaborate on metaverse digital identity with the tokenized community management system
• Feedback for EU digital wallets as Switzerland explores the digital ID ecosystem
• Chastened IRS plays down biometrics for taxpayers, starts service for tax preparers
• Berbix launches peer-to-peer biometric ID verification
• Workshop showcases EU progress on remote identity proofing, but fragmentation persists
• Undisclosed face detection code in Hong Kong app turns out to be bundling error
• BIO-key adds native device biometrics, push token authentication to MFA app
• FaceTec claims best-ever face biometric authentication accuracy with new model
• Norway to replace BankID on mobile with biometric apps for improved security
• Bonifii partners with Entersekt, chooses Mastercard affiliate for open banking
• Immigrant tracking biometric app contract expanded by US agency
• New biometrics deployments at US, Greek, German airports
• Winning.I showcases fingerprint and palmprint biometric software at Korean IT exhibition
• Selfie biometrics onboarding takeover continues with new customers, success stories
• Trust Stamp builds a new MFA solution with selfie biometrics, tokenization technology
• Au10tix co-founders negotiating sale of stake at valuation above $1B: report
• Idemia releases new biometric ID Screen 60 tablet
• Gigya-linked startup scores $6M to build mobile biometric 2FA
• FaceTec pitches liveness detection to authenticate social media users, fight spam
• US seeks input for biometrics equity study to determine course of remote government access
• Face biometrics for smartphones still evolving, eye and gesture tracking in development
• Trust Stamp CEO discusses interoperable metaverse wallet with biometric authentication
• Optional biometric age checks proposed for New York State
• Veridas ISO/IEC compliance confirmed for level 2 biometric liveness detection by iBeta
• More work needed on super-resolution to adapt selfie biometrics to poor conditions

Financial Services:

• Berbix launches peer-to-peer biometric ID verification
• Carnegie report suggests biometrics and digital ID adoption can help South Africa’s cybersecurity
• Norway to replace BankID on mobile with biometric apps for improved security
• Fingerprint Cards partners for biometric payment cards in India, 2021 results released
• Bonifii partners with Entersekt, chooses Mastercard affiliate for open banking
• Idex secures biometric payment card deal with online bank, files 2021 annual report
• Worldcoin adds layer of privacy to biometric cryptocurrency after disapproval
• Selfie biometrics onboarding takeover continues with new customers, success stories
• Ego vs synergy: the problems and potential for digital identity and open banking in Africa
• Researchers working on blockchain-based digital ID system to improve India’s financial landscape
• Sumsub launches proof of address document recognition, plans $80M-$100M Series B
• Trek to widespread digital IDs continues but Women in Identity warns it might be long
• Signicat expands anti-fraud and onboarding portfolio with Sphonic acquisition
• Financial crime in a digital age — Why banks need a holistic approach

Civil / National ID:

• Buenos Aires planning an ambitious decentralized digital identity system with biometrics
• Nuggets collaborates on metaverse digital identity with tokenized community management system
• Aadhaar officials say no to request for biometrics in Delhi murder investigation
• Feedback for EU digital wallets as Switzerland explores digital ID ecosystem
• Concerns about SIM registration with biometrics are genuine, digital rights activists argue
• Conference proposes biometrics-based documentation for Central African Republic refugees
• Kenyans called upon to verify entries as biometric voter registration nears end
• New round of tests on mDL function standards. Will the US take notice?
• Zimbabwe’s mobile biometric voter registration phase ends
• Veiled Bangladeshi women urge fingerprint biometrics as alternative to photo ID
• Biometrics funding and contracts bringing opportunity also mean more scrutiny
• How will digital wallet pilots in Europe affect the world?
• Everyone wants online IDs strictly controlled — their way
• Nigeria government, telecom bodies collaborate on rapid digital ID issuance to unblock SIMs
• Sri Lanka ready to launch biometrics registration for digital identity scheme
• France announces user-controlled mobile digital identity app for use with national ID
• Ex-bureaucrat says fraud can be cut and fed’s broken digital ID management fixed
• Canadians weigh in on national digital ID with urgency, trust, fear
• Researchers working on blockchain-based digital ID system to improve India’s financial landscape
• Ethiopia issues second tender for biometric registration hardware for digital ID enrollment
• Trek to widespread digital IDs continues but Women in Identity warns it might be long
• Passport demand outpacing issuance, Portugal opens biometric gates to UK travelers
• Group challenges order blocking 72M SIMs unlinked to biometrics in Nigeria
• Civil society coalition sues Ugandan government, alleging digital ID exclusion
• Zimbabwe opts for biometrics to fight fraud in issuance of land title deeds
• Task force recommends biometric visas to strengthen security at ECOWAS borders

Government Services & Elections:

• Buenos Aires planning ambitious decentralized digital identity system with biometrics
• Chastened IRS plays down biometrics for taxpayers, starts service for tax preparers
• Conference proposes biometrics-based documentation for Central African Republic refugees
• Biometrics funding and contracts bringing opportunity also mean more scrutiny
• Sri Lanka ready to launch biometrics registration for digital identity scheme
• France announces user-controlled mobile digital identity app for use with national ID
• NEC enrolls biometrics of 50M Vietnamese for ID authentication
• Ex-bureaucrat says fraud can be cut and fed’s broken digital ID management fixed
• Canadians weigh in on national digital ID with urgency, trust, fear
• Ethiopia issues second tender for biometric registration hardware for digital ID enrollment
• US seeks input for biometrics equity study to determine course of remote government access
• Biometric system for vehicle sale in Pakistan’s Punjab faces forgery issues
• Civil society coalition sues Ugandan government, alleging digital ID exclusion
• U.S. gov’t gets an earful on biometric data policy. It’s not the first earful….
• Zimbabwe opts for biometrics to fight fraud in issuance of land title deeds
• Zimbabwe’s mobile biometric voter registration phase ends
• Kenyans called upon to verify entries as biometric voter registration nears end

Facial Recognition:

• Face biometrics performance advances with new algorithm, benchmarks
• EU committees propose strengthened AI Act tougher on biometric surveillance
• Artificial vision with facial recognition gets avid but meager attention
• Face biometrics accuracy over time boosted by adaptive reference gallery: EAB webinar
• Top performing developers steady in updated NIST facial recognition 1:N test results
• DHS Biometric Rally 2021 results show accuracy gains, but masks and equality still challenges for some
• Immigrant tracking biometric app contract expanded by US agency
• Time to talk specifics of new facial recognition legislation, Canadian privacy authorities say
• Ireland to share face biometrics with EU to tackle crime on wider scale
• South Wales Police claim success with facial recognition app trial
• Synthetic AI startup raises $17M to train facial recognition with digitally-rendered people
• Meet 4 common requests to increase facial recognition trust, financial inclusion group says
• CyberLink launches facial recognition APIs for developers
• Settlements mount in Illinois face biometric data privacy lawsuits
• India moves to ease biometric registration for air and cruise travel in wake of COVID-19
• Face Forensics extends tattoo matching and face biometrics suite for broad object recognition
• More Indian states launch facial recognition tenders for public security camera deployments
• Orbbec upgrades 3D camera with built-in AI for advanced applications, facial recognition
• Facial recognition will deliver on its promise if vendors do on theirs, Corsight CEO suggests
• Biometric access control tech from ITL, Alcatraz, Imageware and Tech5 hits trade show floors

Fingerprint Recognition:

• Fingerprint Cards partners for biometric payment cards in India, 2021 results released
• Veiled Bangladeshi women urge fingerprint biometrics as alternative to photo ID
• Winning.I showcases fingerprint and palmprint biometric software at Korean IT exhibition
• Idemia releases new biometric ID Screen 60 tablet
• Biometric system for vehicle sale in Pakistan’s Punjab faces forgery issues
• Touch Biometrix unveils fingerprint sensors launch plans with Series B funding round
• Neurotechnology hits high score in NIST Proprietary Fingerprint Template evaluation

Voice Biometrics:

• Voice biometrics to reach $21B; Pindrop, PowerVoice pursue new partnerships
• ID R&D takes gold in combined voice biometrics and liveness detection challenge
• KBA twice as helpful to bad actors as customers: Pindrop report

Liveness Detection:

• ID R&D takes gold in combined voice biometrics and liveness detection challenge
• Mobai, authID.AI biometric PAD compliance confirmed with perfect scores
• Trust Stamp builds new MFA solution with selfie biometrics, tokenization technology
• FaceTec pitches liveness detection to authenticate social media users, fight spam
• Veridas ISO/IEC compliance confirmed for level 2 biometric liveness detection by iBeta

Behavioral Biometrics:

• LexisNexis buys BehavioSec, adds behavioral biometrics to fraud detection portfolio
• Plurilock behavioral biometrics surge in revenue from ASC acquisition
• Real-time movement biometrics to protect against enterprise account takeover

Wearables:

• Artificial vision with facial recognition gets avid but meager attention
• City in India requires smartwatches for surveillance on sewer workers

Biometrics Industry Events

Global EmergeTech Summit 2022: May 10, 2022

IFSEC International: May 17, 2022 — May 19, 2022

Secure ID Forum: May 24, 2022 — May 26, 2022

Showcase Australia 2022: May 25, 2022

Africa Pay & ID Expo: May 26, 2022 — May 28, 2022

Critical Infrastructure Protection & Resilience Europe: Jun 14, 2022 — Jun 16, 2022

The Future of Data Protection: Effective Enforcement in the Digital World: Jun 16, 2022 — Jun 17, 2022

Identity Week Europe: Jun 28, 2022 — Jun 29, 2022

ICT Spring: Jun 30, 2022 — Jul 1, 2022

Identity India 2022: Jul 7, 2022 — Jul 8, 2022

Identity Week Asia: Sep 6, 2022 — Sep 7, 2022

Future Tech Expo & Summit: Sep 12, 2022 — Sep 13, 2022

MISC

• No in-display sensor for Samsung’s next foldable:

No In-display Sensor for Samsung's Next Foldable: Reports

Subscribe to Paradigm!

Medium. Twitter. Telegram. Telegram Chat. Reddit. LinkedIn.

Main sources

Research articles

Biometric Update

Science Daily

Identity Week

Find Biometrics