BT/ Apple granted a patent for an under-display optical biometric sensor
Biometrics biweekly vol. 39, 9th May — 23rd May
TL;DR
- Apple has been granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for an under-display bundling of optical fibers that can capture 2D or 3D biometric images like a face or fingerprint within its field of view at higher accuracy, which may be a sign of its plans for biometric capture on its future devices
- Mastercard launches ‘smile to pay’ system amid privacy concerns
- Progress on work done by Google to reduce the level of AI bias in the capture of images of skins of color using its devices has been revealed. The tech giant says it has released a 10-shade skin tone scale to help build products with reduced AI bias for users with colored skin
- Google has announced Look and Talk for the Nest Hub Max. It is a facial recognition application that can be used to get the attention of Google’s Home app
- At Google’s I/O developer conference last week, the company released its Wallet for Android, with plans for biometrically secured digital ID storage
- The Pixel Watch 7 is said to be voice-enabled and glanceable
- Mazda and Mercedes-Benz are designing models with ever-more sophisticated biometrics software to customize the driver’s experience, and a Genesis automobile with face and fingerprint biometrics has reached the market
- Apple has patented a ‘Car Key’ breath-analysis feature
- Plurilock biometrics secure Amazon WorkSpaces
- Innovatrics and Blaize partner up for facial recognition security at the edge
- Gesture recognition to get cheaper, and more private with STMicroelectronics sensors
- Romanian deep-tech startup Humans.ai partnered with Booming Jobs
- Digital Domain unveiled ‘Zoey,’ an advanced autonomous human with facial recognition capabilities
- Kakao Brain announced the development of new face-swapping technology for the metaverse
- ForgeRock launches AI fraud protection solution with step-up authentication
- Aratek launches a management system for mobile devices used in digital ID programs
- Trust Stamp joins forces with Rwandan Institute to increase equality in biometrics performance
- Trustmatic unveils cloud biometric identification for enterprises
- Feitian chooses Fingerprint Cards biometrics for new payment and access cards
- Decentralized digital ID module part of a new SDK from IOTA and Zebra
- SecuGen updates fingerprint biometrics line with new features, improved accuracy
- IDEX Biometrics partners with Verisoft
- Sumsub biometrics and KYC services boost the payment platform’s approval rate to 78 percent
- Socure partners with ServiceNow on selfie biometrics to power banks’ KYC
- VeriFace, NamaChain each launch face biometric customer onboarding solutions
- SecuGen updates fingerprint biometrics line with new features, improved accuracy
- Vida raises over $47M to address digital ID in Southeast Asia, investment market still hot
- ProofID receives $18.5M investment, plans to expand Ping Identity delivery partnership
- Identitypass raises $2.8M for biometric identity verification across Africa
- European Commission extends deadline for digital identity framework proposals
- US government seeks Smart ePants contractors for sensor-woven clothing
- Caribbean, Middle East, and Asian nations switch to digital ID, birth registration programs
- Taiwan digital COVID certificates add a national ID for identity verification
- Estonia signs SK ID as mobile digital ID provider after search for alternatives
- Concerns raised as Uganda plans DNA upgrade for biometric ID cards
- Miami International Airport plans for biometric boarding at all gates by 2023
- A research paper published this month has tools to neutralize face morphing attacks, which use an altered biometric reference image in an ID document
- Researchers pitch combined biometrics to enable the identification of blurred, dark images
- A large team of researchers overwhelmingly from China says it has created a new million-scale facial recognition benchmark. They claim in a new paper to have built an autonomously cleaned biometric dataset of 2 million identities among 42 million facial images.
- Pindrop presents three research papers on voice biometrics and speech recognition at ICASSP
- Meta temporarily cuts photo filters to sidestep biometric data privacy lawsuits
- 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:
Are GAN-based morphs threatening face recognition?
A research paper published this month has tools to neutralize face morphing attacks, which use an altered biometric reference image in an ID document.
Four researchers from the Swiss Idiap Research Institute have provided, via IEEE, two datasets and tools for four kinds of morphing attacks against biometric systems. The scientists say efforts to detect these morphing attacks have been slowed because of a lack of relevant datasets and tools.
Germany two years ago banned face morphing in an attempt to prevent multiple identities from being attached to one altered image.
Two so-called classical types rely on facial landmarks based on OpenCV and FaceMorpher. The other two use StyleGAN 2 to create synthetic morphs from generative adversarial networks.
The team also analyzed the vulnerability of four facial recognition algorithms that they consider state of the art: FaceNet, ISV, ArcFace and VGG-Face.
At issue is the reliability of security systems — such as border and access control — that increasingly use face biometrics. In 2014, an Italian team of researchers showed that it was possible for, say, a wanted criminal to use a morphed photo to travel as someone who is not being pursued.
The researchers expressed surprise that despite creating images with “higher visual appeal,” GAN-based morph attacks are less of a security threat than are classical morphs.
‘A Survey on Face and Body Based Human Recognition Robust to Image Blurring and Low Illumination’
from the Division of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Dongguk University in Seoul, published by MDPI, centers on overall biometric ‘human recognition’ from problematic images and attempts at improving image quality to counteract the issues.
As demand for remote identification via surveillance increases, a survey of academic work on biometrics including facial recognition and gait recognition finds the gaps in understanding for dealing with images that are blurred, poorly lit, from a difficult angle, or where the subject has been partly cut from the frame or is simply too small. Ways to improve methods and lighten algorithms that will help bring better recognition to the edge are called for.
While facial recognition has received much the research attention, as faces are deemed to contain the most important information for identification, the researchers argue that multimodal body and gait recognition can help with what they term overall ‘human recognition.’
Low-resolution images have been sufficiently dealt with, yet survey papers on blurred images are not comprehensive, which the paper attempts to address. It reviews studies on blurred image restoration and low-illumination and classifies them as to whether or not deep learning was used and whether face and body were combined.
The team tackles indoor and outdoor settings which generate distinct problems. Indoor images are more prone to motion blur and difficult angles as the subjects are closer. Outdoors, illumination can be non-uniform, and images lower in resolution.
“No study has yet been conducted on body-based human recognition robust to image blurring in indoor environments; in this case, only the body region is used, dismissing the face. In other words, neither body-based recognition nor body-based re-identification have been studied yet,” states the study. “This is because, compared to the face region, the body region requires more global features for recognition. This in turn implies that the recognition performance is not significantly affected by image blurring.”
The survey covers how the degree of blurring is evaluated through image quality assessment, how the color of clothing can affect results for body-based recognition. Gait recognition can be used in more situations due to the low impact of image blurring.
Further studies are needed on the impact of low-illumination on gait-based recognition. Further studies are also required for human recognition in more severe instances of low lighting. Studies so far have shied away from this as “it is difficult to restore colors perfectly when converting severe low-illumination images into normal-illumination images. It is expected that these problems could be solved through the various deep learning methods.”
“As a whole, both face- and body-based recognition shows a higher accuracy and more processing time than the face-based method,” state the authors, who hope to help biometrics researchers as more demands are made for criminal and missing persons detection, as well as settings such as driver identification in vehicles and crowd analytics.
Big jump in public face biometric dataset size
A large team of researchers overwhelmingly from China says it has created new million-scale facial recognition benchmark. They claim in a new paper to have built an autonomously cleaned biometric dataset of 2 million identities among 42 million facial images.
The uncurated dataset holds 4 million celebrity identities among 260 million images. The new proposed benchmark is called WebFace260M, and it is being described as the largest public face biometric dataset.
That is a significant differentiator. Public researchers have decried the disadvantage they are at with dataset resources compared to private companies — particularly Facebook and Google. For all intents and purposes, both have unlimited image datasets.
The research paper says Google taps 200 million images of 8 million identities when training FaceNet. Facebook has 500 million faces among 10 million identities.
Dataset size is a potent accelerator of biometrics innovation, and public researchers are worried about being shut out of the race.
The WebFace260M researchers, from Tsinghua University, Imperial College London and a Chinese startup, XForwardAI, claim that their dataset “shows enormous potential on standard, masked and unbiased face recognition scenarios.” It was cleaned with an AI tool they developed, Cleaning Automatically by Self-Training.
Jack Clark, co-founder of AI safety and research firm Anthropic, writing in his blog Import AI, says, “Models trained on the resulting dataset are pretty good.”
Clark also makes the point that facial recognition — especially masked facial recognition — is important to government surveillance agencies. Results like those of WebFace260M influence decisions about “how to surveil a population and how much budget to set aside for said surveillance.”
A dataset this size has more proximate dangers, of course. With great volumes could come privacy-restricted images, long a problem for datasets created by academics and businesses alike.
Pindrop presents three research papers on voice biometrics, and speech recognition at ICASSP
Three research papers from Pindrop have been presented at the 2022 International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, & Signal Processing (ICASSP), and indicate the direction of the company’s attempts to further innovate with voice biometrics and speech recognition technologies.
The first paper is titled, ‘Distribution Learning for Age Estimation from Speech.’ It explores a different approach to age estimation based on voice biometrics by using distribution learning problem model rather than the traditional model of a classification or regression problem. The first obstacle that Pindrop’s researchers found with distributed learning is that audio research lacks datasets tagged with “apparent” age.
However, it also found that distribution learning validated for facial age estimation is still viable for audio, meaning a general age range can be estimated at a particular confidence interval. It concludes that while distributed learning is more constrained than facial age estimation, it can even outperform regression and classification algorithms for both matched and mismatched conditions.
The second paper is titled, ‘Speaker Embedding Conversion for Backward and Cross-Channel Compatibility.’ It examines solutions for compatibility issues between voice biometric authentication technology providers that have been migrating their models to newer deep learning techniques. Pindrop’s researcher suggest a deep neural network-based method to allow for backwards compatibility. The experimental results found that the DNN is able to deliver feature-embedding compatibility between two automatic speaker verification systems (ASV) with improved performance over a baseline convertor system, though the converted feature embedding performed worse than the traditional ASV systems at the low FAR range. The researchers say that an extension of their work could explore score calibration to improve this performance at a low FAR range.
The third paper is ‘Unsupervised Model Adaptation for End-to-End ASR,’ and looks into a way to improve automatic speech recognition (ASR) transcription systems that often struggle with mismatched train-test conditions like call centers that have to account for factors like accents and voice audio quality. The Pindrop researchers propose using in-domain data to eliminate the need for human annotations using the relationship between word-error-rate (WER) and the CTC (‘Connectionist Temporal Classification,’ a measure of alignment) loss on one hand, and the WER and the probability ratio-based confidence (PRC) on the other hand.
To solve this, the research team has proposed a cost-effective way to improve the accuracy of ASR systems using in-domain data without the need for costly human annotations. This was made possible by exploring the relationship between the word-error-rate (WER) and connectionist temporal classification loss, and the WER and the probability ratio based confidence (PRC). It found that WER could be reduced by 8 percent in absolute terms without supervision, allowing it to adapt to suboptimal conditions.
However, Pindrop says that the research is experimental and does not reflect the performance of its products.
Some other recent research in the field of voice biometrics include suggestions on how to tackle voice deepfakes and a method for continuous liveness detection on smart devices.
The online paper presentation portion of ICASSP closes this week, with the in-person event running in Singapore from May 22 to 27.
Main News:
Apple granted a patent for an under-display optical biometric sensor
Apple has been granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for an under-display bundling of optical fibers that can capture 2D or 3D biometric images like a face or fingerprint within its field of view at higher accuracy, which may be a sign of its plans for biometric capture on its future devices.
The patent named ‘Display-adjacent optical emission or reception using optical fibers’ (number 11,327,237), is described as an embodiment of the systems, devices, methods, and apparatus for optical sensing using optical fibers or optical fiber bundles, and particularly near-display optical sensing. Unlike optoelectronic components under a display that emit or receive electromagnetic radiation through the display, Apple’s patent uses optical fibers or optical fiber bundles to route electromagnetic radiation between an optoelectronic component positioned under, partially under, or adjacent to a display, along an edge of the display, to an area of an optically-transmissive component or surface.
Apple states that electromagnetic radiation that is emitted and detected adjacent to a display using optical fibers would boost the efficacy of electromagnetic capture compared to a method that emits or detects through a display. The patent filing writes that under-display optoelectronic capture can result in optical transmission losses of 95 to 99 percent.
Said patent could connect to front-facing cameras, speakers, microphones, and a front mechanical or virtual button, Apple writes. Those functions have the potential to be configured as a proximity sensor; a 2D or 3D camera; a biometric authentication sensor for facial recognition or fingerprints; an eye/gaze tracker; a device tracker; an optical tracking system; and an optical communication system.
The patent filing lays out the potential for data collection with it gathering personal information data that can be used to identify, locate, or contact a specific person. Examples of personal information data Apple gives are demographic, location, home address, a user’s health or level of fitness (vital signs, medication, exercise), and date of birth. Such data can be used to activate or deactivate functions of the device or gather performance metrics, such as fitness goals for relevant apps.
Apple has been aspiring to enhance its biometric sensors like FaceID and TouchID with under-display sensor, which is widely considered a challenging prospect. Industry rumors often swirl over its latest steps towards attaining this goal, like a USPTO patent granted to Apple in July 2021 for an under-display camera that is compatible with FaceID and TouchID, and a report from product analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that an iPhone with under-display 3D face biometrics will be launched in 2024.
Mastercard launches biometric checkout program
Mastercard is rolling out a controversial programme that will allow shoppers to pay at the till with a mere smile or wave of the hand, as it tries to secure a slice of the $18bn (£14.4bn) biometrics market.
While face recognition technology has long raised eyebrows among civil rights groups, the payments giant said it was pushing ahead with a biometric checkout programme it claimed would speed up payments, cut queues and provide more security than a standard credit or debit card.
“Once enrolled, there is no need to slow down the checkout queue searching through their pockets or bag,” Mastercard said. “Consumers can simply check the bill and smile into a camera or wave their hand over a reader to pay.”
Mastercard also claimed the new payment system would be more hygienic, tapping into health concerns that came to the fore in the Covid pandemic.
The first pilots will launch in Brazil at five St Marche supermarkets in São Paulo, this week, with shoppers able to register for biometric payments in-store or via an app with their local partner, Payface.
A spokesperson for Mastercard said a UK rollout was part of its “near-term plan”, and that the company was having “encouraging conversations with potential partners”. In the meantime, it will focus on launching the technology in markets including Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
The scheme is part of Mastercard’s efforts to enter the contactless biometrics technology market, which is expected to be worth $18.6bn by 2026, according to data by KBV Research. The payments giant is competing with big tech rivals such as Amazon, which has used palm readers at its stores, which have attracted criticism from US politicians due to data privacy concerns.
Mastercard pointed to research suggesting that 74% of global consumers had a “positive attitude” towards biometric technology, though activists have long raised concerns over data storage and tracking.
Google and others launching face biometrics as computer code
Google and Domino’s Pizza are both pushing a new accessibility feature — involving face biometrics — as something mainstream computer users will like.
Google has announced Look and Talk for the Nest Hub Max. It is a facial recognition application that can be used to get the attention of Google’s Home app.
Users within five feet (your mileage may vary) can look at their Hub Max screen to prepare it to take command. No catchphrase wake word, according to reporting by 9To5Google.
The server-side face detection app can be turned on in the Home app, the publication says, under Recognition & Sharing. Once activated, the Hub Max will notice someone looking its way and wait for instructions.
Meanwhile, Domino’s is marketing its so-called mind-ordering mobile app. It is less a mental exercise than it is a co-branding effort reminiscent of the early days of gamification and mobile hardware.
The software (with a phone’s camera) has both facial recognition and eye-tracking algorithms, enabling customers to order their pizza meal by moving their heads and facial features.
The feature is available to customers who have set up a profile with Domino’s and have saved an “Easy Order,” indicating that the entire menu either is not available for the feature or that people can only do so many commands with their face.
Google debuts Wallet, new Pixel Watch and Phone at I/O event
At Google’s I/O developer conference last week, the company released its Wallet for Android, with plans for biometrically secured digital ID storage. The biometric features of the Pixel Watch 7 and Pixel 6a smartphone were also unveiled.
The company appears happy with the design of the Wallet, but executives are realistic about the hurdles it faces in making the software ubiquitous.
Director of Product Management for Payments Dong Min Kim says in a company blog post that the Wallet holds payment information, digital car keys, tickets, vaccine cards, and boarding passes, among other things.
Kim says the Wallet is an improvement over a traditional wallet. Android screen locks and verification by a financial institution make it more secure.
There are plans to add digital IDs to the Wallet, says Bill Ready, Google’s president of Commerce, Payments and Next Billion users at Google. Ready says he believes that with the explosion of smartphone ownership and the advent of Covid physical restrictions, more people want contactless transactions and virtual vaccination cards, car keys, and digital IDs in wallets.
Ready writes in a column in Fortune that digital wallets are “imperative” for a rapidly digitizing economy. They reduce the friction inherent in physical wallets. And armed with biometrics readers, they offer superior security. They also can be a convenient place to store health insurance, boarding passes, and proof of age.
But “digital wallets aren’t universally accessible,” he says. Economies could “succeed in digitizing everything but fail to provide access to everyone.”
Ready pushes universal access through Android and other smartphones along with non-proprietary, affordable wallets.
More news on Pixel Watch and Phone with biometrics
The Pixel Watch 7, scheduled for a fall release, is said to be voice-enabled and glanceable. They also connect with Fitbits, integrating biometric data tracking tools for fitness and health.
Google at the same time debuted the Pixel 6a, an option between the 6 and 6 Pro equipped with Tensor processors. The chip arrives with Real Tone, camera software designed to better capture darker skin tones.
Google executives have said they want the company to be seen as addressing racial biases in digital photography and biometrics.
Trade publisher 9 to 5 Google reports that the Pixel 6a will use a different in-display fingerprint sensor from the Pixel 6, purportedly to address criticism by users that the Pixel 6 fingerprint sensor is slow. Google has defended the performance, saying it is a feature of enhanced biometric security algorithms.
Expanded skin tone scale released by Google to help reduce bias in AI, computer vision
Progress on work done by Google to reduce the level of AI bias in the capture of images of skins of color using its devices has been revealed. The tech giant says it has released a 10-shade skin tone scale to help build products with reduced AI bias for users with colored skin.
The new scale, called the Monk Skin Tone Scale, has been unveiled as a replacement for a previous standard, Fitzpatrick Skin Type, (a combination of six colors), which was widely used to classify skin tone. These classifications are then used to test for performance bias against people of color in solutions such as smartwatch heart-rate sensors, and other artificial intelligence-based systems such as facial recognition.
As Google’s Skin Tone Research notes the Fitzpatrick Skin Type standard had shortcomings in face biometrics testing and development scenarios recognized by researchers from the Maryland Test Facility operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and was targeted for replacement by Google.
Fitzpatrick was said to be ‘biased’ towards people with darker skins and more helpful for differentiating people with lighter skins, thus prompting the need for an alternative standard by Google. The scale is already being deployed by Google services such as Google Photos to enhance image filter options and to reduce bias in its biometric face-matching software.
The new scale was unveiled after a study carried out by Harvard University Sociologist Ellis Monk in collaboration with Google and which saw around 3,000 people in the United States surveyed. In the course of the study, a good number of people said the 10-point scale matched their skin as well as a 40-shade palette, reports Reuters.
Monk says his objective was to design a new standard that will work for a majority of people in the world who are people of color.
Head of product for Google’s responsible AI team Tulsee Doshi praised the new standard, according to Reuters.
Doshi also cautions that problems could still arise with the new scale if company does not have sufficient data on the tones, or if the data obtained to train the algorithms were different due to lighting situations or discrepancies in human judgment.
The unveiling of the Monk Skin Tone Scale was foreshadowed when Google released an improved photo software with models and algorithms capable of better capturing people with different many skin tones.
Meanwhile, Google’s Skin Tone Research initiative has called on other companies to incorporate the new skin tone scale into their product development processes, in line with collective efforts to improve machine learning fairness evaluation.
Advanced online biometrics applications explored by Humans.ai, Digital Domain, Kakao
Several developers in the biometrics space have made new announcements related to advanced applications powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Romanian deep-tech startup Humans.ai partnered with Booming Jobs, Digital Domain unveiled ‘Zoey,’ an advanced autonomous human with facial recognition capabilities, and Kakao Brain announced the development of new face-swapping technology for the metaverse.
- Humans.ai partners with Booming Jobs
Romanian deep-tech startup Humans.ai and its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) synthetic video production platform Tovid.ai are partnering with Booming Jobs, a career platform in the Netherlands.
The collaboration will see Booming Jobs deploy Humans.ai’s AI and synthetic media technology within the recruiting process, to provide mass corporate communications presentations as well as individual interaction with AI-enabled virtual assistants.
“The challenge we have here is that we have tens of thousands of vacancies online and creating spoken and personalized videos for all of them would take us months and a large budget,” explains Booming Jobs Founder Jeroen Fikkers.
“But by using the AI technology of Tovid.ai, we see this problem solved and we are able to scale our content production drastically.”
In addition, the technology could also be used to change people’s appearance to avoid bias by creating neutral online avatars to avoid gender, race, age, and other types of discrimination.
- Digital Domain unveils “autonomous human” Zoey
VFX studio Digital Domain has announced at the FMX conference in Stuttgart a new “autonomous human” called Zoey.
The virtual assistant is powered by machine learning, and can engage in conversations with multiple participants at once, access the internet to answer questions, and more.
The autonomous human is based on actress Zoey Moses, who worked with Digital Domain to create a set of facial movements, mannerisms, and a range of emotive expressions for the virtual model.
The digital Zoey also features various biometric capabilities. Specifically, it comes with built-in facial recognition software, which allows it to remember people, and AI-powered text-to-speech technology from WellSaid Labs.
Digital Domain confirmed Zoey will be available to license in the near future.
- Kakao Brain upgrades ‘Face-Swap’ technology
Kakao Brain has announced the development of a new biometrics-based ‘face-swapping’ technology to give people metaverse avatars that more closely resemble them.
Dubbed ‘Smooth-Swap,’ the new solution is designed to expand the capabilities of face swapping through enhanced identity embedding.
The term refers to a vector representation of a face image that is used to compare identities. If the representation vectors of two faces are close enough, their identities are considered the same.
‘Smooth-Swap’ is trained via supervised contrastive loss, and is able to acquire its stable identity gradient by learning embedding with a higher smoothness. The improvements eliminate the earlier model’s weakness of adding handcrafted components and 3D face modeling that ultimately complicated its design.
To fix these issues, Kakao Brain equipped ‘Smooth-Swap’ with a simple U-Net-based architecture with an integrated smooth identity embedder intended to deliver cutting-edge performance.
“We are proud and excited to unveil the groundbreaking face-swapping technology, ‘Smooth-Swap,’ to the world,” commented Kakao Brain CEO Kim Il-doo.
“I strongly believe this technology will accelerate innovation in the face-swapping sphere, bringing us another step closer to the incredibly immersive metaverse we always dreamed of as well as the digital human services of the future.”
Kakao Brain will present a paper detailing the new technology at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference (CVPR), taking place in Louisiana between June 19 and 24.
Gesture recognition to get cheaper, more private with STMicroelectronics sensors
Gesture sensors using a laser rather than cameras and computer vision are becoming cheaper and less energy-intensive. STMicroelectronics has launched an affordable turnkey solution with free engineering software to get its gesture sensors into more devices.
Demand for touchless gesture control is rising in part thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, as with biometric technologies produced by the firm. STMicroelectronics is now tackling affordability and privacy issues with the turnkey STGesture recognition system for touchless controls.
The firm’s FlightSense time-of-flight (ToF) multizone ranging sensor can track a hand in front of it in three dimensions. Using invisible infrared light to illuminate a scene for an array of lasers, the sensor works by detecting presence and movement across an 8×8 grid of squares. Users can focus this on a 4×4 grid for faster gestures.
The algorithm interprets movement across the grid to determine gestures that correspond to controls. Waving, swiping, tapping, double-tapping, pushing and pulling can all be detected.
Use cases span everything from vending machines and laptops for giving presentations to industrial robots to understand humans better. The sensors are more popular in situations where users’ hands are dirty or there are dangerous objects, but the low costs and low power needs could see the sensors adopted more widely.
With no cameras capturing images, privacy is protected. With no radar and camera set up, data quantities are much reduced and there is no requirement for external illumination. No AI is required for learning gestures as they can be pre-programmed, also reducing processing load.
The engineering software has been made free of charge and a library of example code snippets reduces design time for integration. The software also allows for integration with other hardware such as webcams, possibly allowing for biometric recognition alongside gestures.
STMicroelectronics has been updating the technologies behind its biometric payment cards and has recently won a CES innovation award for its new biometric card platform.
Innovatrics and Blaize partner up for facial recognition security at the edge
Innovatrics partners with edge computing and artificial intelligence (AI) company Blaize to build facial recognition applications for physical access control and public security.
The technology partnership will feature Innovatrics’ recently-launched SmartFace Embedded and Blaize’s Pathfinder P1600 Embedded System on Module (SoM).
SmartFace Embedded is a customized variant of its facial recognition libraries for use in Ambarella CV22 and CV25 system-on-a-chip processors designed for AI-based face biometrics functions like face detection and face template extraction in images and videos. When combined with AI computing on the edge from the Pathfinder P1600 Embedded SoM, SmartFace Embedded can detect facial landmarks within 5 milliseconds, face template extraction within 15 milliseconds, and face detection within 20 milliseconds, according to a joint announcement.
The paired solutions are designed for scalability, minimal compute capability, and a small footprint for data processing on the edge. Blaize says the edge-to-cloud approach it takes will enable any surveillance camera to become “smart” with facial recognition.
Innovatrics has taken steps to proceed in the edge biometrics market, like with cascaded architecture based on edge video processing that can support real-time video analysis and biometric face identification.
“Blaize focuses on delivering low power and low latency AI inference solutions at the edge, and Innovatrics with their SmartFace Embedded enables customers to realize the value of AI in smart city, smart retail, safety and security applications,” says Barrie Mullins, head of marketing at Blaize. “Innovatrics facial recognition technology seamlessly integrates into our cost-effective and flexible edge form factor solutions, making it easy to use.”
Innovatrics also updated its ABIS and launched a new Android app just days ago.
ForgeRock launches AI fraud protection solution with step-up authentication
ForgeRock has expanded its portfolio of digital identity and access management solutions with the release of the Autonomous Access suite. The novel solution utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent identity-based cyber attacks and fraud attempts throughout the entire identity lifecycle.
Specifically, Autonomous Access can monitor login requests in real-time to block malicious attempts, add authentication steps in response to anomalous behaviors, and streamline access for known users.
For instance, known users with a low-risk score can use options such as passwordless authentication, while additional authentication steps can be applied for a known user exhibiting anomalous behavior (e.g. an unusual location or device).
Similarly, login attempts that exhibit high-risk scores can be either blocked or sent on different journeys for further analysis and remediation.
“We continue to invest in AI to make the authentication process safer and smoother for users,” comments ForgeRock Chief Product Officer Peter Barker.
“What makes our approach distinct is the unique combination of AI, machine learning, and advanced pattern recognition. This triple-threat gives enterprises the ability to strengthen their identity perimeter, thwart bad actors, and even catch threats we didn’t know to look for, all with the click of a button.”
According to the executive, ForgeRock Autonomous Access also eliminates traditionally expensive deployment and integration of disparate point solutions as well as empowering IT admins to create personalized user access journeys with a simple drag-and-drop, no-code interface. The solution is delivered through the ForgeRock Identity Cloud, and is slated for availability later in May.
The release of the new solution comes weeks after ForgeRock updated its authenticator app with additional multi-factor authentication options.
Days before that, the company published its 2021 annual and fourth-quarter financial results showcasing substantial increases in revenue over the past year.
SecuGen updates fingerprint biometrics line with new features, improved accuracy
SecuGen has announced the availability of its biometric Hamster Pro 30 fingerprint reader and U30 OEM sensor, both FBI-certified for use in FIPS 201 PIV and Mobile ID FAP 30 applications.
The rugged devices feature a fingerprint glass plate larger than all previous SecuGen contact sensors, according to the company announcement, and are designed for a number of applications, including healthcare, finance, access control and immigration.
The Hamster Pro 30 expands SecuGen’s line of FBI-certified fingerprint products alongside the Hamster Pro 20, Pro 10, and their companion OEM sensors: U30, U20-A and U10.
“With the launch of Hamster 30, we have broadened our product line in response to our partners’ requirements for larger sized fingerprint readers for FAP 30 applications,” comments SecuGen VP of Sales Jeff Brown.
The release of the new products comes weeks after SecuGen announced it will exclusively integrate its fingerprint biometric scanners with bioLock software from real-time North America to increase access control security for enterprise software from SAP.
Aratek launches management system for mobile devices used in digital ID programs
Aratek has introduced an all-in-one solution for managing the mobile devices used for remote biometrics enrollment or identity verification in digital ID programs.
The new Aratek TrustDMS is designed to ensure digital ID data security with real-time management tools, operating as a command and control center for simplified mobile device management.
“Everyone’s been clamoring for a do-all platform to manage large numbers of mobile devices. The Aratek TrustDMS is exactly what they’re waiting for,” says Aratek VP of International Business Samuel Wu.
The Taiwan-based company says the Aratek TrustDMS can help reduce operational costs, and gives administrators increased control for quickly onboarding large numbers of mobile devices and maintaining visibility through a user-friendly interface. The platform also includes multi-layered channel management, according to the company announcement.
Aratek TrustDMS provides remote troubleshooting, with alerts delivered to admins when devices malfunction for prompt and remote intervention.
The software is intended for a variety of different types of digital ID programs.
“With Aratek TrustDMS, applications such as national ID, voter ID, SIM registration, border control, financial services, education, healthcare, and law enforcement will be easier and cheaper to implement,” Wu suggests.
Trust Stamp joins forces with Rwandan Institute to increase equality in biometrics performance
Trust Stamp announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Kigali, Rwanda to improve biometrics performance.
According to the company, the new agreement underlines a shared desire to “further equity and inclusion for individuals of all races and ethnologies through advancements in biometrics and identity authentication.”
AIMS is one of Africa’s largest networks of Centres of Excellence for innovative post-graduate training in mathematical sciences.
Following the beginning of the partnership, Trust Stamp and AIMS will partner in developing and implementing courses to extend graduate studies programs focused on big data analytics and biometrics.
They will also share academic research, and jointly explore possible national and international funding opportunities to support cooperative agreements.
“This institutional cooperation between Trust Stamp and AIMS marks an important milestone in our long-standing commitment to universal financial inclusion,” comments Trust Stamp CIO Raman Narayanswamy.
The partnership addresses the well-known fact in the industry that certain demographics experience lower authentication accuracy and higher false positive rates (occurring when the biometric system incorrectly matches two faces that are different) with many systems.
High error rates connected to biometric systems’ biases increase the potential of fraud, but they also discriminate against users who may, for instance, not be able to access digital services because of false negatives.
“Empirical evidence shows an ongoing need in the biometrics industry for research and investment into machine learning algorithms with a focus on demographically diverse populations,” Narayanswamy explains.
“Addressing this multifaceted issue is critical to the development of a robust digital infrastructure in Africa while posing wide-reaching implications for equity and inclusion around the world.”
These biased results are sometimes caused by inaccurate algorithms, which in turn are frequently attributed to datasets with disparate proportions of different demographics.
To tackle these issues and create fair face biometrics systems it is necessary to build them using demographically-balanced datasets, which are responsible for training down error rates.
Trustmatic unveils cloud biometric identification for enterprises
Ireland-based identity verification solution provider Trustmatic has announced a new, Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) for enterprises, delivered from the cloud.
Before the release of the new product, Trustmatic’s solutions focused exclusively on one-to-one comparisons verifying a user’s selfie biometrics against their identity document image.
With the addition of Cloud ABIS, organizations will now be able to search faces captured during onboarding against existing user face images to find duplicates, known fraudsters, and other excluded users.
Trustmatic suggests that many financial institutions, telecoms and other enterprises enrolled most of their users before current KYC practices were in place, and could use existing data to increase the security of their identity verification processes.
The one-to-many biometric solution has already been rolled out in a pilot project in Latin America, though additional details about the pilot were not yet disclosed at the time of writing.
“Working with our customer, the first thing we did was audit their existing face database of approximately 1 million users,” explains Trustmatic CEO Donal Greene.
“We found that 1 percent of their existing users were either duplicate or had enrolled using a face presentation attack. Within a week, we were able to produce a report and our customer deactivated the accounts of these users.”
Together with the launch of the new ABIS, Trustmatic is also offering a free database audit to organizations with existing face biometrics databases. The process will see the company utilize its ABIS to identify duplicate faces and faces that were previously enrolled using presentation attacks, as in the pilot above.
Feitian chooses Fingerprint Cards biometrics for new payment and access cards
Feitian will build its biometric payment and access cards with the T-Shape (T2) sensor module and BEP software platform from Fingerprint Cards, in an extension of an existing partnership.
The T2 module delivers ultra-low power consumption, according to the announcement and its biometric performance was approved for meeting Mastercard’s Fingerprint Sensor Evaluation Process earlier this year.
Fingerprint Cards also says that the delivery of T-Shape packaging in a dual row reduces waste and embedding costs, while enabling higher throughput.
“Based on our long-standing partnership with Feitian, we are pleased to collaborate on this biometric solution together with them,” says President of Payments & Access at Fingerprint Cards Michel Roig. “Feitian has once more chosen to work with us at Fingerprints and our proven biometric solution, which will guarantee high performance, quality, and security. I strongly believe that this next-generation solution has the potential to be a gamechanger in the biometric smartcard industry, delivering improved cost-efficiency, increased image quality and transaction speed as well as improved power efficiency.”
Fingerprint Cards and Feitian have collaborated before on the development of biometric cards and USB keys.
“Once again, we have chosen biometric technology from Fingerprints, as they have the leading biometric solution on the market. The collaboration resulting in this next generation biometric payment and access cards will ensure a product with a wide range of possibilities for our customers’ needs,” states Yan Yan, VP at Feitian.
Feitian has also developed a new Fingerprint Manager App to allow users of its BioCARD to enroll and manage their fingerprint biometrics. The app communicates with the card through NFC, providing instructions and feedback to the user during the enrollment process.
Decentralized digital ID module part of a new SDK from IOTA and Zebra
A distributed ledger vendor and a specialized hardware maker have launched an edge software development kit comprised of modules for building tools including one for decentralized digital identity apps.
The nonprofit IOTA Foundation worked with Zebra Technologies to create the SDK, which will aid developers in writing for and testing its distributed ledger software on Zebra products such as handhelds, scanners, locating hardware and software, and printers.
Modules are open-source, and the first one available for public feedback is the Identity Enabler. According to IOTA, the module can issue, verify and manage decentralized and interoperable IDs for people, resources, and organizations.
Portability is a key capability of the modules, say Iota executives. Identities more often than not are staked to an organizational or regional area, which means crossing these domains typically requires reverifying a digital ID. More efficiency is the goal.
Modules can be run on browsers and Google’s Android operating system.
The Identity Enabler includes a verifier application that runs on Zebra hardware. The software can sense ID tampering and checks the authorship of the presentations and credentials using a digital signature.
Projected use cases include personal information management, allowing a self-sovereign ID stored on an individual’s devices to be managed by its owner. In the same vein, DIDs could be used as more easily and securely shared trade certificates or device identifiers.
IOTA Foundation Tech Analyst and Project Lead José Manuel Cantera explains the SDK, and the benefits of combining decentralized database architecture with processing at the network edge at some length in a YouTube video.
IOTA has also developed a crypto wallet that is secured with biometric authentication.
Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, Genesis models feature driver biometrics
Mercedes-Benz’s 2022 C-Class sedan in India and Mazda’s CX-60 SUV were both launched with biometrics to access driver profiles that customize their seat operation, along with a somewhat broader implementation from Genesis.
The Mercedes C-Class in India will sport a fingerprint scanner to allow access to a driver's profile, according to The India Print. That profile, including preferred settings for seat positioning, climate control, ambient lighting, and radio favorites can be shared among other Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
Mazda’s CX-60 will incorporate facial recognition to register a driver’s profile. Auto Trader New Zealand says Mazda is the first manufacturer to use face biometrics for this purpose.
The profile for some CX-60s will dictate settings for the steering wheel and seat, heads-up display, door mirrors, and air conditioning. It can adapt more than 250 personalization settings for six profiles.
Auto Trader New Zealand reports that this is not a standard option. It will be an add-on for the vehicle’s comfort package or with the Homura or Takumi trim lines.
The global market for biometrics in automobiles was forecast to reach $1.56 billion by 2025, according to a report by IndustryARC. A litany of biometric options including facial recognition, fingerprint, iris, and voice biometrics have already been integrated by manufacturers around the world.
Genesis Motor America has launched its GV60, introducing the Face Connect system to allow motorists to lock and unlock their vehicles with facial recognition.
The face biometrics system uses near-infrared (NIR) technology, and in addition to vehicle locking also controls personalization settings by activating a driver profile.
Fingerprint biometrics is used for ignition, allowing full operation of the car without the use of a physical key. A smart device can also store a digital key.
The 2023 GV60 starts at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $58,890.
Apple Car Key breathalyzer patented in the U.S.
Apple’s Car Key which is based on biometric authentication received a U.S. patent for a breathalyzer feature, according to 9 to 5 Mac.
The news site says the patent document outlines a Car Key feature that can communicate with a breathalyzer. Blood alcohol levels below a threshold level would enable the use of the vehicle.
These Weeks’ News by Categories
Access Control:
- Force 5, Causeway each expand biometric verification for industrial workplaces
- Guide published to aid biometric authentication in automatic access control deployment
- ForgeRock launches AI fraud protection solution with step-up authentication
- ProofID receives $18.5M investment, plans to expand Ping Identity delivery partnership
Consumer Electronics:
- Apple granted patent for under-display optical biometric sensor
- Meme to mime: Google and others launching face biometrics as computer code
- Google debuts Wallet, new Pixel Watch and Phone at I/O event
- Biometrics in cars pitched for security, safety, convenience
- Many small investments add up to $17m for biometric gun maker Biofire
- South Africans told biometric-SIM link is ‘next step,’ ‘evolution’ as consultation closes
Mobile Biometrics:
- Fintech company Plaid moves into biometric ID verification, KYC and AML checks
- Sumsub biometrics and KYC services boost the payment platform’s approval rate to 78 percent
- Taiwan digital COVID certificates add a national ID for identity verification
- Vida raises over $47M to address digital ID in Southeast Asia, investment market still hot
- Selfie biometrics customer wins in three verticals and SDK update unveiled
- Google debuts Wallet, new Pixel Watch and Phone at I/O event
- Innovatrics updates ABIS, launches Android biometrics app
- Age verification and digital wallets for minors: EU launches strategy for online child safety
- Checkout.com buying biometric ID verification startup ubble to secure online payments
- Meta temporarily cuts photo filters to sidestep biometric data privacy lawsuits
- Incode selected by hotel group to develop seamless processes with biometrics
- Avarta brings biometric digital wallet to Indonesian crypto exchange collaboration
- Aratek launches management system for mobile devices used in digital ID programs
- Trustmatic unveils cloud biometric identification for enterprises
- Identitypass raises $2.8M for biometric identity verification across Africa
- Mitek arbitration bid in biometric data privacy lawsuit rejected
- Socure partners with ServiceNow on selfie biometrics to power banks’ KYC
- VeriFace, NamaChain each launch face biometric customer onboarding solutions
- BioRugged confirms MOSIP compliance for biometrics enrollment with its Face Camera system
Financial Services:
- Mastercard launches retail biometrics program with Brazil pilot
- Fintech company Plaid moves into biometric ID verification, KYC and AML checks
- Sumsub biometrics and KYC services boost payment platform’s approval rate to 78 percent
- Selfie biometrics customer wins in three verticals and SDK update unveiled
- Incode selected by hotel group to develop seamless processes with biometrics
- Avarta brings biometric digital wallet to Indonesian crypto exchange collaboration
- US digital ID fraud cost $52B in 2021, Javelin estimates
- Entersekt partners with SA bank on ecommerce security with NuData behavioral biometrics
- Payments startup gets $2.85M in pre-seed for multi-biometric ID platform
- Socure partners with ServiceNow on selfie biometrics to power banks’ KYC
Civil / National ID:
- Indians facing barriers to abortion access, privacy breaches due to requests to show Aadhaar
- Concerns raised as Uganda plans DNA upgrade for biometric ID cards
- ID security comes at a cost but so does refusing to participate in anti-fraud biometrics
- European Commission extends deadline for digital identity framework proposals
- NSW contracts Thoughtworks for digital birth certificates
- Taiwan digital COVID certificates add national ID for identity verification
- Biometric IDs underperforming or accompanying international tensions
- Estonia signs SK ID as mobile digital ID provider after search for alternative
- Age verification and digital wallets for minors: EU launches strategy for online child safety
- Caribbean, Middle East and Asian nations switch to digital ID, birth registration programs
- How identity document scanners lead to efficient identification
- South Africans told biometric-SIM link is ‘next step,’ ‘evolution’ as consultation closes
- Governments expand digital ID efforts and goals for online public service access
- Decentralized digital ID module part of a new SDK from IOTA and Zebra
- Ugandans cry foul over biometric passport issuance delays
- Italian national digital ID scheme reaches 30 million users milestone
Government Services & Elections:
- Jamaica picks Thales to upgrade voter identification system with biometrics
- Nigeria suspends biometric voter registration June 30, to improve ABIS system
- US senators want FTC probe into ID.me
- Concerns raised as Uganda plans DNA upgrade for biometric ID cards
- ID security comes at a cost but so does refusing to participate in anti-fraud biometrics
- European Commission extends deadline for digital identity framework proposals
- NSW contracts Thoughtworks for digital birth certificates
- Jamaica picks Thales to upgrade voter identification system with biometrics
- Government digital identity projects hit milestones as next-generation approaches weighed
- Estonia signs SK ID as mobile digital ID provider after search for alternatives
- Governments expand digital ID efforts and goals for online public service access
Facial Recognition:
- US senators want FTC probe into ID.me
- AI industry, the government will have to dig deep to end racial bias in algorithms: Brookings
- Researcher explores Clearview facial recognition, GDPR allegations and enforcement
- Singapore data protection agency outlines responsible biometric security uses
- Miami International Airport plans for biometric boarding at all gates by 2023
- Facial recognition in Europe: what’s happening and how can people be protected?
- Innovatrics and Blaize partner up for facial recognition security at the edge
- Government digital identity projects hit milestones as next-generation approaches weighed
- Canadian government seeks dismissal of biometric data privacy suit against federal police
- French Senate seeks to protect against biometric surveillance — with biometric surveillance sandbox
Fingerprint Recognition:
- Contact biometrics back in play after Manila’s Covid alert drops to lowest level
- SecuGen updates fingerprint biometrics line with new features, improved accuracy
- Teen takes top 10 spot in MIT program with biometric inclusive ID project
- Many small investments add up to $17m for biometric gun maker Biofire
- Feitian choses Fingerprint Cards biometrics for new payment and access cards
- Goodix revenue tumbles as fingerprint sensors, touch ICs businesses struggle
Voice Biometrics:
- Pindrop presents three research papers on voice biometrics, speech recognition at ICASSP
- Phonexia voice biometrics certified for financial services by South Korean institute
- Voice biometrics to reach $21B; Pindrop, PowerVoice pursue new partnerships
Behavioral Biometrics:
- Plurilock biometrics secure Amazon WorkSpaces; $1.4M in sales for subsidiary
- Entersekt partners with SA bank on ecommerce security with NuData behavioral biometrics
- LexisNexis buys BehavioSec, adds behavioral biometrics to fraud detection portfolio
Wearables:
- Athletes data privacy concerns raise question of what counts as biometrics
- US government seeks Smart ePants contractors for sensor-woven clothing
- Artificial vision with facial recognition gets avid but meager attention
Biometrics Industry Events
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
Humanode Conference: May 31, 2022 — June 1, 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
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