BT/ iPhone update lets Apple Watch users unlock Face ID in a mask

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Paradigm

36 min readFeb 3, 2021

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Biometrics biweekly vol. 4, 18th January — 3rd February

TL;DR

iOS 14.5 release will allow masked users to access devices with help from Apple Watch heart-rate sensor.
Apple granted patent for face biometrics occlusion assessment.
New optical in-display sensor for fingerprint biometrics described in Apple patent filing.
Spotify patent hints at speech recognition for music recommendations
WhatsApp launches biometric authentication to securely link accounts with the web version.
Amazon expands contactless in-store palm biometrics, AWS develops voice authentication.
Uniphore has joined the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Innovators Community and announced a pair of partnerships to contribute to biometrics ethics and education projects.
ID R&D and Synaptics partnership to bring voice biometrics to smart home edge devices.
BioID biometric PAD detection ISO standard compliance confirmed for Level A and B attacks.
Valve sees brain-computer interfaces as the future of gaming.
Neurotechnology updates MegaMatcher biometric SDK to improve fingerprint and facial recognition.
trinamiX in-display biometric face authentication platform improves smartphone design.
Idemia NSS and SVI partner on advanced LiDAR biometric platform for government agencies.
Fujitsu unveils multimodal biometric authentication technology for contactless retail.
Telpo lab certified for reliability in testing its biometric products by CNAS.
Keyless brings multi-factor biometrics to Microsoft Azure AD B2C.
Trueface partners with iryx for contactless biometrics with body temperature checks.
Antimicrobial coating now available for Jenetric biometric scanners to prevent spread of illnesses.
ITL updates biometric verification device with spoof detection.
Contactless biometric payment startups PopID and PayEye continue expansion efforts.
Aratek plans another big year of biometrics launches to target specific business challenges.
The computer scientists, from the University of Maryland and the U.S. Naval Academy, say Lowkey prevents facial recognition algorithms from matching harvested photos with new ones that might come from, for instance, surveillance cameras.
New research has found that optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging technology can be utilized to distinguish between legitimate and counterfeit travel documents.
Pushing ethics up the AI-development chain: Concerns about research funding and training get louder.
Recent advances address biometric payment card security concerns, Fingerprint Cards says in paper.
Data privacy warning issued by Biometrics Institute over rushed development of COVID-19 solutions.
Council of Europe warns against biometrics-based emotion recognition.
Colorado launching ID.me biometric identity verification to fight pandemic claims fraud.
South Africa expects to finish the first phase of the biometrics system this year.
India says biometrics-backed CoWIN vaccine app will only track relevant vaccine data.
Belarus mulls introduction of biometric ID documents by April 30.
Taiwan digital ID delayed until privacy regulation passes.
Global biometric data collection and surveillance grow despite lack of regulations.
Selfie biometrics continue rapid rise with increasing availability, Onfido and Yoti customer wins.
Biometric mobile payments to reach $3T by 2025 on 650 percent growth, Juniper forecasts.
Global facial recognition market to grow by over $3.3B in next five years.
Biometrics 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 factor propelling the growth of the biometric system market.

Biometric Research & Development

Latest Researches:

LowKey: Leveraging Adversarial Attacks to Protect Social Media Users From Facial Recognition

Researchers say they have created software that protects social media posters from unwanted biometric surveillance. The evasion tool, called LowKey, reportedly fends off commercial facial recognition APIs by Amazon and Microsoft.

The computer scientists, from the University of Maryland and the U.S. Naval Academy, say Lowkey prevents facial recognition algorithms from matching harvested photos with new ones that might come from, for instance, surveillance cameras.

In a research paper yet to be peer reviewed, the authors claim LowKey can alter a posted image enough to throw face scrapers off the scent while maintaining a degree of resemblance to a person’s actual appearance that allows humans to make the connection.

Example images published in the paper demonstrate the perturbation. The effect resembles sub-par digital aging. Applying Gaussian smoothing to the image in pre-processing made the images look like those of people facing into a government wind tunnel.

Dialing up the effect on images of some well-known media personalities still left them recognizable but not in all cases.

A photo of actor Tom Hanks, one of the most famous people in the United States, is changed beyond the point of believability. A shot of actor and comedian Tina Fey devolves into something that could charitably be described as an off-brand bobblehead doll.

The result might feel basic, but the researchers say their code, in black-box setting, fools Amazon’s Rekognition and Microsoft’s Azure Face biometric products.

The proprietary Rekognition software reportedly saw through LowKey’s ruse just 2.4 percent of the time. The Azure Face code performed worse. It made accurate biometric connections with the LowKey gallery 0.1 percent of the time.

The researchers prioritized five conditions in building LowKey. First, the adversarial attack had to transfer effectively to unseen models. Next, the perturbed images had to still be identifiable to human image eyes. There is no purpose in changing one’s image to fool both a scraper and one’s network of followers. A person could use a free entertainment tool that turns their image into, say, a Simpson’s-like character. Third, LowKey had to be fast enough that run time does not outweigh the algorithm’s disguising features. Protected images also had to work after being converted to JPG and PNG formats, as well. Last, LowKey had to protect any size image.

Another notable aspect to the team’s work is that LowKey has been created to be used by social media posters themselves. Most tools are designed to be used by intermediaries between a person (and their photo) and the face scrapers.

Sub-surface characterisation of latest-generation identification documents using optical coherence tomography

by Manuel J. Marques, Robert Green, Roberto King, Simon Clement, Peter Hallett, Adrian Podoleanu in Science & Justice

New research has found that optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging technology can be utilized to distinguish between legitimate and counterfeit travel documents.

OCT imaging has been widely used in the medical and biomedical fields, recognised as transforming the field of clinical ophthalmology, and this research has now identified its capabilities for forgery detection use.

This was a joint study between the Applied Optics Group (PDRA Dr Manuel Marques and Professor Adrian Podoleanu) and the Forensic Group (Reader Robert Green OBE) in the University of Kent’s School of Physical Sciences, while working alongside the forensics science technology company, Foster + Freeman (Dr Roberto King). The work demonstrates that OCT can perform quantitative, non-destructive, high resolution sub-surface analysis of multi-layered identification document, with a high imaging throughput and high-density volume. The technology typically takes less than 10 seconds to detect counterfeit documentation.

The researchers have assessed the security features in specimen passports and national ID cards. The OCT technology exposed the documentation’s translucent structures, non-destructively enabling quantitative visualisation of embedded security features.

The large number of fraudulent identity documents in circulation continues to be a concern for the UK Government, with organised, transnational crime and the threat of criminals and terrorists crossing international borders undetected still a threat. Passport fraud remains one of the greatest threats to global security. While an increasing number of security features have been introduced by authorities in the latest generation of identification documents (such as several layers of polycarbonate), this sophistication can make the ability to distinguish legitimate from counterfeit documents an ever-evolving challenge. Therefore, this presents an unmet and evolving need to identify such sophisticated forgeries, in a non-destructive, high throughput manner.

Robert Green OBE, said: ‘As documents become harder to forge, so does the sophistication of forgery detection. Although more secure than their predecessors, the latest generation of identity documents manufactured using polycarbonate layers remain susceptible to counterfeiting. Fraudsters tend to adopt tactics such as copying paper or polycarbonate, reproducing documents and hologram images using sophisticated computer technology before re-laminating. Any of these tactics will affect the inner structure of a document, showing the importance of its subsurface characterisation and the benefit that OCT can provide to identify such tampering.’
Dr King said: ‘We believe that the application of OCT can be used by multiple stakeholders in the field, especially forensic scientists working to validate suspected counterfeit documents and document manufacturers as a non-destructive method of quality control. OCT can preserve evidence which may be useful for criminal investigations, as well as prevent the unnecessary destruction of legitimate documents which may have been previously flagged as suspected forgeries.’

A trio of recent articles on AI, each from a unique angle, are posing ethics questions that are more fundamental than how industry can demonstrate more responsibility in getting algorithms into the market.

One piece examined how researchers are being prompted to contemplate possible negative as well as positive impacts their work could have on society.
A second asked if researchers should police themselves when it comes to accepting funding.
The third goes yet another step further up the tech development process to recommend reshaping computer science education itself.

It started with a December report in Nature on the Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) conference, where face biometrics are a prominent topic. Organizers for the first time required speakers to prepare statements specifying the impacts their work could have on society.

They also created a review panel with the power to reject work that “raised ethical concerns.”

The Nature article noted sentiment about AI-supported technologies is shifting dramatically. It quoted Jason Gabriel, DeepMind’s ethicist, saying there had been a general “techno optimism. Clearly that has changed.”

Policymakers and the public are souring on AI as they learn about the threats of deepfakes, racially biased algorithms and wholesale face image scraping by secretive startups.

The need for forethought and transparency is critical if advanced democracies are to adopt systems — many of which involve surveillance — at a rate remotely approximating that of authoritarian regimes.

This month, an Australia-based consulting firm asked if the dynamics of AI research funding is recreating the late 1900s scandals in which industry marketing aims were achieved when otherwise reputable research organizations were co-opted.

Specifically, the authors point to the fortunes thrown at research institutions by tobacco companies to produce work that at best obfuscated smoking’s harms and at worst refuted science that eventually won out on the matter.

The article was published by Australasian Human Research Ethics Consultancy Services. It focused on facial recognition in service of surveillance, and ultimately follows the funding question down the same paths traveled by the previous Nature article.

EdSurge, a research firm concentrated on the equitable use of technology in education, takes the point further. The article says society is “unified” in “concerns that we are inching closer to a dystopian future.”

The need to train people in technical proficiency is obvious, according to EdSurge.

But so should be the need to instill the skills and “moral courage” to create AI technology that “dismantles existing power dynamics” in a way that nurtures society as it innovates and creates capital.

Hacks of biometric payment cards are possible, but recent technology advances make scalable attacks practically impossible, according to an article in the journal Biometric Technology Today written by Fingerprint Cards Director of Product Management Henrik Nilsson.

Trust issues? The need to secure contactless biometric payment cards

About the author Henrik Nilsson is the director of product management at Fingerprint Cards, responsible for the…

www.sciencedirect.com

‘Biometrics — The missing piece of the payment card puzzle?’, available online via ScienceDirect, suggests that beyond false acceptance rates (FARs) of 1 in 20,000, and solving some of the security problems associated with PINs like shoulder-surfing, the security of several risk points in the system has recently been addressed to make the commercial roll-outs like BNP Paribas’ successful. The key to ensuring security is robust, he argues, is to make sure that attacks are ‘one shot’ attempts, rather than scalable hacks.

The risk points identified by Nilsson are the initial image capture stage, during processing, and the matching process itself. He notes seven different possible attacks, including spoof attacks, replay or sensor image manipulation attempts, manipulation of processing and feature extraction, biometric feature replay or manipulation and template injection.

The shift to active capacitive sensors has greatly mitigated the chances of a successful presentation attack, according to the paper. Injection and image replay attacks, which Nilsson considers a major threat vector, consists of a fraudulent device replacing the fingerprint sensor. Cards can be secured against this kind of attack with sensor-image authentication processes.

Attacks against the operation of the biometric software which can lead to ‘side-channel leakage’ of data used to optimize other fraud attempts are mitigated with sophisticated algorithms and by conducting both feature extraction and matching processes within the secure element.

Main Development News:

The iPhone’s Face ID Will Soon Work With a Mask — if You Have an Apple Watch

This week, Apple started testing some new software for the iPhone that will let device owners unlock the handset while wearing a face covering. There’s a catch, though, one that lines up with Apple’s strategy of locking people in to different Apple products, and it highlights how challenging it can be to develop accurate facial recognition technology: The new face-unlock feature requires an Apple Watch.

The first developer beta of iOS 14.5 includes updates to app tracking controls and Siri alongside the face-mask function. App-makers typically get early access to the newest version of iOS in order to launch or retool their apps well in advance of the formal software release. (Brave souls who don’t mind the risk of potentially bricking their iPhones can also enroll in public beta releases.) The fully baked version of the software is expected to be made available to the general public this spring.

That means by the time most people install the newest version of iOS on their iPhones, we’ll have been wearing masks for a year or more to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Compared with all the other ways the pandemic has altered our lives, having to use a method other than Apple’s Face ID to unlock your iPhone isn’t a huge inconvenience. Still, it’s frustrating to hold your phone up to your face only to remember Face ID won’t work on account of your mask. The promise of facial recognition technology — which coexists with very valid concerns about its misuse and its error rates for people with darker skin — is that it’s supposed to get smarter and better over time.

With the coming software update, Apple is more or less handing off the authentication load to the Apple Watch. If you’re using a newer iPhone model (one with Face ID) and have installed the iOS 14.5 beta software, and you’re wearing an Apple Watch with watchOS 7.4, raising the locked phone to your face will trigger a bit of communication between the phone and watch. The phone will unlock. The watch will also display a notification that the phone has been unlocked. One iOS developer described it to WIRED as an experience similar to unlocking a Mac with an Apple Watch.

Apple granted patent for face biometrics occlusion assessment

A patent newly granted to Apple reveals a method for using ‘heat maps’ to biometrically identify and authenticate a Face ID user whose face is blocked by an object like a mask or their hair.

The patent for ‘Occlusion detection for facial recognition processes’ was awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and describes heat maps estimating the location of facial features (or “landmarks”) like the user’s eyes, mouth and nose. The heat map can also include values to represent facial regions that are occluded, and use it in combination with the estimated feature locations to assess landmark occlusion by overlaying the occlusion heat map onto the map if features.

That assessment can in turn be applied to control biometric authentication or other operations. The patent document says occlusion assessments above a certain threshold would prompt the system to discard the image, preventing the device from being unlocked with biometrics.

Apple’s facial recognition-based device unlocking has prevented Face ID for working, prompting the company to implement workarounds.

The document describes the image analyzed to generate the heat map being captured by an array of sensors which may be infrared or RGB sensors.

If implemented in future mobile devices from Apple, the system described could push biometric authentication to a different native modality, like an in-display fingerprint sensor, based on a recently published patent application and widespread speculation that the feature will eventually be included in iPhones.

New optical in-display sensor for fingerprint biometrics described in Apple patent filing

A patent application for an under-display optical fingerprint biometric sensor based on a narrow field-of-view collimator filed by Apple has been published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

While an in-display version of Touch ID biometrics has not been announced by Apple, but numerous intellectual property filings and other indications have suggested it is at least under consideration.

The filing for a ‘Under-display optical fingerprint sensor with NFV collimator and TFT/organic imager’ depicts a biometric sensor implemented in a touch-display layer and covered by a transparent layer. The invention includes a collimator layer and a pixelated image sensor. A collimator is a device which narrows or focuses a beam of particles or light. The collimator is configured to enable a one-to-one imaging ratio between the sensor area and the corresponding fingerprint image.

The imaging system is made up of a thin-film transistor (TFT)-based organic sensor, which captures reflected light emitted by an OLED display.

The collimator layer is made up of a fiber-optic or micro-aperture plate configured to achieve a field of view with a range of plus or minus 0.5 to 10 degrees. The transmission range of the collimator layer would be roughly -6 dB to 0 dB.

Apple suggests that glass-air interfaces present a problem for the consistent performance over time of optical fingerprint sensors, as the interface tends not be stable enough for small area matching. Large area CMOS sensors could solve the problem, but not are not cost-effective, according to the patent application.

Under-display Optical Fingerprint Sensor With Nfv Collimator And Tft/organic Imager Patent…

U.S. patent application number 16/767887 was filed with the patent office on 2021-01-21 for under-display optical…

uspto.report

Spotify patent hints at speech recognition for music recommendations

Digital music service Spotify has been granted a patent titled “Identification of Taste Attributes From an Audio Signal” for the invention of a system to use speech recognition and analysis to create individually recommended music choices, reports Forbes.

Using personal voice data such as age, gender, emotional state and accent combined with the users’ physical environment (like whether they are on a train, at a party, or at school), the content matching algorithm is able to generate a list of recommendations taking into account previous listening history and friends or connections’ tastes.

“Speech content might be processed to eliminate words or phrases below a particular confidence level,” according to the patent.

The speech data is not used as a biometric to uniquely identify the individual during the process, and Spotify also gives users the option to enter their gender and date of birth at sign-up.

It is not clear when and how this new system would be implemented, and a spokesperson for the company hinted it may not come into use at all; “Spotify has filed patent applications for hundreds of inventions, and we regularly file new applications,” the representative wrote. “Some of these patents become part of future products, while others don’t. Our ambition is to create the best audio experience out there, but we don’t have any news to share at this time.”

Amazon expands contactless in-store palm biometrics, AWS develops voice authentication

Customers will soon be able to check into all Seattle Amazon Go stores using only their palm scan. Amazon is rolling out more of its Amazon One palm biometrics scanners as it integrates the devices in additional Seattle stores. The scanners, Amazon’s entry into the access control market first introduced in September 2020, will allow customers to check into Amazon Go retail stores via touch-free palm scanning.

Uniphore to address issues in biometrics with WEF community and new partnerships

Uniphore has joined the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Innovators Community and announced a pair of partnerships to contribute to biometrics ethics and education projects.

The institution is an invitation-only group bringing together start-ups and scale-ups at the forefront of ethical technological and business model innovation.

The Community particularly focuses on applications related to advanced AI, machine learning, automation, and voice and video biometric technologies. Project areas include developing standards to protect children, envisioning an AI regulator that can deal with current and future technologies, and addressing challenges unique to face biometrics.

As a member of the Community, Uniphore will now work with several other companies to improve its voice biometric solutions and speech recognition for Conversational Service Automation (CSA).

“It is in Uniphore’s cultural DNA to innovate and collaborate, and associating with these global organizations is a testament to our core values,” said Umesh Sachdev, CEO, and co-founder of Uniphore. “It will be truly exciting to see the level of scale, agility, and sheer innovation that will come out of these global collaborations.”

ID R&D and Synaptics partnership to bring voice biometrics to smart home edge devices

ID R&D and Synaptics have partnered to integrate voice biometrics with the VideoSmart VS600 platform to enable fast and accurate identification, authentication, and personalization on edge computing devices for smart home applications.

The biometric capability is integrated with the NPU of the VideoSmart VS600 System-on-Chip (SoC), which also uses SyNAP technology to enable the biometric algorithms to run on edge computing devices. The NPU supports trillions of operations per second to run machine learning models at the network edge. By tapping into the NPU’s capabilities, ID R&D says it can run the sophisticated algorithms that deliver high-accuracy voice biometrics, as well as liveness detection to detect spoof attacks, with an extremely small footprint.

The companies say the result is a first-of its kind capability, with 10 times the speed of traditional systems running the algorithm on the CPU and both CPU and RAM utilization are dramatically decreased. The combined solution works with home devices like set-top boxes, smart speakers, displays, and security systems.

“This is the first known commercial application of voice biometrics with liveness on an NPU for smart home applications. The speed of the voice biometric processing is faster than real-time — meaning we can identify a speaker in a family group even before they are finished speaking a wake word and a command to a home-based smart device,” says John Amein, SVP at ID R&D. “Previous systems have been limited by the capacity of the core CPU, which is not optimized for neural networks. This integration makes it possible to implement more sophisticated algorithms, opening up new use cases. We expect to enable voice for higher security levels necessary for use cases like payments, highly responsive identification of a person among a group for personalized responses, and a more natural user experience for authentication.”

BioID biometric PAD detection ISO standard compliance confirmed for Level A and B attacks

BioID’s biometric liveness detection technology has been confirmed for compliance to the ISO/IEC 30107–3 standard for Level A and B attacks by Germany’s TÜV Informationstechnik GmbH (TÜViT).

The tests by TÜViT used the FIDO Biometric Certification Requirements v1.1 (FIDO1.1) for the attack levels, and the lab requires the applied criteria to be stricter than FIDO1.1, according to the announcement. The PAD technology was put through 1000 tests with photos, masks and videos on different displays, as well as bona-fide tests with live individuals to audit correct live classification, passing both successfully.

BioID provides its biometric technology as a cloud service, and provides liveness detection based on two selfies, working on any standard RGB camera without any additional sensors.

The biometrics-as-a-service provider achieved FIDO biometric component certification in 2020, based on the ISO/IEC 19795 and 30107 standards, which involved testing against various photo media and other artifacts, 3D avatars and video projects. The BioID PAD technology used in IDCheck.io is among the first in the world to achieve this certification, the company says.

“As a pioneer for liveness detection since early 2000, BioID is proud of two different independent accreditations for our PAD technology,” says BioID CEO Ho Chang. “As we are working with multiple government suppliers, such objective third-party measurement is of great value. It complements the real-life approval from multiple years of efficient fraud prevention for our customers worldwide.”

Data privacy warning issued by Biometrics Institute over rushed development of COVID-19 solutions

Cutting corners in the development of COVID-19 solutions in a hurry to push them onto the market could create a substantial risk to data privacy, according to a statement released by the Biometrics Institute.

Coming as the Institute prepares a review of its Privacy Guidelines for Biometrics, the new caution acknowledges the great change the world has undergone due to the pandemic and the necessity of deploying biometric solutions to counter this unprecedented situation.

“In workplaces, at borders, and in public places, biometrics have the potential to contribute to a modern approach to the global challenge,” the statement reads.
“The responsible use of the technology could also enable a contactless lifestyle and societal functionality to mitigate contamination risks.”

Moreover, biometrics could also improve how the health of individuals is managed once they enter crowded and potentially hazardous places like office buildings, shops, factories, airports, and stadiums.

“A biometrically-enabled digital health credential could get the world moving again.”

Council of Europe warns against biometrics-based emotion recognition

Face biometrics should not be used to implement evaluations of employees based on emotion recognition, The Council of Europe has warned, according to the Financial Times. The organization also says private companies must gain specific consent from people before using their facial recognition data.

The Council of Europe is a regional rights watchdog, and is made up of 47 countries including EU members, Turkey, Russia and the UK.

The plans represent the continent’s “most extensive proposals” yet, the Times writes, but also notes that document, drafted by an expert committee within the Council, is non-binding.

“Forty years ago, the Council of Europe introduced the first binding international legal standards for data protection,” states Council Secretary-General Marija Pejčinović Burić. “Today we are tasked with ensuring that facial recognition technology also respects the rights to which we are all entitled by law.”

Applications where the use of face biometrics could lead to discrimination include staff analysis, insurance access, education and policing, and each should be prohibited, according to the Council. The group also wants biometrics-based estimates of gender, age, health and other characteristics to be banned, barring the enactment of legal safeguards that would prevent discrimination.

Emotion recognition has long been identified by researchers as an unreliable technology.

The European Commission, meanwhile, is working on its own legislative proposal for artificial intelligence regulation, and is being urged to enact tough measures. An amendment was recently proposed in the EC to ban all biometrics use by law enforcement.

Companies must not use facial recognition to judge staff, says Council of Europe

The use of facial recognition technology to hire and fire people based on their moods, personality or level of…

www.ft.com

Valve sees brain-computer interfaces as the future of gaming

Gaming technology firm Valve’s Founder Gabe Newell urged developers to undertake brain-computer interface (BCI) studies, predicting that they will drastically change the gaming industry. According to Newell, gamers might soon be able to control their in-game movements via brain wave transmission thanks to emerging research and development in the field of BCIs, writes tvnz.com.

In a recent interview, Newell also announced an open-source project in partnership between Valve and the OpenBCI developer community. The project will allow creators to study and improve brain-signal processing in conjunction with VR headsets to enhance the gaming experience.

Aerendir has suggested biometric BCIs could upgrade mobile authentication security, and Neurotechnology launched a development kit for brainwave biometrics last year.

According to Valve’s Newell, the scanning process involves brainwaves being read through sensors placed in a headset. The gathered signals can then be interpreted to improve the gaming experience. Currently, data is taken from a player’s brain and body can be used to determine the individual’s mental state. Excitement, boredom, surprise, and fear are only some of the emotions that can be captured using the proposed high-definition sensors.

Aside from allowing developers to personalize the gaming experience and make it more immersive, Newell also predicts that in the future these signals can be used to control in-game movements.

“We’re working on an open-source project so that everybody can have high-resolution [brain signal] read technologies built into headsets, in a bunch of different modalities,” Newell added, “If you’re a software developer in 2022 who doesn’t have one of these in your test lab, you’re making a silly mistake.”

trinamiX in-display biometric face authentication platform improves smartphone design

Face biometric solutions firm trinamiX has announced a new 3D imaging solution for authentication with consumer mobile devices.

The company’s technology can provide secure 3D face authentication powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon AI engine that is invisibly integrated behind a smartphone display, without the ‘notch’ typically associated with 3D technology.

trinamiX face biometrics algorithms can reportedly record 3D features of the face in real-time, as well as recognize real skin. This would help the system detect presentation attacks utilizing photo-realistic masks, 3D sculptures, or detailed 2D printouts.

The platform, developed for mobile payments and access controls, relies on relatively simple hardware consisting of a standard camera with a silicon sensor (CMOS) and a near-infrared light projector. This would enable system integration behind the smartphone display, enabling new design possibilities for smartphones.

“We are very pleased to usher in this new era together with the smartphone OEMs”, says Dr. Stefan Metz, director of 3D Imaging at trinamiX. “With our technology, users will no longer have to compromise as they benefit from the most secure privacy protection without sacrificing a user-friendly all-screen display.”

A live demo of the 3D imaging solution behind OLED displays will be officially presented at the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai between 23 and 25 of February in Hall N2, D161.

Idemia NSS and SVI partner on advanced LiDAR biometric platform for government agencies

StereoVision Imagine (SVI) is bringing its LiDAR-based object and facial recognition to a partnership with Idemia National Security Solutions (NSS) to offer what the companies say is a high-capability biometric recognition platform. The companies say the technology can help address the most challenging security threats in real-time.

Idemia’s biometric software is combined with FMCW (frequency-modulated continuous wave) 4D LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology in the biometric recognition solution. SVI’s FMCW 4D LiDAR instantly determines the length, width, depth and velocity of an object over extremely long ranges, according to the announcement.

SVI says its dual-chirp FMCW laser technology can capture velocity or motion information in real-time from 40 times as far as traditional technologies without the risk of damaging people’s eyes. The technology works in real-world scenarios regardless of the subject’s movement, lighting conditions, or occlusions like sunglasses or car windshields. In addition to biometric identification, it can detect heart and breath rate, eye movement and speech, which the company says can indicate alertness, psychological state or intent.

“We believe the integration of our identity software with SVI’s state-of-the-art LiDAR creates an unmatched solution for addressing the most challenging of security entry applications,” states Shane Powers, vice president of operations for IDEMIA National Security Solutions. “SVI’s military funded and field proven technology provides the level of power and sophistication our customers need and demand.”

SVI’s capabilities were developed with more than $100 million invested in research and development over a ten-year period, and are protected by more than 100 granted and pending patents worldwide.

Customers of NSS’ facial recognition and other biometric systems for physical security and augmented identity include U.S. government agencies at the federal, state and local level, law enforcement, border control and transportation agencies.

“Powering our technology with best-in-class biometric software is integral to providing a biometric security system that ensures national security and public safety,” comments Gregory Steinthal, president of SVI. “NSS provides us entry into new markets beyond the military and tremendous opportunities for growth over the coming year.”

New algorithm pushes into biometric accuracy leaders in latest NIST FRVT

Deep Glint has held onto its top overall spot for biometric accuracy in the latest Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) 1:1 Verification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), but another new entry from China has leaped into the leader group.

The edition of the report shows further improvement in facial recognition accuracy by several developers.

Changes sincepreviousedition include evaluation of algorithms from four newly-submitting biometrics developers; Herta Security, Irex AI, Shenzhen University-Macau University of Science and Technology, and Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group. New algorithms have also been submitted by 13 developers who have previously participated in the FRVT. As a result, ten algorithms were retired from the test to limit developers to two facial recognition algorithms each.

A total of 262 algorithms from more than 150 developers were evaluated by NIST.

One of the newly-added algorithms is one from China-based Moontime Smart Technology, which placed first in both visa categories, second in both mugshot categories and the visa border category, and third and ninth in the two other border categories. The mt-003 algorithm also placed 125th in the wild category. Moontime is currently ranked 15th on the overall leaderboard.

In the December FRVT, Moontime’s top result was 12th in the ‘Border 1E-05’ category.

Sensetime took first in the two mugshot categories, VisionLabs swept the three border categories, and Beihang University-ERCACAT and Paravision had the highest accuracy against the wild and child exploitation datasets, respectively.

CyberLink notes in an announcement that its FaceMe algorithm finished sixth in the wild category, but first among vendors based outside of China, and with full global market access.

Fujitsu unveils multimodal biometric authentication technology for contactless retail

Fujitsu Laboratories has unveiled new multi-factor biometric authentication technology designed to deliver a contactless shopping experience for the post-COVID-19 “New Normal” era.

The new solution combines two different forms of biometric authentication, matching facial verification (even when users are wearing masks) with palm recognition for a reported accuracy of more than 99 percent.

Fujitsu has been working steadily on biometric technologies in the past few months.

The company says it recently ranked 6th overall among 147 participating global vendors and 1st amongst Japanese vendors in NIST’s original test of face biometrics with masked faces.

To update its face recognition tools to identify people wearing masks, the company now trained its algorithms to generate a composite image combining the mask with the face image and training the model, thus achieving great filtering accuracy, according to the announcement. Fujitsu also announced the development of a liveness detection technology for face authentication last year.

Fujitsu’s palm vein authentication sensor platform has also been improved by adding a palm-shaped light, in which color and light pattern change according to the distance of the hand. This helps users to understand more intuitively how to position their hand on the sensor to perform biometric authentication.

Fujitsu palm vein authentication sensor platform

The new, contactless solution combining face and palm recognition is being trialed this month at a concept cashless Lawson convenience store at the Fujitsu Technology Square office in Shin-Kawasaki, Japan.

The company aims at commercializing the technology by the end of the year.

Trueface partners with iryx for contactless biometrics with body temperature checks

It is now possible to carry out checks for elevated body temperatures, frictionless biometric identity verification as well as spoof detection using one solution, according to the announcement of a partnership between Trueface and iryx. In a blog post, a computer vision software developer at Trueface said the solution was developed to ensure a fast and contactless process of temperature checks, as opposed to the time-consuming and risky manual method with handheld temperature devices.

The biometric solution, which is supported by iryx’s AI-powered thermal indoor mini camera built with an advanced onboard computer vision engine capable of performing high level machine learning inference, detects the location of the inner canthus of the eye and then extracts the maximum temperature there using machine learning, the blog post explains.

The Trueface solution also has other features, such as a rich developer API which makes it possible for information such as temperature, face mask labels, and liveness information to be streamed.

Meanwhile, the API can also be used to activate Trueface’s facial recognition system using the iryx camera, making it the unique solution with which businesses can be able to biometrically identify persons coming into their premises and at the same time checking if they have elevated body temperatures, the post notes.

The article adds that the biometric spoof detection option is one of the most important, is accessible from the developer API which comes with the Trueface EBT solution, and can detect attacks arising from impersonation on digital and physical access scenarios.

It further explains that it is difficult to spoof with the passive thermal spoof detection system because it compares the temperature profile of the detected face to the expected temperature profile of a human face.

The post concludes by saying that the Trueface and iryx solution is seen as enabling a more dynamic response to pandemic-related challenges.

Plug & Play Camera Provides Frictionless Temperature detection and Access Control

Trueface partners with iryx to deploy on-camera machine learning technology to clients effected by COVID-19.

medium.com

Antimicrobial coating now available for Jenetric biometric scanners to prevent spread of illnesses

A permanent antimicrobial coating that prevents the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19 is now available for all LIVETOUCH fingerprint biometric scanners from Jenetric, according to a company announcement.

The transparent coating is made of copper II oxide, a proven biocidal agent, Jenetric says, which is resistant to chemicals and abrasion-proof. Copper II oxide (also known as cupric oxide) is officially recognized for its antimicrobial properties by the European Biocide Directive 98/8/EC. In combination with hand washing and disinfection, the coating protects users of the biometric scanners from infection.

“With the antimicrobial coating of our fingerprint scanners, we have succeeded in offering permanent infection protection that goes beyond regular disinfection,” says Roberto Wolfer, CEO of JENETRIC. “The permanent antimicrobial coating is much more efficient as it does not require supplies or downtime of the scanner during disinfection. It is particularly important to us that in addition to efficient infection protection, the coating does not affect the fingerprint quality in any way.”

The coating is applied to the entire surface of the biometric scanner in a special vaporization process, the company says, and its long-term durability is confirmed by extensive abrasion and washing tests.

Telpo lab certified for reliability in testing its biometric products by CNAS

Telpo has been granted CNAS laboratory accreditation, certifying its ability to provide accurate and effective testing reports for the biometric terminals and other products it produces.

CNAS stands for China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment, and certified Telpo’s laboratory based on the ISO/IEC 17025: 2017 standard for “the competence, impartiality and consistent operation of laboratories.”

The accreditation confirms Telpo’s testing capabilities meet domestic Chinese and international standards, the company says, and is expected to boost the credibility and brand influence of Telpo products in the marketplace.

The company says it can provide complete ODM services for new products from industrial and manufacturing design processes to mass production in three months, and cites its many successes working with Alipay, Meituan, Baidu, bank of China, MTN, Vodafone, Burger King and other organizations.

Telpo has 21 years of project experience, national-level laboratory testing and calibration capacity, and over 200 technology patents, and the company has delivered products for more than 100 countries around the world.

ATB Ventures tackles digital ID, bias in AI to support technology growth in Alberta

ATB Ventures, the research and development arm of financial institution ATB Financial, has announced an intention to support work into digital identity advancements and removing bias from artificial intelligence applications like biometrics.

The organization plans to invest in different technologies and develop others in-house. One technology developed by ATB Ventures is the ATB Turing Box, which provides a machine-learning framework for removing bias from AI, and has already been implemented by ATB Financial.

Oliu, a self-sovereign identity (SSI) platform, has also been developed by ATB Ventures to support digital ID for healthcare, finance, government and consumer applications.

“The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt for years to come,” comments Sue McGill, head of innovation for ATB Ventures. “As we embrace the next big wave of innovation, we are focusing on addressing fundamental challenges like data privacy, AI safety and digital identity.”

ATB Financial is a member of the Digital Identification and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC), which launched the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework to set standards for digital ID in the country last year.

“Guided by data, our team is exploring the art of the possible, imagining identity beyond birth certificates and social insurance numbers where people directly control their personal information as they move seamlessly through the world,” said McGill.

These Weeks’ News by Categories

Access Control:

WhatsApp launches biometric authentication to securely link account with web version: Biometric authentication has been added to the web and desktop version of WhatsApp, allowing the messaging app’s 2 billion-plus users to link the browser version with their mobile app to use on-device fingerprint, face or iris biometrics alongside its existing QR code authentication, TechCrunch reports. The announcement comes on the heels of ID R&D partnering with Wittybots by SimpleTech to bring voice biometric authentication to WhatsApp for Business.