Biometrics In Human Services
USER GROUP
Volume 4 Issue 3 June 2000
19th Issue
This is the nineteenth issue of the Biometrics in Human Services User Group Newsletter. This is a non-profit, public interest, educational newsletter designed to generate interest in
biometric technology for human services users. The Biometrics in Human Services User Group (BHSUG) membership is open to all state, federal, provincial, educational or other
governmental organizations interested in keeping pace with the latest developments in this field. The focus of BHSUG is providing a platform for sharing biometric news, ideas and
innovations, distributing findings, identifying best practices, recommending and creating useful standards for both human services users and technology developers for this market.
In this 19th issue, BHSUG shares the latest state update from Len Aiello in Massachusetts. Brent Spikes gives us coverage of the minutiae standards meeting held at
CTST 2000 in Miami from a government user perspective. The Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization (OLETC), is ready to commercialize its new 3-D
face identification technology based on a completely three-dimensional composite framework with the ability to operate with a wide range of available two-dimensional face
images. Your editor climbs on the soap box to talk about the Microsoft/BAPI deal. We took another look at biometrics on the web and have three more candidates for you
to check out. BHSUG also has the latest Biometric Events Calendar as well as Biometric Watch, containing news briefs from all over the biometric world.
Dave Mintie, Editor
Microsoft Buys Into Biometrics? My Two Cents
Microsoft's announcement on May 2, 2000, that they intended to incorporate I/O Software's Biometric API (BAPI) into a future version of the Windows(R) operating system
left the BioAPI Consortium Steering Committee with a sinking feeling that they had just been left out in the cold after several years of a lot of hard work. While it is great
that the industry giant has swung it's magic wand and pointed at biometrics as a technology worthy of its attention, compromise and agreement on standards in the
biometric industry has been hard to come by, and should not be sold short.
From the start, all of us on the government user side have wanted standards to happen in the worst way. Standards level the playing field between vendors, lower costs,
encourage the adoption of biometric applications, propel innovation and enhance opportunities for future interoperability of systems between states. No matter what
anyone says, this is still an industry in its infancy. A lot of folks put a lot of effort into the BioAPI product. Perhaps Microsoft is just not interested in adopting freebies no
matter where they come from. While the announcement may hold a lot of interest for investors, many things may can and will change by the time Microsoft gets around
to implementing any meaningful support for biometrics.
Why should you be interested in BioAPI? The BioAPI specification is available in the public domain and is royalty-free to all interested parties. It is an "open systems"
specification, intended for use across a broad spectrum of computing environments to ensure cross-platform support. This includes the Windows operating system as
well as other environments such as UNIX and Linux. It is commendable that the BioAPI Consortium will seek continued dialogue with Microsoft, even after this little slap in
the face. That speaks volumes about the integrity and viability of this group. What makes this latest twist even more interesting is that it has been the intent of the BioAPI
Consortium to incorporate the BAPI specification from I/O Software into the BioAPI structure as the basis for the BioAPI device level interface layer. I/O Software has
made previous commitments to the BioAPI Consortium to make BAPI available to the BioAPI Consortium for this purpose. I/O Software is a current member of the BioAPI
Consortium and chairs the Device Working Group. The I/O spinmeisters are frantically working damage control as this is written. At the same time some other vendors are
opting to get some mileage out of the situation by now declaring that they are or will be BAPI compatible.
I personally hope the folks who have invested so much hard work in the BioAPI international biometric standard stay their course. Can we do anything to help? State and
Federal managers negotiating with vendors for biometric ID projects can give the BioAPI Consortium some small momentum and needed support by specifying BioAPI
compatibility in their future RFP's, contract extensions and pilots. From a biometrics user perspective, we need to support the efforts of those who would unselfishly seek
to support us all. We need the BioAPI standard.
Additional information about the BioAPI Consortium and Ver 1.0 of the BioAPI Specification can be found at bioapi.org
Human Services ? State Updates
Massachusetts Update ? By Len Aiello
We now have over 600,000 facial images captured. We currently use a DEC Alfa to store the images and have had to increase its storage capacity twice in the last 18
months. We are looking to move to a larger IBM unit. Lesson to be learned, even when you have a caseload of 150,000 (as we had in 1995) sometimes 4 times that
number will not be enough storage space. The question becomes what is enough storage when planning a biometrics program that has no end date? As far as the
ongoing facial matching, we continue to have few true fraud hits on the matches, we have upgraded the local workstations to NT and now have the ability to convert the
facial image to its algorithm before sending it up to the server, thus making the compression and transmission of the image cleaner.
A Finger Minutiae Standard Arrives?
By Brent Spikes
Editor?s note: Brent was at the most recent CTST 2000 Conference in Miami and was able to sit in on the meeting regarding "Finger Minutia Extraction and Format
Standard for One-to-One Matching". This standard will go along way in meeting the needs of the Human Services agencies who wish to implement such an option to
stop fraud at POS.
In 1998, Texas Biometrics at POS Pilot was initiated to investigate the possibility of using biometrics, finger imaging, as a form of identity verification at POS to prevent
identity and/or benefit theft from food stamp and TANF clients. A survey done during the statewide deployment of our LSIS System, finger imaging during EBT client
eligibility, found a high level of acceptance among clients as a form of identity verification at POS. Unfortunately, the Texas Legislature did not continue funding for the
project, because they felt the technology was not "mainstream" enough. While conducting research associated with the pilot, we found that there was no standard by
which a 1:1 match could be done at POS without using a proprietary single vendor solution. This was unacceptable, considering the number of retailers in our state and
the existence of commercial finger imaging pilots being conducted by a few of our retailers in the state. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators
(AAMVA) in conjunction with many finger imaging industry representatives has taken the initiative to develop NCITS B10.8, the Finger Minutiae Extraction and Format
Standard for One-to-One Matching. They are very close to finalizing the standard and are now beginning work with the ISO group. NCITS B10.8 is "the" Task Group that
has developed the standard through their biometrics task force. The standard itself in draft form is technically: "draft proposed American National Standard for the Driver
License/Identification Card - NCITS 327". The current draft (which would become the initial publication of the American National Standard) does not have the minutiae
extraction info included. Due to the immediate needs of the MVAs AAMVA has already approved the draft document to be accepted as the Association Standard for the
DL and will include the minutiae info in the "AAMVA" standard.
In the TDHS' pilot, the strategy was to store two minutia templates on a smart card and do the POS identity verification match either within the smart card or within the
finger image scanning device. Such a standard could be used by any Social Services agency or retailer that plans to pilot such a solution. There is no reason to reinvent
the wheel. Such a minutiae template could be created from the image captured during finger imaging conducted as part of EBT eligibility. This vendor proprietary template
could then be converted to the NCITS B10.8 template layout and stored on a smart card in an encrypted format, using at least 64 bit DES or DES3. The template would
then be destroyed, no copies anywhere except on the card, to further ensure client security. TDHS continues to track developments in the biometric and smart card
industries that may effect our agency in the future. This helps ensure that we are moving in the right direction and have a clear understanding of these new technologies, if
the legislature chooses to revisit Biometrics at POS or any other smart card and/or biometric endeavor.
Brent Spikes, TDHS Technical Manager, PO Box 149030, Austin, TX 78714-9030, M/C: Y-980, (512) 231-5756 (512) 231-5836 (fax)
brent.spikes@dhs.state.tx.us
OLETC Announces New 3-D Face Recognition Technology
The Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization (OLETC), a program of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), is initiating procedures to commercialize
ILEFIS (Integrated Law-Enforcement Face-Identification System). ILEFIS has been developed under contract to NIJ at Wheeling Jesuit University over the past two years.
According to the OLETC website, ??ILEFIS represents a new face-identification technology based on a completely three-dimensional composite framework with the ability
to operate with a wide range of available two-dimensional face images. It has special capabilities for identifying subjects (cooperative or non-cooperative) from a distance
based on two-dimensional, angled-pose (non-frontal-view) face images extracted from surveillance video or still camera equipment. It also incorporates a special
low-dimensional coding feature that allows its search-and-match algorithm to screen its preprocessed database (including databases for law enforcement "mug shots") at
the rate of one million subjects in two seconds. It also includes a fully three-dimensional composite system for constructing faces on the basis of victim/witness
testimony, under varying pose and illumination conditions. ILEFIS operates on standard PC platforms (e.g., Windows NT, 98, 2000; also programmed for Linux; Unix).
U.S. and International patents have been filed on its face-identification technology. ILEFIS was developed primarily for the use of the law enforcement and corrections
community; however, it is anticipated that its core technology has numerous other opportunities for commercial application in biomedicine, finance/banking, customs,
security, and military. The novel 3D framework of ILEFIS is founded on a set of 3D face-feature-part repositories. The technology is based on a 3D face-composite analysis
that can consider up to sixty-four (64) face features and skin-color/complexion textures. For each face-feature part, it provides up to two hundred and fifty-six (256) different
3D shapes or texture conditions. ILEFIS is designed to process through one million existing mug-shot files in less than two (2) seconds. It is designed to run on moderate
cost PC platforms and utilizes an ultimate lower-dimensional compression technique that can store up to 60 million images on standard PC hardware.?
Two meetings have been scheduled for persons or organizations interested in licensing, purchasing, and/or commercializing this technology:
May 10, 2000 in Wheeling, WV on the campus of Wheeling Jesuit University in the Auditorium at the National Technology Transfer Center
May 23, 2000 in San Jose, CA on the campus of Santa Clara University in the Williman Room located in the Benson Memorial Center
oletc.org
Best of Biometric on the Web
Just a few short years ago it was hard to find much of anything about biometrics on the web, save the Biometric Consortium and some technology vendors with
commercial sites advertising their wares. That has really changed of late. From time to time, I?ll try to highlight a few that may be of interest to other biometrics
users/implementers.
The Association for Biometrics (AfB) maintains an excellent website at afb.org.uk The AfB is a not for profit organization based in the
UK that was formed to promote the awareness and development of biometric related technologies. The AfB web page gives users access to AfB publications, an overview
of the various working groups within the organization, schedules of various AfB sponsored workshops and seminars of interest to developers and users in the biometric
community.
The Texas Lone Star Imaging program (LSIS) has a great site at dhs.state.tx.us
that documents their biometric identification program. Look for data on their cost benefit analysis
Phil Shinn gave another voice to the biometric community when he founded the Biometrics E-group at egroups.com
back on August 3, 1999. This is an open listserver and webspace for anyone interested in biometric technologies. You can add your own links, search for useful stuff in
the links section, upload documents, white papers, etc. Messages are sorted by month. Membership is open to all. (Unmoderated). There is a French language
counterpart to this site at biometrie.online.fr
Biometric Watch
Vancouver, BC - Imagis Technologies Inc., announced that IMAGIS, together with its business partner, ORION Scientific Systems, have been chosen to provide an
integrated imaging-based law enforcement solution, by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, California, in a total contract award of $2.65 million. Alameda County covers
813 square miles and extends from the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay easterly to San Joaquin County. There are 14 incorporated cities including Oakland, Hayward
and Fremont in the county with a population of 1.362 million and adjacent to Silicon Valley. IMAGIS will provide a completely integrated law enforcement solution
including the CABS(TM) Computerized Arrest and Booking System, ID-2000(TM) Facial Recognition Software, Regional Data-Sharing, Property-ID(TM) for evidence control
and tracking in the field, and CABS Mobile(TM) for wireless transmission of record and image information to patrol cars. IMAGIS will integrate its software with the
County's CORPUS mainframe application. The company reports that the county-wide booking implementation at Alameda will be the largest digital imaging system on the
West Coast in law enforcement. The system will bring officers, beat-cops, detectives and sheriffs the most recent arrest information and photographs, available anytime
and anywhere by using laptops, internet protocols and secure wireless communications. The products and services being provided by ORION and IMAGIS are a
combination of state-of-the-art facial recognition, image and database management allowing law enforcement agencies to be more efficient and more effective in their jobs.
The Alameda project is planned to be installed this year and be fully operational during the 1st quarter of 2001.
imagis-cascade.com
orionsci.com
Newport Beach, CA. ? Sebastian, FL - The TriZetto(R) Group, Inc., a provider of Internet-enabled application services and business portals for the healthcare industry,
today announced a strategic alliance with Presideo, Inc. (formerly Integrated Visions, Inc.), a leading Internet infrastructure services company specializing in digital identity
management. The alliance adds a new level to TriZetto's e-healthcare authentication services through the use of "biometric identifiers" that are unique to each individual,
such as fingerprints, retinas, voices and facial features. Under the terms of the agreement, TriZetto will incorporate its HealthWeb(SM) and application services provider
(ASP) services into Presideo's complete suite of Internet trust services, providing an advanced, end-to-end process for creating an e-business environment that protects
information stored electronically and/or exchanged over the Internet. Presideo's services enhance TriZetto's existing, stringent security measures and digital credentialing
authentication services.
presideo.com
healthweb.net
Washington, DC. - The Justice Department announced that it will make grants to two gun manufacturers -- Smith & Wesson and FN Manufacturing, Inc. -- to research
and develop "smart gun" technologies. Smart guns, which are firearms that can distinguish an authorized user from someone who is not supposed to fire the weapon,
show tremendous promise in reducing the cost to human life when weapons are taken intentionally or accidentally from their proper owner.
Smart gun research and development is being supported by the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice (NIJ). The NIJ, with assistance from scientists at the
Sandia National Laboratories has evaluated a variety of technologies that may be adaptable in creating effective "smart guns", such as radio frequency, voice recognition,
biometrics, and touch memory technologies. The Smith & Wesson project will support feasibility and functionality tests of an electronic fire handgun with a code-based
combination lock and a separate fingerprint module that communicates with an electric fire handgun, as well as an analysis of existing Smith & Wesson technologies and
design of the next generation prototype. FN Manufacturing, Inc. will use its NIJ grant award to further the research, development, and testing of its smart gun prototype,
which uses embedded microelectronics to disable the firearm from use by an unauthorized user. The Clinton Administration has requested $10 million in FY 2001 to
expand development, testing, and replication of smart gun technologies.
ojp.usdoj.gov
Tulsa, OK. - Frost Biometrics announced plans to produce a portable gun safe that uses proprietary fingerprint technology to provide owners rapid and exclusive access
to handguns. Brad Frost, president of Frost Biometrics noted that the gun owner places a finger on the sensor and the safe springs open in about one second. The
probability of the safe opening for someone who is not registered is less than 0.01% for adults and even less for children. The press release notes that during enrollment,
the Smart Gunsafe(TM) creates a mathematical template that cannot be used to recreate a fingerprint image. The 16-gauge steel safe measures 6" x 8"x 12". It is light
and portable and can be placed throughout the home or place of business. Fingerprints can only be registered when the safe is open and all registered fingerprints can be
erased and reregistered.
Jersey City, NJ. - Visionics Corporation, a developer of facial recognition technology , has announced , that through its partnership with MetaData, a Mexico City-based
software integrator, its FaceIt© technology has been adopted in an effort to eliminate duplicate voter registrations in the Presidential elections this coming July. Visionics
CEO, Dr. Joseph J. Atick, noted that "?this is the first time that a national government has used facial recognition technology for the sole purpose of eliminating duplicate
voter registrations?. MetaData, a Mexico-City based technology company, was contracted by the Federal Election Institute (IFE) of Mexico to develop a facial
comparison system in order to search for the possible duplicates. FaceIt© technology has already been integrated in large-scale ID solutions programs, most recently in
the State of West Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. With its ability to search at one million records per second, the technology provides the ability to eliminate fraud
at its source and in real-time.
metadata.com.mx
visionics.com
Vienna, VA. - BioNetrix Systems Corporation, a provider of direct personal assurance, has been named a winner of the CMP Media Inc. Network Computing
Well-Connected Award. BioNetrix was the winner in the Biometric Authentication System category, with its BioNetrix Authentication Suite(TM) receiving praise for its
comprehensive feature set, smart user management and simplified integration. Currently available in version 3.0, the BioNetrix Authentication Suite is based on an
authentication management infrastructure (AMI), enabling organizations to manage disparate authentication technologies such as passwords, tokens and biometrics with
applications. The product suite solves the interoperability and integration issues that previously hindered an organization's ability to enhance its existing security
environments with more conclusive authentication technologies. The winners of the Network Computing Well-Connected Award were announced Monday, May 8th at a
gala event at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. All winners are highlighted in the May 15th issue of Network Computing and at www.networkcomputing.com
bionetrix.com
In the latest news from the Biometric Consortium, it was noted that the presentations given at the BioAPI Users' and Developers' Seminar on April 6, 2000 are available in
pdf format at the Seminar's web site:
nist.gov
The IEE Fourth International Conference on Knowledge-based Intelligent Engineering Systems and Allied Technologies (KES 2000) will be held at the University of
Brighton, Sussex, UK, August 30,31 and September 1, 2000. Conference sponsors are inviting the submission of high quality and original papers involving design and
analysis of robust biometrics systems are invited for a special session on "Robust Biometrics Systems" during KES 2000. Papers on any biometric technology are
invited, including fingerprint, voice, face, iris, signature and hand geometry.
Draft papers deadline: June 5th, 2000
Acceptance: June 25th, 2000
Final papers due: July 5th, 2000
Accepted papers will be included in the conference proceedings, to be published by the IEEE. Further details of the KES conference and the location can be found at the
conference web page.
luna.bton.ac.uk
Las Vegas, NV. - A company spokesperson for Biometrics Technologies Trust announced that the company has secured the rights to a patent pending that deals with
biometrics identification for web sites. The company's strategy is to secure patent rights first and then identify customers for the patent protected services, Biometrics
Technologies Trust is inviting Internet companies to apply for licenses for the prospective patent. Company officials indicate that there are many uses for this technology,
including verification of identity of pharmacy Web site doctors or patients to ensure prescription medicines are properly prescribed. Biometrics Technologies Trust has
already secured rights to two other U.S. patents and with the addition of the third pending patent, the company will be able to expand its opportunities to license
biometrics development companies and Internet service providers.
Washington, D.C. - The International Biometric Industry Association (IBIA) announced that Polaroid Identification Systems was added as a new member of the trade
association, at the CardTech/SecurTech 2000 show at Miami Beach. Sixteen companies have joined the association since it was formed in September 1998.
The Advanced Technology Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST/ATP) is interested in learning about good proposals in biometrics and
e-commerce security for the FY2001 competition. For more information contact:
Dr. Omid M. Omidvar
ATP, Information Technology and Applications Office (472)
NIST
Administration Building (101), Room A430
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 4720
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-4720
phone: (301) 975-4401
omid.omidvar@nist.gov
ATP's Web site:
atp.nist.gov
Wellesley, MA - Miros, a provider of personal identification solutions using face and finger recognition, announced that it has launched an ASP initiative, called eTrue(TM).
ETrue is reported to be the first Internet outsourcing service to authenticate users through biometrics for secure Web and network access. The new eTrue
business-to-business service identifies authorized users through the power and ease of face and/or finger verification. Customers of the eTrue service will receive video
cameras and finger readers at no additional charge. The eTrue service, which easily scales to accommodate any number of users, is available around the clock, seven
days a week. Reliability is assured with secure, redundant, mirrored servers maintained by eTrue and its hosting partners. Because IT management is freed of the tasks of
user ID registration, verification, administration and maintenance, eTrue allows companies to spend more time focusing on their core business activities. According to the
company press release, uses for the eTrue service include corporate banking and accounting, online financial transactions and services, secure intranet or extranet
access, online stock trading, online access to prescriptions and patient records, government online security, distance learning and remote testing, customer identification
at point of sale, and customer identification for check cashing.
miros.com
etrue.com
Jersey City, NJ. - We would have to live under a rock not to know that hand held PC's (PDA's - Pocket PC's, etc/) are big. Capitalizing on the proliferation of hand-held
devices with built-in cameras, Visionics Corporation, a developer of face recognition technology, introduced FaceIt(R) for Pocket PC. The new software platform was
demonstrated at CardTech SecurTech in the Miami Beach Convention Center. Pocket PC is the latest version of the Microsoft CE operating system and is used in a
variety of hand-held devices such as Casio's Cassiopeia, Hewlett Packard's Jornada, and Microsoft's upcoming MiPad, all of which feature built-in video cameras.
FaceIt(R) for Pocket PC delivers to the hand-held platform all the capabilities of the FaceIt(R) technology and is the enabling engine for many security and biometric
applications of mass appeal. Mass market deployment of this capability will reach out to users authenticating e-commerce transactions from these hand-held portals. In
this application for example, FaceIt(R) capabilities can be used to capture a facial image, extract the face, convert it into a unique digital code, called a faceprint, which is
transmitted it to a server for authentication. By confirming the match, FaceIt(R) essentially ties the identity of the person to the actions being performed. Another
application, for mobile identification, uses FaceIt(R) capabilities that capture live facial images using the camera on the device and checks the corresponding faceprint in
real-time against a designated database of several thousand individual faceprints stored in memory.
visionics.com
Redmond, WA - Microsoft Corp. and I/O Software Inc. announced their cooperation to foster widespread growth of biometrics through the integration of biometric
authentication technology in future versions of the Microsoft(R) Windows(R) operating system. Microsoft has acquired I/O Software's Biometric API (BAPI) technology and
SecureSuite core authentication technology to provide users with a higher level of network security based on a secure and reliable personal authorization method. The
integration of biometric authentication will enable users to log on to their computers and conduct secure e-commerce transactions using a combination of fingerprint, iris
pattern or voice recognition and strong private key, instead of a password. ?This is very, very big news for the industry,'' said Raj Nanavati, a partner at the New York-based
International Biometric Group consulting firm. He said Microsoft will help raise the profile of biometrics as a practical security solution and help encourage universal
standards. Microsoft says it plans to offer biometrics support to users of its Windows 2000 software by this summer and will fully incorporate the security into Windows in
the future.
iosoftware.com
microsoft.com
Redwood Shores, CA - Communication Intelligence Corporation, a supplier of natural input and electronic signature solutions, announced that the Company released
Sign-On(TM) 2.0 for the Palm(TM) operating system with enhanced features. Initially introduced to the market last fall, Sign-On is the first security utility for Palm
handhelds that utilizes biometric signature verification to help protect the user's data from tampering or theft. The enhanced features offered in this version of Sign-On
include stronger encryption and a faster user enrollment process. While certain features of the Palm operating system provide added flexibility to end-users and developers
these same features can also be exploited. The new version of Sign-On helps to prevent these features from being misused.
cic.com
Cont'd |
