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To: steve who wrote (6572)	2/6/1998 5:23:00 PM
From: Ed Flynn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26039

EOSC gets coverage biz.yahoo.com Ed

To: steve who wrote (6572)	2/6/1998 5:52:00 PM
From: jean	Respond to of 26039

Another article detailing Mitsubishi initiatives. Jean Net-Based Fingerprint Security Arrives (02/06/98; 2:24 p.m. EST) By John Boyd, TechWeb Security systems and computer applications based on biometrics -- the identification by machines of human characteristics -- are being developed around the world. Their uses range from authenticating the users of ATM cards, detecting fraud, and granting access to restricted buildings. Now Japanese researchers are taking the use of biometrics one step further. Researchers from Mitsubishi have developed a user-verification system that can be used over the World Wide Web to prevent unauthorized personnel from accessing sensitive documents or gaining access to key IT systems. Catering to the growing number of companies using the Internet and intranets for their business, Mitsubishi has created a fingerprint verification system that can be used over the Web. Users can now forget about passwords and rely entirely on their fingerprints to gain access to confidential data or to conduct e-commerce. Researchers at Mitsubishi's Information and Technology Research Center in Ofuna, just south of Tokyo, demonstrated a Web-based fingerprint verification system Friday the company said it hopes to roll out late next year. The system uses a conventional fingerprint reader machine attached to a computer, working alongside a software plug-in module for Netscape's Navigator browser. The fingerprints of company employees or other people being granted access to sensitive information are encrypted and stored on a fingerprint authentication server, along with details of just which information and documents they are allowed to access. When users of the systems ask for access to restricted information, they submit their fingerprint suing the fingerprint reader attached to the computer, which then compares the print with the fingerprint stored on the server. The system performs the authentication online using a Java-based software "agent" downloaded from the server. Mitsubishi said the system will be available from the second half of this fiscal year -- between September 1998 and late March 1999 -- by which time a plug-in for Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser will be ready. No price has been decided yet. Mitsubishi has also used microprocessor chips incorporating biometric technology to develop a 3-D motion tracking system that senses human motion and gestures, then displays the same movements in the form of graphics models on a screen. The system could be the basis of future generations of cheap but sophisticated motion-tracking devices, and could be used to convert sign language into speech. It is already being incorporated into computer games to be launched later this month. Researchers at the Ofuna laboratory used "artificial retina" chips -- which mimic the actions of the human eye -- built into a two-camera "stereo vision" monitoring system to recognize and capture the face movements of a human demonstrator. The movement included head movements up and down, left and right, blinking of eyes and mouth movements. The system then imitated these same movements using a computer graphics face in real time on a PC display. "Conventional 3-D motion tracking systems require expensive charged-couple devices and markers like prisms or magnets to be placed on the subject" to track movements, said Kenichi Tanaka, a group manager of the R&D Center's neural and parallel-processing technology department. "But our system does away with charged-couple devices, and with any contact with the subject." Tanaka said Mitsubishi has already begun shipping 128 x 128-pixel retina chips to a number of customers, including computer game maker Nintedo, which said it plans to announce a new game machine based on the low-cost technology this month. Tanaka said other applications might include a system for deaf and dumb people, who could use the technology to have their sign language converted into speech.