USA Aims to Develop Fast Multiple-Biometric System for Borders & Airports

Biometrics (identification via unique body elements like fingerprints, retina profiles, etc.) is a hot field, but good security always depends on overlapping modes. The 9/11 attacks highlighted the need to improve accurate personal identification in large scale, high volume environments, and so the US government initiated a number of related research activities. Multimodal biometric-based recognition emerged as one of the most promising technologies. In an effort to develop an advanced multimodal biometric recognition system that will improve positive identification while reducing misidentification and avoiding processing delays, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory has awarded Ultra-Scan Corporation a Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase II contract aimed at creating an Automatic Multimodal Biometric Identification System suitable for large-scale, high-traffic identification points, such as airports and border crossings. The goal of the STTR Phase II contract is to design effective data fusion techniques and develop a prototype system. DID has covered the SBIR/STTR process before, and Phase II SBIR/STTR contracts range from $500,000-750,000. Ultra-Scan will partner with industry leaders Viisage, Panasonic and the University at Buffalo’s Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors (CUBS). The partnership will work to blend the biometric technology of Viisage’s FaceTOOLS(R) Software Development Kit (SDK), Panasonic and University […]