Eid Passport expands U.S. federal presence, UK hotel goes contactless
20 March, 2014
category: Biometrics, Contactless, Corporate, Digital ID, Financial, Government, NFC, Smart Cards
EidPassport adds government facilities
Eid Passport added 12 facilities to the RAPIDGate Program footprint and enhanced 10 RAPIDGate facilities with the RAPID-RCx Program during 2013. These additions mark more than 150 RAPIDGate installations worldwide.
Eid Passport’s products and services combine identity authentication, background screening and credentialing to provide an identity management solution. These solutions serve to mitigate risk while streamlining authentication and verification for authorized personnel at military installations, government buildings and commercial facilities.
The United States Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard are among the many Eid Passport customers implementing the company’s identity management solutions to enroll more than 50,000 vendor companies and vet more than 600,000 vendor personnel.
The U.S. Navy recently awarded a contract to Eid Passport to provide credentialing support for the Navy Commercial Access Control System (NCACS). Eid Passport is a Navy-certified commercial credentialing source for NCACS. This new contract will integrate Eid Passport’s technology into NCACS.
The 12 additional facilities now utilizing the RAPIDGate solution are as follows:
- Fort Campbell (Ky. & Tenn.)
- United States Coast Guard Base Elizabeth City (Elizabeth City, N.C.)
- United States Coast Guard Base Los Angeles-Long Beach (San Pedro, Calif.)
- United States Coast Guard Base Portsmouth (Portsmouth, Va.)
- United States Coast Guard Training Center Petaluma (Petaluma, Calif.)
- United States Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown (Yorktown, Va.)
- Marine Corps Air Station Miramar (San Diego, Calif.)
- Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow (Barstow, Calif.)
- United States Coast Guard Base Seattle (Seattle, Wash.)
- United States Army Garrison Miami (Doral, Fla.)
- Fort Huachuca (Sierra Vista, Ariz.)
- Yuma Proving Ground (Yuma, Ariz.)
Neurotechnology releases updated products
Neurotechnology announced new releases across its entire line of biometric Software Development Kits. The latest product versions include algorithm improvements for functionality enhancement and higher recognition accuracy.
The new API is designed to make it easier and faster to integrate any combination of fingerprint, face, iris and voice biometrics into identification projects from basic applications like secure entry to national-scale projects such as voter registration that require high-speed, high-volume identification capabilities. The new API also makes it simple to switch between the local computer and the required server-side solution and enables the application to be scaled up as needed.
Updated products from Neurotechnology include:
- MegaMatcher 5.0 multi-biometric SDK for large-scale applications,
- MegaMatcher Accelerator 7.0 multi-biometric software and hardware server side matching solution,
- MegaMatcher on Card 3.3 for multi-biometric matching on a smart card,
- VeriFinger 7.0 for fingerprint identification,
- VeriLook 5.5 for facial identification,
- VeriEye 2.8 for iris identification, and
- VeriSpeak 2.1 for voice identification.
Other product updates include:
- Fingerprint Biometrics (VeriFinger 7.0, MegaMatcher 5.0 SDK, MegaMatcher Accelerator 7.0): Updates to the fingerprint segmentation, extraction and matching algorithm provide greater precision. The new recognition algorithm provides a level of accuracy that is up to two times higher than the previous version.
- Face Biometrics (VeriLook 5.5, MegaMatcher 5.0 SDK, MegaMatcher Accelerator 7.0): The new facial recognition algorithm offers faster face detection, improved face feature determination and emotion detection.
- Other biometric modalities: Iris Biometrics (VeriEye 2.8, MegaMatcher 5.0 SDK, MegaMatcher Accelerator 7.0), Voice Biometrics (VeriSpeak 2.1) and Matching On Card (MegaMatcher on Card) all include algorithm updates for functionality improvement or higher recognition accuracy.
Bolton Whites Hotel goes contactless
The Bolton Whites Hotel, a property integrated into Bolton’s Reebok Stadium, home of the Bolton Wanderers Football Club, has opted to revamp its security and guest convenience capabilities by upgrading to Classic RFID contactless door locks by VingCard Elsafe.
With many rooms boasting a pitch side view to the 28,723 capacity stadium, the Bolton Whites Hotel is one of many properties to move to the new technology that includes an anti-cloning locking system solution that is immune to the vulnerabilities widely reported with mag-stripe lock failures.
Enhanced security aside, with Classic RFID by VingCard, the Bolton Whites joins an increasing number of properties in making the convenience of contactless RFID and NFC locks available to guests and hotel staff alike. “With RFID cards, both guests and staff no longer need frustrate themselves over either mag-stripe card misreads or demagnetization,” said Dave Atkinson, IT director at the Reebok Stadium. “With the VingCard RFID locking system, all that is needed is for an RFID card to be held within close proximity of the reader on the door, so it is both easy to use and intuitive.”
An important aspect of Classic RFID by VingCard, is its ability to provide access to next generation Near Field Communication technology. With no additional installation needed, hotels such as the Bolton Whites are prepared to provide guests with a tool that allows doors to be unlocked using their own mobile devices. Making such technology available can greatly enhance guest convenience by circumventing trips to the front desk for either checking in or out.
Natural Security Alliance unveils authentication standard
The Natural Security Alliance has released new specifications for strong authentication. The standard defines a strong authentication method for payment and access to services across all channels — home, store, branch — without compromising security or privacy. This authentication method combines local biometric verification, a personal device and wireless technology, and can be implemented into various form factors, including a smart card, micro-SD Card, mobile phone, secure element and token.
The latest specifications are the result of a working group of retailers, banks, vendors and payment specialists involved in Natural Security Alliance since 2008.
The newly released core specifications define the architecture and the different components required to enable a transaction based on a wireless acceptance device used by an acceptance user, a retailer, and a wireless personal device used by an individual user.
Previous specifications have been successfully tested in a six-month consumer pilot carried out in France, which gave more than 900 customers the opportunity to test the first implementation of the Natural Security standard for proximity payments. The trial clearly showed that the public both accepted and adopted this biometric authentication method for proximity payments – with 94% of participants saying they were ready to use this means of payment for all purchases in superstores and smaller shops.