In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, news outlets reported that facial recognition systems were not of much help in identifying the suspects from surveillance footage. Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks facial recognition has been both touted as a magic bullet for spotting terrorists in a crowd and derided as an invasion [...]

In May, the U.S. House Subcommittees on Research and Technology held a joint hearing to discuss the state of biometric technologies, their current applications, future uses, challenges of adoption and how they can impact public policies. Chairman Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) noted that biometric technology has made inroads in business, government and industry over the last [...]

The IEEE-sponsored BTAS 2013 — Biometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems — conference is an event that seeks to further the technology and its use cases. While the conference enables experts to submit papers, demoes and exhibitions, it’s also sponsoring biometric competitions. The 2013 installment of BTAS will feature two open competitions, the Cross Sensor Comparison [...]

The U.S. Senate approved a pilot that will have the Homeland Security capturing biometrics from foreign travelers exiting the country, according to a report in USA Today. The Senate Judiciary Committee has been debating the immigration bill. Last week it defeated a proposal that would have called for biometric exit tracking of travelers citing its [...]

San Jose State University wants to improve payment authentication on campus. So when it ran across Natural Security at a conference it decided to explore using the biometric and mobile security technology on campus to improve payment security. Regarding ID’s Gina Jordan spoke with Brian Mitchler, the services systems manager for Spartan Shops at the [...]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation launched Increment three of its Next Generation Identification (NGI) program, which features improved search accuracy for latent fingerprints and adds a nationwide palm print identification system. Lockheed Martin provided the technology behind these added features. These improvements are part of the FBI’s plan to phase in upgrades to its biometric identification [...]

A small Toronto start-up is pushing the limits of biometric identification by pioneering a modality that uses the human body’s unique electrocardiogram (ECG) pattern — a measure that varies based on heart size, shape and position in the body. Founded in April of 2011, Bionym Inc. is a spin-off of the University of Toronto that [...]