FBI to move away from facial recognition
06 November, 2009
category: Biometrics, Government
Following years of testing of the technology, James Loudermilk, a technologist from the FBI, has announced that the agency sees no point in utilizing facial recognition biometrics, according to an article from The Register. Instead, Loudermilk revealed the FBI’s plans to add iris scans to their database that now holds both fingerprint and DNA data from over 18,000 law enforcement agencies.
Additional changes that could take place once the FBI’s Next Generation Identification project comes underway would be increased use of fingerprints that would see utilization of friction prints of ridges as well as palm prints and footprints. Additionally, Loudermilk is interested in speeding up DNA analysis as it currently stands at roughly 8-10 hours per case. Despite this, however, the FBI still feels that it will not be possible to develop an algorithm that would make facial recognition reliable enough for use by them.
Read the full story here.