Industry News

I’m beating the drum for biometrics and SecurLinx from an undisclosed location. An announcement is forthcoming but blogging may be lighter than usual for a few days.

Philippines.  The use of biometrics in Eastern Visayas formally started Saturday to authenticate beneficiaries of the government’s cash grant program.

And in Nigeria…

DUE to rise in insecurity and fraud in Nigeria, the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, (NDTC), Otunba Olusegun Runsewe has reiterated the need for hotels in Nigeria to have their staff identity captured in a database via biometric system of identification.

Facial Recognition Technology Will Make You Hard To Miss (Reason)

Just in case you thought the best way to avoid having your movements automatically tracked by robo-cameras snapping your license plate as you speed on by was to get out and walk, now comes word that long-over-promised facial recognition technology is getting … well … more promising.

The folks at BiometricUpdate.com have quickly established a solid presence on Twitter and at their site. Their stated mission is to provide daily news, opinion and information about the biometrics industry.

We’ve added them to the blogroll to the right. Consider giving them (and the others listed there) a look.

Thanks to all who visited and helped spread the word. In case you missed a couple, the following posts generated the most online interest last month.

Four Seventh Grade Girls Bring Facial Recognition to the People (JUNE 1, 2012)

One-Time-Only ID Technologies (JUNE 4, 2012)

Canada Moving Toward Biometric Visitor Visas (JUNE 5, 2012)

What if? Online Real-Time Searchable Sensor Data (JUNE 12, 2012)

More Face Rec Tech for Entertainment (JUNE 12, 2012)

Jobs in Biometrics (JUNE 13, 2012)

Biometrics In Art: DNA Portraits (JUNE 15, 2012)

Does Apple’s Siri store users’ biometrics? (JUNE 28, 2012)

We’re installing and training on some facial recognition systems in a couple of New Jersey hospitals so for the next couple of days there might not be as much action as you’re accustomed to seeing around here.

It’s not strictly facial recognition (more like face-finding mood detection) but it is related…

The Most Manipulative Use of Kinect Imaginable (Technology Review)

How exactly would it work? The idea is that Kinect’s motion and facial recognition technology could figure out whether you’re sad or happy, and serve up ads that jive with your mood. The patent application contains unusually colorful language about how exactly the Kinect (or other computing device) might infer mood.

“If the user on the videos or images from the webcams is dancing, the advertisement engine may assign a positive emotional state, such as, glad or happy, to the user…If the user on the videos or images from the computing device, e.g., Microsoft Kinect, is screaming, the advertisement engine may assign a negative emotional state, such as, upset, to the user. If the user on the videos or images from the computing device, e.g., Microsoft Kinect., is pacing back and forth, the advertisement engine may assign a negative emotional state, such as, worried, to the user.”

Well, they’re the ones with money… Over-55s pick passwords twice as secure as teenagers’ (New Scientist)

The BBC looks a UID in terms of lack of ID among the poor.
“I am not saying privacy is not important for many people, but for 300 million people, getting access to daily bread is more important so those people don’t care too much about it,” says Prof Sadagopan.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Secure Communities:

The highest priority of any law enforcement agency is to protect the communities it serves. When it comes to enforcing our nation’s immigration laws, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) focuses its limited resources on those who have been arrested for breaking criminal laws.

ICE prioritizes the removal of criminal aliens, those who pose a threat to public safety, and repeat immigration violators. Secure Communities is a simple and common sense way to carry out ICE’s priorities. It uses an already-existing federal information-sharing partnership between ICE and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that helps to identify criminal aliens without imposing new or additional requirements on state and local law enforcement.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released a full update of every county participating in the Secure Communities initiative and when they came onboard. Click here for the full PDF.

Here’s what the map looked like in November 2011.

In other news, it appears that by the time the next report comes out, Massachusetts may be colored green…

Bristol County Sheriff hails federal decision to launch Secure Communities program in Mass. (South Coast Today)

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson welcomed the news that the program, designed to determine suspects’ immigration status, will go into effect statewide May 15. “It’s a big victory for the law enforcement community,” said Hodgson, who had fought to bring the program to the state. “It’s a big victory for the citizens of Massachusetts.” When a suspect is brought to a Bristol County jail, his or her biometric fingerprint information will be shared not only with the Federal Bureau of Investigation — as is currently the case — but also with immigration officials, he said.