The biometric industry should continue to be innovative and not stand still to enable it to meet security challenges, according to the CEO of a face recognition product company.
9-11 put biometric technology in the spotlight as a way of verifying the identity of citizens and strengthening the security of potentially vulnerable areas such as airports and other public spaces, said Stewart Hefferman, of OmniPerception. โYou only have to take a trip to the US to see just how integrated face recognition, iris and fingerprint technologies have become into the overall security response of the country at its main borders.โ<br><br>He said that the UK and much of the rest of the world has also introduced biometric passports following the recognition that the technology is capable of providing the most accurate method of identifying a personโs face. Plans for a national identity card in the UK have not come to fruition but biometrics โ particularly face recognition technology has witnessed a growth in popularity in the aftermath of 9-11.<br><br>Face recognition can provide a precise digital map of the face that can verify the identity of a known criminal if their details are already registered onto a database, says Mr Hefferman. Concerns about the vulnerability of air cargo areas at airports has also prompted one cargo handler to install OmniPerceptionโs Checkpoint face recognition technology to prevent entry of unauthorised personnel.<br><br>Major organisations such as HSBC bank have also been working with OmniPerception to install the technology at their data centres to protect sensitive information. Some police forces in the UK such as Merseyside, Nottinghamshire and Hertfordshire have adopted the technology in their custody suites to verify the identity of persistent offenders.<br><br>โAlthough it is wrong to describe face recognition in particular as a panacea to solving the worldโs security problems โ it has proved to be a major player in the crime fighting armoury of countries such as the UK and the US in the ten years since 9/11,โ Hefferman said.<br><br>However, the technology has also attracted its critics who question its accuracy but also point to the fact that if misused could lead to a serious infringement in privacy of citizens. <br>OmniPerception says the industry has worked hard to demonstrate that the technology can be accurate, fast and โuser friendlyโ as well as working to protect the rights of individual citizens, rather than infringing them.<br><br>โThe challenges for the coming years are more to do with ensuring that the technology itself does not stand still and continues to evolve and develop in line with other technology such as mobile phone and the internet which is continuing to advance at a rapid pace,โ said Hefferman. โWe must not only continually strive to ensure the technology is as accurate as possible but that it must also be fit for purpose as the risk changes and evolves. The terror threat has changed and evolved dramatically over the past ten years and so biometric technology must keep up with this pace.โ
