Human Behavior Detection – Future of Biometric Technology
Aharon Farkash, the former head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate and founder of the company FST21, is putting a new spin on biometrics. His firm’s software development technology not only catalogs voices and faces, but also evaluates the overall body shapes of people as they walk through a gate or checkpoint. Farkash looks over his budding technology favorably. “This is the way people will enter buildings in the twenty-first century,” he explains.
The State of Biometric Technology
The advances of FST21 and other biometric firms are well on their way to making passwords completely obsolete, as our own bodies could replace the jumbles of words and letters we’ve been so careful to guard and memorize.
Based out of 7 World Trade Center in New York, even FST21’s main office requires some interesting security measures to enter. In order to gain access, Farkash sends a unique code to a visitor’s smartphone. From there, the visitor faces their phone to a scanner, which verifies the code and lets them through.
But it’s not the code on the phone that’s the security measure here — it’s also the physical way the person presents the device. “Just like a fingerprint, we all look and act in a unique way,” Farkash says.
FST21 has a distinctive methodology of assessing the natural and unique ways the human body reaches, moves and sways. This makes for a nearly impossible to mimic, yet incredibly accurate, method of keying in identities.
For now, employees of FST21 are the only people who can come and go using this system, which utilizes an unassuming 8-inch scanner for movement pattern recognition.
Today, when someone thinks “biometric,” they think of iris scanners, or maybe the thumbprint identifier on the new iPhone. It’s fascinating to see just how much electrical engineering technology services are being unleashed that stretches far beyond these everyday styles, quantifying innate human characteristics that nobody even thought to measure before. Even though biometric security has been in existence for nearly 40 years, breakthroughs and security combinations such as those shown by Farkash at FST21 are shaping up to be the wave of the future.
Personally, Farkash believes that someday soon, biometrics security will be as commonplace — if not more so — as carrying a keychain.
“Cities are crowded, often dangerous places,” Farkash says. “We need a way to live safely, but also comfortably next door to one another.”
Gesture Recognition & Touch-Less Sensing Market Analysis
According to a newly minted report by the Markets and Markets catalog, the total market worth for gesture recognition and touch-less sensing is slated to surpass the $22 billion mark by 2020 thanks to a startlingly explosive compound annual growth rate of 30.91%. This is a steep incline from the 2012 estimated valuation which rested at a paltry $2.2 billion.
Gesture Recognition & Touchless Sensing Market Outlook
The report is long-windedly titled “Gesture Recognition & Touch-Less Sensing Market by Technology (2D, 3D, Ultrasonic, IR, Capacitive), Product (Biometric, Sanitary Equipment), Application (Healthcare, Consumer Electronics, Automotive), Geography (Americas, EMEA & APAC) – Global Forecasts and Analysis to 2013 – 2020” (yes, it really is that long).
Besides predicting the market valuation of the gesture-based sub-industry as a whole, the report also suggests that the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, with countries including China, Japan, India and South Korea, is most attracted to the technology and most ready and willing to ramp up its use. Behind APAC comes the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, with nations like the UK, Germany, France, Israel and the UAE leading the technological charge.
From the report, it also appears that different agencies are also drawn to different biometric intake avenues. Governments dominate the application of facial recognition software, and 2D camera technology has found firm footing among the smartphone sector, where it’s expected to stay for years to come. Mainstream automobiles are expected to adapt gesture recognition security options by 2015.
The report also examines the antecedents, restraints, and opportunities that have started to become apparent in the touch-less market. The software technology services are ready — it’s just up to companies, marketers and other agencies to drive the demand.
Passenger Sneaked Onto Lost Malaysian Flight Despite Biometric Failsafes
As facts trickle in regarding Malaysia Flight 370, arguably the media’s biggest mystery in recent memory, privacy advocates can’t help but say “I told you so.”
Biometric Security Failure
Since 9/11, the pressure has been mounting for governments to tighten their grip on security while privacy suffers as collateral damage in the affair. Privacy advocates decry such developments, echoing the adage of Benjamin Franklin: “they who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
It’s become public knowledge that two of the passengers onboard 370 used stolen European passports to get onto the plane. At least one of these passports had biometric features, allowing it to electronically hold fingerprints and face imaging. Immigration officials can easily dig into this data in order to determine whether passport-holders actually have the identities they allege.
Unfortunately, it seems, security officials didn’t take full advantage of this biometric security feature, and someone managed to get on the plane that shouldn’t have. It’s not yet clear if the passport imposters played a role in the plane’s disappearance.
The executive director of Privacy International in London, Gus Hosein, said this new evidence goes to show that enhancements in passport security still lack a critical element. “It’s not just that the trade-off wasn’t worth it,” Hosein explains, “the proponents of this policy were short-sighted and wanted to play with new technologies while building national biometric databases.”
Hosein is a strong opponent of government intrusion into privacy matters, including the proliferation of biometric techniques to index and track citizens.
Putting biometrics to good use to thwart wrongdoings and impersonation is still an imperfect practice for governments the world over. The United States, in an effort to better track people coming in and out, requires French and German visitors who utilize the visa waiver program to have electronic passports if they received them in 2007 or later. These passports house chips with digital headshots of the owners. “Successful testing in the United States and overseas has been an important step forward in a larger, comprehensive effort to enhance security and facilitate legitimate travel and trade through international cooperation,” the Department of Homeland Security says on its web site.
Hosein, however, has his doubts about the efficacy of such measures. “Until we have more transparency over how effective biometric passports actually are, or probably are not,” he notes, “we can only conclude it was a premature policy established at a time when we were looking for new product design solutions to complex problems.”
Human error and flawed protocol, it appears, are pieces of the puzzle that have yet to have the wrinkles ironed out.
Massachusetts is the Budding Biometric Sector
In contemporary Massachusetts, biometric technology has become commonplace. Prevalent across the commercial, financial, and even military sectors, Massachusetts companies now lead the entire nation in technology licenses. Furthermore, over the past four years, patents for companies in the Bay State rose 37 percent, making it the second most patent-hungry state in the union under California.
It should come as no surprise that Massachusetts also has a budding biometric sector. Major players in voice recognition, fingerprint scanning, and biometric software services and product manufacturing are all headquartered in Massachusetts, providing services to high-profile global clients like the U.S. Navy to the Saudi family. Massachusetts also publicly funded the nation’s premier iris scanner, which is now currently being used by a sheriff’s office in the city of Plymouth.
Amid all the excitement and advancement, however, there is one demographic that is widely and publicly distrusting of this new era of tech: employees.
The complaints issued by employees regarding biometric security are numerous and deep-rooted. Unregulated. Unnecessary. Invasive. Many employees also fear that the influx of new biometric security measures amplifies the risk that a sweeping data breach could allow one’s inherent personal information to fall into the wrong hands. Case in point: you can always get a new credit card. Getting a new iris is far trickier.
Massachusetts lawmakers, in an attempt to end the problems before they start, have already erected laws to protect citizens from “unreasonable, substantial or serious interference” with privacy. The goal isn’t just to put workers at ease — an employee, disgruntled or not, can seek monetary damages if he or she feels that an employer improperly used or intruded on personal, identifying information.
But what exactly is “improper use” of biometric data? Such questions have lawmakers in other states wary of the biometric movement. For example, in New York, companies cannot even fingerprint employees unless mandated by law. New Hampshire considered a similar law to limit the use of biometric data but eventually struck it down.
With so much potential in tech-savvy Massachusetts, it would be a mistake to curtail biometric progress in its golden age. The fact of the matter is that in our contemporary society, security is a larger concern than ever. Biometric safeguards will be tomorrow’s necessity as we phase out archaic security means like passwords and key cards. We should welcome this new change warmly.
Witness the New Cutting-edge Technology at the ISC West Conference
The International Security (ISC) West conference, slated to unfold April 2-4 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, is just around the corner. Spanning nearly every corner of the security sector, guests and presenters can expect to be the first to witness astounding new cutting-edge technology before it hits the market.
A total of 75 educational break-out sessions also splits up the action, covering topics across the security gambit. Newcomers to the industry as well as established veterans will have plenty to learn as the greatest minds in security share their progress, give their insights and reflect upon the latest breakthroughs throughout the sector. Hour-long workshops cover broader commercial topics such as Industrial Design, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Prototyping Services and “Increasing sales and customer satisfaction,” as well as laser-specific ideas like using IP audio surveillance to enhance security management systems.
As far as exhibits go, last year’s major unveilings were numerous. Guests saw the likes of 3M’s MiY-Touch (a light, fast, trend-setting indoor biometric reader), 3XLogic’s VIGIL PRO 3 (an HD SCI digital recorder for automated security cams) and Bosch’s series 612 (a super powerful James Bond-esque thermal camera with 36x zoom and object detection of up to 2.5 miles).
ISC West is the largest on-location security expo in North America, with more than 1,000 featured exhibits being hosted across its three-day span. In preparation for the event, ISC West gives its guests critical education programs and online planning tools that help them stay up to date and informed on the exhibits that align most with their own industry and interest.
Aside from the inevitably mind-boggling exhibits, ISC West is an opportune time for those in security to meet each other and network. Very few places have such a concentrated centralization of like-minded professionals, so if you’re looking to rub elbows with representatives from some of the biggest names in the game, like Panasonic, Honeywell and Samsung, look no further. Exhibits range from providing improvements on established tech, such as gate maintenance and fire sprinklers, to more cutting-edge developments like RFID implants and innovative clean energy solutions.
Tickets are on sale now directly from iscwest.com.
ISC West is run by the Security Industry Association (SIA), a Maryland-based trade association founded in 1969. SIA, which also puts on the ISC East conference every year, is governed by the vision “to be the primary resource for the global security industry.”
The Unique Niche of Voice Biometrics
With so many distinctive protrusions, patterns and surfaces on the human body itself, it seems like the world doesn’t really need another way to tie a body part to an identity. However, voice-based product design fill a unique role in the universe of biometric security.
Each and every voice is unique because of the shape of a person’s vocal cavities, including the way and speed with which individuals move their mouths and tongues as they enunciate. Information for voice biometrics is measured via spectrogram, a quantitative measurement of different frequencies that are inherent to a voice (this contrasts with what many movies purport voice biometrics to look like, bouncing parabola-like oscilloscope waveforms).
To use a voice-based biometric system, all you have to do is speak a specific passphrase or in some cases say an extended sample, allowing the computer to identify your speech pattern as a whole. This can be done either in person or over the phone.
Voice recognition is especially useful because it allows users to authenticate their identities without being physically present. As mobile technology explodes in popularity, such operations could prove highly valuable for logging into one’s private accounts for work, school or banking.
However, over-the-phone biometric verification does have a few problems. People’s voices can be altered due to a heavily due to illness, mood and reception quality. In addition, a thief needs only to record a sample of someone’s spoken verification in order to break through a voice-based security system design on a mobile phone.
Researchers at the University of Colorado are gearing up to fix these problems, however. The task is accomplished by not transmitting voice data at all. Instead, the secure institution, such as a bank, would send two encrypted versions of each password or phrase to the mobile phone. One is the correct user’s voice, the other is a dummy data set spoken by an entirely different person. Software on the phone itself then compares the user’s voice against the two samples. Plotting the highs, lows and cadence, the client-side software partakes in a multiple-choice-like quiz to discern the samples.
The beauty of this new system is that a user’s recording of the sample words are never actually transmitted over the network, thereby preserving their privacy and limiting their availability to be hacked over the airwaves.
Though not as precise as in-person biometrics, voice biometrics will prove to be enormously useful in the coming years as an increasing amount of information is sent and received via mobile device.
To learn more about Pivot and our capabilities in biometric product design, development, and manufacturing, contact us at 877-206-5001.
The Future of Biometrics: 2 New Ways We’ll Use Our Hands
At the heart of biometrics is the idea that their application and use should be kindergarten-simple for even the most technophobic of users. These two emerging types of data intake systems are not only straightforward and simple, but also exceptionally fast and accurate.
Hand geometry
By now, we’re all accustomed to electrical fingerprint recognition devices, whether done digitally or the old-fashioned way with ink. Another way, however, to authenticate personnel in a less intrusive way than fingerprinting is with hand geometry.
Authentication for hand geometry readers is done by placing a hand against a reader screen. Small pegs that separate each finger help users correctly orientate their hands for proper scanning. A camera then takes one or more pictures of the whole hand and compares the shadow casts to an original template along the parameters of width, thickness, length and finger curvature, turning these variables into a string of numbers. This unique code then works as one’s individual password.
Many businesses, schools and even theme parks use this science to log visitors. Because it’s not quite as precise as fingerprinting, hand scanning isn’t usually used in high-security facilities.
Because hands change slightly over time, hand scanning also isn’t 100 percent perfect. However, its relatively low reliability is one of its strengths: in low-security environments like amusement parks, many users are comforted that the biometric information taken isn’t exhaustively tied to their person. It’s authentication, not identification.
Handwriting assessment
Ok, you caught us. Handwriting analysis isn’t biometric in the most conservative sense, as it measures a practiced behavior rather than an intrinsic characteristic. However, the way one does his or her John Hancock is startlingly unique aside from just the specific intricacies of the way we scribble and loop.
Biometrics concerned with handwriting look beyond the way each letter is shaped (which can be reproduced with a moderate amount of practice). Emerging technology also analyzes the order in which certain writing tasks are completed, like if you draw your Os clockwise or counter-clockwise and whether you add the dots above your Is and Js during or after individual words are written out.
Even with a sample of another person’s handwriting right in front of you and all the practice time in the world, this level of replication is near impossible.
Compound this with other failsafe technologies, like being able to record pen angle, writing speed, page pressure and direction, and you have a nigh perfectly robust recognition system. The intake interface for this technology includes a touch screen and stylus, similar to the one at checkout counters for when credit cards are used.
To learn more about Pivot’s award-winning services for biometric product design and development, please contact us at 877-206-5001.
Study Projects Mobile Explosion in Biometric Use Over Next 4 Years
By the year 2018, 3.4 billion users will be taking advantage of biometrics on their mobile devices. Such a global behavior pattern will net just over $8 billion for the biometrics industry, according to a recent analysis by Good Intelligence.
The report, called Mobile Biometric Security – Market Forecast Report 2013-2018, goes on to project that fingerprint scanners will become standard across most high-end smartphones and devices by 2015, evolving into being commonplace across all devices by 2018. It also notes that the consumerization of biometric measures are both convenient and effective, making them especially attractive to smartphone owners.
“Biometrics on mobile devices is not a new concept; the first commercial product design device to embed a fingerprint sensor was launched back in 1999.” explained Alan Goode, author of the report and founder of Goode Intelligence. “What we have now, and what has changed in the last 18 months, is a much more favorable environment in which biometrics on mobile devices will flourish.”
Alan Goode went on to explain that much of the driving force behind the movement stems from the technological pioneering done by Apple, Inc. As one of the early adopters to fingerprint scanners, Apple is now experimenting with iris scanners and other body-based sensors. The advent and proliferation of wearable technologies like Google Glass and smart watches also do much to more closely pair mobile devices to the human body, propelling a consumer culture in which ubiquitous technology is the norm.
From cars to houses to even cities, the interfacing between wearable tech product design and daily tasks offer a personable, customizable experience for consumers, Goode explains. “In this world biometrics may well hold the key for identity and user interaction.”
At this point in time, however, many analysts argue that the climate for biometric technology is somewhat hesitant. Consumer reactions for biometrically-inclined smartwatches are lukewarm. Data privacy – biometric or otherwise – is a hot topic in the news and on forums. In many ways, the industry’s major players, like Apple and Android, are in a standoff waiting to see who draws first and how.
Apple, for one, is somewhat restrictive of its biometric development community, locking its members into a very specific, non customizable system. The company’s “Touch ID” is now much more useful than just a helpful avenue to unlock a phone and buy new songs from iTunes. Though less about security and more about convenience, Apple is taking strides to expand and repurpose the technology behind it to better compete in the biometric-geared marketplace.
Pivot offers award-winning biometric security product development and global manufacturing services. Contact us at 877-206-5001 to learn more.
U.S. Bank Expands Into Voice Biometrics for Better Mobile Security
One thing has become abundantly clear in the wake of traumatic data breaches from Neiman Marcus, Target and many other corporations who have felt the hacker sting: the security measures we use to protect personal data just aren’t good enough.
U.S. Bank, in response to the mounting problems, is playing with new technology that goes beyond chips and PIN numbers. U.S. Bank’s pilot test comes as a reaction to the veritable explosion of mobile-device use for banking, as cell phones and tablets are utilized for an ever-growing percentage of banking transactions.
Speed and ease are also factors – instead of having to use forgettable (and stealable) identity numbers and passwords, customers potentially need only to speak into the receiver to access their accounts.
The pilot study came together in a Minneapolis branch wherein employees are test-driving custom, spoken passphrases like “my voice is my password” in order to get into their accounts via mobile devices. Such an entryway into personal accounting is intended to address the growing dissatisfaction consumers are feeling with traditional methods, according a press release from U.S. Bank.
The Minneapolis testing phase is an expansion of a partnership between U.S. Bank and Nuance Communications founded in April of 2013. At the point of the partnership’s founding, voice recognition wasn’t used for biometric security yet – experiments were under way for voice navigation of automated menus for mobile phones. Users could use their voices to do things like search their transactions, make payments and view account balances.
The field of identifying voice biometrics is a distinctive identifier that will aid U.S. bank in improving the customer experience, explains a press release issued by Dominic Venturo, the chief innovation officer for U.S. Bank Payment Services. Venturo went on to say that customers now expect to be able to use their voices on their smartphones for an array of uses – exploring biometric data to help secure banking information is a natural extension of this.
“Innovative organizations like U.S. Bank recognize that voice biometrics can bring a new level of convenience and security to the customer service experience,” says Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager of the Nuance Enterprise Division. “By eliminating the interrogation process that consumers are typically put through and replacing it with a natural, conversational voice interaction, companies can really start to reinvent their customer service experience.”
For information on Pivot’s award-winning biometric product design and product development services, contact us at 877-206-5001.
Nymi – Biometric Wristband, A Cyber Wallet for Digital Currency
A product called Nymi by Toronto-based manufacturer Bionym is looking to shake up the way we carry currency. Rather than archaically paying with cash or card, Nymi allows users to complete transactions via Bitcoin, making it a type of cyber wallet the world has never seen before.
The added security measure, however, is that Nymi works only if it’s worn by its original owner. Nymi uses one’s heartbeat as a biometric indicator, measuring cardiac rhythm before each purchase. This type of scan works because everyone’s heart rate has unique patterns and intricacies that are exceedingly difficult to copy – unlike fingerprints or even iris scans, which can be efficiently copied with a simple cast or photograph.
The use of the watch is straightforward. A wearer simply taps the button on the face of the watch to close a circuit and get an ECG reading. After comparing the sample to a previously recorded, “key” ECG, the watch unlocks and can be used for Bitcoin expenditure. Nymi then allows the user to use all the hardware and software development the watch utilizes, mainly by interfacing via smartphone using Bluetooth. The session stays open until the watch is taken off, and the Nymi’s battery can last up to seven days before requiring a recharge.
The sticking point for Bionym in making the watch really profitable is that not many vendors have the technology or hardware to accept its payment system, despite the company’s crusade to push third parties into building products to facilitate its catching on.
The Nymi also helps dispel Bitcoin as an untrustworthy cryptocurrency, helping to hoist it from the stigma that an ungoverned, illicit payments system is only used for the dubious aims of buying drugs and other illegal affairs. Traditionally, if one’s encryption code somehow gets hacked or is compromised in another way, there is literally no way to trace or catch the thief. Nymi solves this problem with flying colors.
Nymi will have a rough, uphill road as it attempts to compete with longstanding wallet systems like Coinbase, but by marrying biometric security with virtual currency, Biodyn makes a strong case for a ubiquitous, “smart” money system.
Also, as other smartwatches like Apple’s iWatch and Sony’s SmartWatch gain additional steam and media attention, it will be interesting to see what sort of wrist-mounted technology design consumers gravitate toward.
And to think, we used to be satisfied with just clocks on this prime area of body real estate.
Pivot offers award-winning biometric security product development and manufacturing services. Contact us at 877-206-5001 to learn more.
