NEWS
Reuters, VOX and other media. “Facial recogni-
Hand gesture system: “Set to revolutionise
computer security”.
multiple passwords, and businesses who want a
cost-effective solution.”
Hitachi quotes Gartner research that esti-
mates that 40% of all contacts for IT service
desks are password-related, driving up costs.
Hitachi also claimed that password breaches
account for over 80% of all intrusions, and
added that biometric methods such as facial
recognition and fingerprint scanning have still
not provided total security. “Commercial grade
facial recognition technology is focused on
convenience over protection and fingerprint
scanners require the addition of specialist tech-
nology,” the company said.
Because the finger vein technology uses the
device’s existing camera, it removes the need
for additional hardware tokens, smartcards or
biometric readers. Hitachi also points out that,
being located inside the body, finger vein pat-
terns are difficult to spoof or replicate, and unlike
fingerprints do not change with age or skin tone.
The hand gesture technology, which was
demonstrated for the first time in London on
10 September, will be available in 2020 in
Europe. Hitachi says it can be integrated into
almost any existing corporate system. It offers
device-less biometric login for Windows 10
(version 1809 and above) and Office 365 envi-
ronments, and will work with existing Active
Directory systems and can be deployed central-
ly. Credentials can be stored locally or remotely.
Hitachi’s finger vein biometrics are currently
used by banks for authorising transactions,
password replacement, single sign-on and ATM
machines, in Japan, North America and Europe.
regulation
Amazon writes its
own rules
J eff Bezos, CEO of Amazon –
which produces the controversial
Rekognition face recognition system –
has revealed that his company is work-
ing on its own set of regulations, to
prevent FR technology being abused.
Bezos told reporters last month that
Amazon’s public policy team is working on
facial recognition regulations that it plans to
share with US federal lawmakers, according to
October 2019 Biometric Technology Today
tion is a perfect example of something that has
really positive uses, so you don’t want to put
the brakes on it,” Bezos said. “At the same time,
there’s lots of potential for abuses with that kind
of technology, and so you do want regulations.”
The move follows a plea earlier this year by
Amazon’s Global Public Policy VP, Michael
Punke, for “an appropriate national legislative
framework that protects individual civil rights
and ensures that governments are transparent
in their use of facial recognition technology.”
(BTT, June 2019).
Now it seems Amazon is going one step fur-
ther and developing its own proposed regula-
tions. Bezos did not provide any further details
of what these might be.
Last year, Microsoft president Brad Smith also
called for “thoughtful government regulation” of
facial recognition (BTT, September 2018).
But Bezos’ statement was greeted with scepti-
cism by privacy campaigners. Evan Greer, deputy
director of Fight for the Future, said: “Amazon
wants to write the laws governing facial rec-
ognition to make sure they’re friendly to their
surveillance-driven business model. Members of
Congress are currently drafting legislation related
to facial recognition, and we hope they know
that the public will not accept Trojan Horse
regulations that line Jeff Bezos’ pockets at the
expense of all our basic human rights.”
Amazon has a major stake in the issue after
Rekognition last year ran into heavy criticism
from the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) and 35 other campaign groups who
demanded that it halt all police and govern-
ment sales of the software – which they brand-
ed “a dangerous dragnet surveillance system”.
ACLU also claimed Rekognition wrongly
identified 28 members of the US Congress
as criminals when their photos were matched
against a database of offender mugshots (BTT,
September 2018).
But earlier this year, Michael Punke hit
back at this and other “tests by outside groups
attempting to show how Rekognition could be
used to discriminate”. He said the groups mis-
used the software and have refused to reveal
their training data and testing parameters.
• California is in the final stages of passing
a new state-wide law to ban its police officers
from using facial recognition technology on
their body-worn cameras, for the next three
years. The legislation now awaits sign-off or
veto by state governor Gavin Newsom, and
would come into effect from 1 January 2020.
Matt Cagle, an attorney with the ACLU of
Northern California, welcomed the move say-
ing: “Face-scanning police body cameras have
no place on our streets, where they can be used
Continued on page 11...
EVENTS
CALENDAR
29–30 October
Biometrics Institute Congress 2019
London, UK
This event provides an off-the-record forum where
the international biometrics community can dis-
cuss issues such as the ethical use of biometrics,
digital identity, technology innovation, consumer
biometrics, intelligent borders, and biometrics
for social enablement. It is part of Biometrics
Week 2019 (28 October-1 November) and is
accompanied by satellite events on either side.
Last year’s Congress had attendees from 30 coun-
tries. This year’s speakers include UK Biometrics
Commissioner Paul Wiles; John Boyd, assistant
director in the US Department of Homeland
Security; Silkie Carlo, director of campaign group
Big Brother Watch; and Patrick Grother, NIST’s head
of biometric standards and testing.
More information:
https://www.biometricsinstitute.org/event/biomet-
rics-congress-2019/
13–14 November
AI & Big Data Expo North America
Santa Clara, US
This conference and exhibition will showcase
advances in artificial intelligence and big data,
their impact on the enterprise and consumer sec-
tors, as well as development platforms and digital
transformation opportunities. It will feature over
500 speakers across 24 conference tracks and
350-plus exhibitors. Thousands of attendees are
expected for two days of content covering the
ecosystem surrounding AI, big data, IoT, blockchain,
cyber-security and the cloud. Key topics include
business intelligence, deep learning, machine learn-
ing, AI algorithms and data & analytics.
More information:
https://www.ai-expo.net/northamerica/
26–27 November
Verify 2019
Sydney, Australia
This event will cover key subjects in identity and
access management (IAM), including multi-factor
authentication and biometrics, privileged access
management, identity governance, automating IAM
processes, consumer data rights compliance, block-
chain and decentralised identity, and IAM privacy.
More information:
https://verify.coriniumintelligence.com/
3–4 December
International Security Expo
Olympia, London, UK
The International Security Expo (ISE) brings
together government, industry, academia and end
users in charge of regulation and procurement to
debate current challenges and to source new secu-
rity technologies and services. The event promises
to feature over 300 exhibitors and suppliers, and
over 1,000 products and services. New focus areas
include international forensics and serious & organ-
ised crime. Speakers for 2019 include the FBI and
the UK Cabinet Office and National Cyber Security
Centre (NCSC). Access to ISE 2019 is by applica-
tion, all registrations are vetted and photo ID is
required on arrival.
More information:
https://www.internationalsecurityexpo.com/
3

...Continued from page 3
for dragnet surveillance of Californians, our
locations, and our personal associations.”
In June, body camera supplier Axon also
announced that it would not add facial recogni-
tion to its body camera systems until ethical
issues were resolved. And in April, Microsoft
said it had turned down a request from a law
enforcement agency in California to use its
facial recognition technology with police body
cameras, citing human rights concerns.
Jeff Bezos,
Amazon: “Lots
of potential for
abuses with
facial recognition
technology,
so you do want
regulations.”
camera technology
Chinese unveil ‘super
camera’
C hinese scientists have developed
a 500 megapixel facial recogni-
tion camera that is four times more
powerful than the human eye and can
capture every face in crowds of tens of
thousands of people.
The camera was developed by researchers at
Shanghai’s Fudan University and the Changchun
Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics,
according to China’s Global Times news service
and Asia Times. It was first shown at China’s
International Industry Fair last month.
According to the reports, the camera can
capture extremely detailed images. For example,
in a stadium with tens of thousands of people,
it can shoot a panoramic photo with a clear
image of every face and find specific target faces
within seconds.
Global Times also said the camera system can
create videos with the same ultra-high resolu-
tion as still images, using two special chips
developed by the research team. The videos
and images captured can also be uploaded to a
cloud data centre for wide access.
Experts say the camera could be used in
national defence, military and public security
applications. For example, Asia Times reports
Zeng Xiaoyang, one of the camera’s developers,
as saying it could be used to monitor city centre
crowds in real time to prevent criminal activity.
The development has inevitably raised pri-
vacy and mass surveillance concerns. China has
led the way in mass surveillance, with an esti-
October 2019 Biometric Technology Today
mated 200 million CCTV cameras installed.
However, in one area it is now stepping
back from intense surveillance – the Chinese
government announced last month that it plans
to “curb and regulate” the use of facial recogni-
tion technology in its schools, according to the
BBC, quoting Chinese media sources.
China’s Ministry of Education made the
pledge after a university in Nanjing was recent-
ly reported to be trialling facial recognition
technology to monitor its students’ attendance
and behaviour. This attracted online criticism
– and follows the widely reported news last
year that a high school in Hangzhou, eastern
China had installed surveillance cameras above
a blackboard to monitor how attentive its stu-
dents were in class.
Lei Chaozi, director of science and technolo-
gy at China’s Ministry of Education, has prom-
ised a crackdown on such usage, according to
the BBC. “We need to be very careful when it
comes to students’ personal information,” he
said. “Don’t collect it if it’s not necessary. And
try to collect as little as possible if we have to.”
The Ministry of Education has issued new
guidance saying education authorities and
schools should seek the opinions of parents,
students and teachers before introducing new
technology, and should register any new apps
being used, to build a database for better super-
vision, the BBC says.
fingerprinting
Biometric gun holsters
go on sale
N ew York-based Vara Safety has
started shipping a range of ‘Reach’
biometric gun holsters, which aim to
stop anyone except the owner getting
hold of the weapon.
The Reach sealed units are made of a high-
strength metal alloy and are designed to be
wall-mounted in the owner’s home, office or
vehicle. They use a built-in fingerprint sensor
which identifies the person trying to unlock the
holster and take out the firearm.
Vara is now shipping the Reach units to more
than 400 pre-order customers. The company
also said it is in talks with several industry lead-
ers to expand production, and expects to ship
thousands of the locally assembled holster safes.
Vara says it focuses on “creating beautiful, sim-
ple and highly engineered products and services
that bring better gun security for families”.
The company quotes figures from the Injury
Free Coalition for Kids, which found that
50% of handguns in the US are stored loaded
or with the ammunition, and that children
NEWS
are 73% less at risk of unintentional injury
when they live in a household with locked and
unloaded guns. It also quotes figures suggesting
around 100 children aged under 20 die from
unintentional firearm-related injuries annually.
Company founder and CEO Timmy Oh
said: “We will be focusing future development
on our core technology application to safety in
law enforcement, suicide prevention, pharma-
ceutical storage, smart homes and more.” Oh
previously won $100,000 in a New York State
Business Plan competition and has secured
financial backing for his products from New
York City’s Purritano Management.
innovation
University develops ID
system using ear canal
A research team from the US
University at Buffalo (UB) have
come up with a novel biometric
authentication technique, called
EarEcho, which identifies people via
their ear canal’s unique geometry.
UB associate professor Zhanpeng Jin, who
led the research, said he was inspired by the fact
that so many students walk around with speak-
ers in their ears. “It led me to wonder what else
we could do with them,” he said.
Jin, who is associate professor in the
Computer Science and Engineering Department
at UB’s School of Engineering and Applied
Sciences, set up a team who have developed
EarEcho. The product uses modified wireless
‘earbuds’ to authenticate smartphone users.
EarEcho works by playing a sound into
the individual’s ear using a pair of ordinary
headphones, which is reflected and absorbed
by the ear canal. This produces a unique sig-
nature which is recorded by a tiny microphone
attached to the earbud. The data is then sent
via Bluetooth to the user’s smartphone for
verification. The research team also developed
acoustic signal processing techniques to limit
noise interference, and models to share infor-
mation between EarEcho’s components.
To test the device, 20 subjects listened to
audio samples that included a variety of speech,
music and other content. The team conducted
tests in different environmental settings (such
as on the street and in a shopping mall) and
with the subjects in different positions (such as
sitting, standing, head tilted).
EarEcho proved roughly 95% effective when
given one second to authenticate the subjects.
The score improved to 97.5% when it continued
to monitor the subject in three-second windows.
Continued on page 12...
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