Japanese group wants more human faces scanned
Published: 24 Jun 2003 14:39 BST
A group of commercial and government bodies have banded to promote the development of biometrics, or the technology of measuring human features for security and other purposes.
According to a statement from Hitachi, one of the members of the newly-formed Biometrics Security Consortium (BSC), there was a need for common goals and standards in order to help the market for biometric products grow.
Since the events of 11 September, 2001, the need for biometrics products has grown and more had to be done to raise standards and improve products, said Hitachi. Biometric security such as facial-recognition systems has become more commonplace in public areas, and bodies such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have recommended the adoption of biometric identification in passports by 2004, said the statement.
The consortium, comprising 39 members including commercial and government bodies, will aim to promote biometrics in new markets, such as in health care and ubiquitous computing.
In addition, joint marketing will be undertaken by members, as well as agreement on standards for privacy protection.
Australia is one country that has said it will embrace biometric passports by 2004. The passport owner's face is scanned and its key features mathematically encoded into a tamper-proof chip on the passport. This chip is then read and matched to the owner's face at border checkpoints.
Biometric security features will be enhanced in Microsoft's Windows operating system, for which a firm has announced it will develop plug-and-play software for biometrics devices, such as fingerprint readers.
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