Back in January we reported to you that the first UK citizen was to have a bionic arm fitted after he lost his natural limb in Afghanistan. This time around, a UK citizen has had a bionic eye fitted having been blind for 20 years. The pioneering surgery plants a 3mm microchip into the back of the eye which will allow the patient to distinguish shapes and in time, he could even be able to recognise faces.
The science behind bionic eye
The surgery involves inserting a fine cable through the layers of the eyeball to place the chip on an area of the retina the size of a pinhead. The chip is connected to a power source implanted under the skin behind the ear.
The experimental “bionic eye” reacts to light sending an electronic signal that is picked by the optic nerve and processed by the brain into an image. The treatment could partially restore the sight of thousands of sufferers of a condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which causes the photoreceptor cells at the back of the eye to deteriorate.
Although not yet an existing treatment in the UK, if this case proves successful it could become more popular. However it only helps people with retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition that affects 25,000 British families and is not suitable for diseases that affect the optic nerve, such as glaucoma.
Perhaps this signifies the beginning of revolutionary medicine which sets to change the lives around the world.
ievo manufactures access control systems for the security market, specialising in fingerprint biometrics utilising the revolutionary multi-spectral imaging technology.
Recently, software developed to recognise terrorist faces is being adapted to solve the mystery of portraits of unidentified people. Biometrics will be used in order to correlate similarities in facial features to try and determine who the people are in portraits that have baffled historians for years.
In certain cases, cutting-edge “face recognition” technology could identify faces from digital images, detecting similarities in facial constructs. The data will come from scans of known features of individuals, such as in a death mask or identified sculpture.
A feasibility study is being conducted by two art historians and an electronic engineer at the University of California. They describe FACES (Faces, Art and Computerised Evaluation Systems) as a “new tool for art historians”. The project has received a $25,000 government grant.
Conrad Rudolph, professor of art history at the university, said: “Before the advent of photography, portraits were, almost by definition, depictions of people who were important in their own worlds. But, as a walk through almost any major museum will show, a large number of these unidentified portraits from before the 19th century have lost the identities of their subjects.”
Frans Hals’ The Laughing Cavalier, the 1624 masterpiece in the Wallace Collection, London, is among famous portraits whose sitters remain unknown. The picture’s title was coined in the 19th century.
Jeremy Warren, the Wallace’s director of collections, said: “With the Laughing Cavalier, everyone accepts that name, but actually he’s not laughing and he’s not a cavalier … I’d love to know who he is. If this technology can help us do it, we’d be absolutely delighted.”
Bendor Grosvenor, a specialist in portraits at the Philip Mould Gallery, London, would particularly like to identify a “rather beautiful portrait” by an anonymous 17th-century hand – currently on show at the National Portrait Gallery.
He said: “It was traditionally called The Duke of Monmouth on his deathbed, but it isn’t him as the dates don’t work. Deathbed portraits are relatively rare, so who was important enough, or loved enough, to have been painted in such a moving portrayal by a good artist? I would love to know.”
But he added: “Most unknown sitters are unknown because they were only painted once, and there is no other likeness with which to compare them. So the new programme will most likely only help with portraits of people for whom we already have other portraits.”
Professor Rudolph accepts that “difficulties are inherent” through variations in expressions, age, angle of pose and lighting. But initial tests – on identified 15th-century portraits of Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Florentine ruler – have shown how faces can be reduced to labelled graphs and matched up.
Examples of how biometrics are used outside of security and counter terrorism are rising every year, from elections to medicine and now history.
ievo manufactures entry access systems for the security market, specialising in fingerprint software. If you are interested in ievo biometric fingerprint readers visit www.ievoreader.com or call 0845 643 6632
During the last decade, the increasing need for biometric security systems against terrorist activity, illegal immigration, sophisticated crimes, and financial frauds propelled the biometric technology market into unprecedented levels of growth. According to the research company Frost and Sullivan, the market earned revenues were $4.494 billion in 2010 and will reach $14.685 billion in 2019. At the present moment, the annual growth rate is approximately 19%.
This remarkable success has brought an expansion of biometrics applications to a wide array of industries. Electoral authorities, always interested in the newest developments in technology to increase transparency levels, are using it to improve registers. Fingerprint, iris, voice and face recognition are all human patterns that, if properly used, can contribute enormously to build more accurate registers and avoid the duplications of citizens ID’s typically found in public databases.
Another use of biometrics, apart from biometric door locks, that is making its way into the electoral scene is fingerprint identification at the polling stations on Election Day. A top-notch biometric reader can keep track of individuals who have voted and notify authorities in real time if a person is trying to vote again with the same or another ID.
Using biometrics at the polling station during Election Day will immediately eliminate one of the oldest forms of electoral frauds, dead people voting. “Zombies” can vote when the name of a deceased person remains on a state’s official list of registered voters and a living person fraudulently casts a ballot in that name. Having dead people voting is not an endemic problem of developing nations. South Carolina’s Attorney General, Alan Wilson, claimed that 953 ballots were cast by “people listed as dead” in the recent Republican primary elections held in January, 2012.
Although this new use is not widespread yet, it is a promising source of income for the thriving industry of biometrics. Venezuela, a country that has embraced all advantages technology provides to guarantee transparent elections, will be using a biometric identification system on Election Day for the next Presidential elections to be held on October 7th, 2012. The Sistema de Autenticación Integral, SAI (Integral Authentication System), developed by Smartmatic, will guarantee that the person voting is the same person registered to vote.
In spite of all progress made with the dissemination of best practices in the administration of elections, guaranteeing the One Voter One Vote principle is still a challenge that many countries are yet to conquer. Hopefully biometric technology will soon be accessible to all nations procuring satisfactory levels of transparency.
Source – e-elected blog; www.e-lected.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/biometrics-in-election-day.html
ievo manufacture biometric products for fingerprint access control. If you wish to look at the fingerprint access system range visit www.ievoreader.com
Today we celebrate 100 days until the Olympics and to commemorate biometric logging for Nigerian Olympians has commenced. The project began last week at Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
In his welcome address, British Deputy High Commissioner, Peter West said that the London 2012 Games – and this summer – will be a proud moment for Britain “We will be staging what we’re determined will be the best Olympics ever” Peter added that the Deputy High Commission was at the Stadium to provide biometric facilities to those Nigerian Olympic athletes who train at the venue and to accompanying officials from the Nigerian Olympic Committee.
He also added that he wanted to make the biometric device as straightforward as possible which will help speed up the processes for Olympians and their families when they arrive to the UK for the games in late July.
We have already discussed the biometric impact for the Olympics in another blog post, as news broke that fingerprint recognition and facial scanning will be used to identify those coming into the country especially for the games.
ievo manufacture security products, namely fingerprint readers for internal and external environments. To view the ievo fingerprint scanner range visit www.ievoreader.com
Back in February this year we brought you a story titled, “Can Biometrics Detect a Lie” As interesting as this article was, we have found a new break in the story. By break we mean lead and this time, research has actually been conducted by the University of London to see whether some people are better liars than others.
Although no research was actually conducted regarding lie detectors or biometrics, which could include increased heart rate or shifting eye patterns (all of which could be quantifiable using certain biometrics) this time good old fashioned observation techniques were used in conjunction with incentives to try and tackle fraud.
In short, the study showed that people who can more accurately tell when they are being lied to, tend to be better liars themselves. Sounds like one hell of a revelation! But actually, previous research on the topic showed the opposite. That people only have a chance of correctly judging when they are being lied to.
The research took a sample of people and asked them to take turns lying and judging when they were being lied to. By doing this type of research, getting the same people to do the same tasks to each other they were able to compare individual players ability. From the research the University of London hopes to be able to understand how exactly certain people are better liars than others because they have found a direct correlation between lying and being lied to.
Perhaps this will stimulate technology which will be able identify deception much more reliably than the standard polygraph, which from the previous post on this topic tends to be around 61% (A 1997 survey of 421 psychologists).
This is quite interesting considering a lot of us are terrible liars or would only be able to get away with the simple white lie. Perhaps all of us could train ourselves to be able to identify a liar based on this research. Although, ironically, according to the University of London, if we can sniff out a lie then we are better liars ourselves. We would certainly then transform into a fraudulent society altogether, oh dear! Are some things better left unsolved then?
Biometrics can be used for ghost-busting, although unfortunately not the type you’re thinking of right now (if only!). Instead, ghost-busting workers, pensioners and now students.
It is widely known, that some businesses will forge ghost people in order to increase the number they deal with on a annual basis. This occurs in care-homes, construction sites and now it has emerged in schools. The reason being, in some countries (in this particular case, India) the Government provides funding to these forms of sectors if they have large numbers attending.
More importantly, which is also quite worrying, officials have conducted surveys which proved their claims that certain sectors were providing them with false reports including ghost people. A drive to verify actual enrolment in aided schools was undertaken recently when it came to light that several schools in Nanded district had inflated the number of students to get more grants.
The Indian State Cabinet decided last week, to initiate criminal proceedings against school managements where fifty percent or more enrolment was found to be bogus. They aim to crack down on this through the use of biometrics to record time & attendance.
Fingerprint biometrics would be the most effective in this instance, as schools in the UK have already started using this form of security system to protect certain areas within a school site that is off limits to certain year groups. For example, a sixth form communal room or staff area.
Access Control is also very important at these times where predators lurk in and around school premises. If a fingerprint reader was installed on a nursery or high school door, one designated parent or guardian could be registered on the system as well as the pupils and staff themselves. This ensures that staff do not need to leave their rooms to open the door for parents and pupils.
This form of entry system has been suggested by OFSTED as an effective way to control who is in the school premises and when. It has also been the subject of schools and nurseries receiving outstanding status at times of inspection. More and more security systems companies should see the opening in the market for sectors where safety and protection is needed most!
ievo manufactures fingerprint recognition systems for the access control market. Specialising in fit for purpose biometric readers; Ultimate and Micro can be installed within various environmental conditions without being harmed by the elements. Visit www.ievoreader.com for more information
A popular restaurant chain in America has made use of biometric fingerprint readers in order to prevent loss in transaction and to cut down on payroll fraud. Increasingly, biometrics are seen being used in other cases apart from entry systems and door access.
In fact, ievo itself has been installed in a local restaurant, however, for time & attendance. It is great though to use fingerprint sensors for uses such as loss prevention. If you think about it, the amount of money lost weekly, monthly and subsequently annually for a restaurant must be phenomenal. Therefore, using fingerprint systems to combat this works as so.
The fingerprint reader will either be integrated within the till or could even sit beside the cash point as a desktop sensor would. Before an employee serves a customer they will scan their fingerprint to register access and the transaction that follows will be logged. This is also useful for refunds, as refund fraud is becoming more popular. At the end of the shift, the restaurant manager will cash up and will be able to match discrepancies to the employee who scanned in on that till.
This is very useful for monitoring and training staff, because if they are aware that their transactions are being logged, they might be more careful when handling cash, which could in the long term save the chain revenue.
The popular restaurant mogul is also using the biometric fingerprint readers to track time & attendance. When an employee starts and finished their shift they use the fingerprint software to ‘scan out’. Again this could prevent payroll fraud which is common when sub-contracted workers are involved.
Both of ievo’s fingerprint recognition systems; Ultimate and Micro have the ability to track logging in and out plus track time & attendance, because ievo can integrate into many leading software packages that provide you with this tracking function. If you are interested in either the Ultimate or Micro ievo readers visit www.ievoreader.com or email info@ievoreader.com
It was announced this week that the Missouri School of Journalism and HCD Research will join forces to conduct research studies using a communication science approach, which encompasses biometric measures and eye-tracking technology to provide deeper insights into consumer preferences.
If you recall a previous blog post which prophetically told of how biometrics could be used for marketing, which has been coined neuromarketing, then this is like a catch up on what’s been going on since then..very exciting!
The whole point is that advertisers will become more aware of their target markets needs and wants and will therefore be able to sell more effectively and efficiently.
“Our goal is to assist clients in creating more ‘brain friendly’ ads and websites using a comprehensive communication science approach,” said Paul Bolls, Ph.D., associate professor of strategic communication and co-director of the PRIME Lab in the Missouri School of Journalism. Dr. Bolls co-authored the book “Psychophysiological Measurement and Meaning: Cognitive and Emotional Processing of Media” released last August.
“Our approach to conducting communication research is grounded in a holistic and more science-based methodology that is currently lacking in many neuromarketing models,” explained Bolls. “We will combine our scientific knowledge of how the brain processes media with our expertise in applying multiple measures to obtain biometric, survey and behavioral data to solve complex communication challenges for clients.
This partnership signifies how the ‘security’ industry and academia can collaborate in order to create a tool which everyone can benefit from.
According to Glenn Kessler, president and CEO of HCD Research, the biometric measures are a natural extension of the company’s eye-tracking and concept testing capabilities. “We’ve had great success using our eye-tracking technology to optimize clients’ websites and ad concepts, which is why we were excited about Dr. Bolls’ extensive track record with biometric measurements. The combination of our research tools will enable us to provide clients with more meaningful and comprehensive consumer data.”
The study will identify how online media use habits and preferences are determined by unconscious and biological motivations that determine how the human brain processes information. This will generate a deeper understanding of psychological motives that drive media preferences.The project is funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) and results are expected to be available this spring.
This would not only enhance the advertising and biometric device sector but will also influence users, because we could see major changes in ways in which we are targeted in terms of colour schemes, structure, wording and themes of future advertisements. However, will the changes influence how we buy and spend? Which of course is more than likely the underlying reason behind the studies. Even if it isn’t it will be interesting to find out how exactly our brain understands and responds to concepts and patterns and in turn how we respond to them.
More intriguingly, if and when these results are published, perhaps biometric advertisements themselves will change as we will finally understand how our audience wants to be targeted – how ironic!
ievo manufactures access control products for the security market. Most notably, they produce fingerprint scanners which surpass conventional forms of biometric devices. To view the fingerprint product range visit www.ievoreader.com
Virtual crime may sound like something only avid gamers would be concerned about, but believe it or not, police have investigated incidents that have occurred online. In fact, because web avatars can’t usually identity their creator, biometrics are being used to link a person to their online avatar.
Japanese police have previously arrested virtual muggers, and the FBI has investigated casinos based in the virtual world of Second Life.
example of a virtual avatar
Virtual crimes will become more common as we venture more and more into these worlds, says computer scientist Roman Yampolskiy. To prevent this, real biometrics with their 3D avatar, are in the early stages of creation, so you know for sure who you are speaking to in a digital world.
In Second Life, avatars are easily identified by their username, meaning police can just ask San Francisco-based Linden Labs, which runs the virtual world, to look up a particular user. But what happens when virtual worlds start running on peer-to-peer networks, leaving no central authority to appeal to? Then there would be no way of linking an avatar username to a human user.
Yampolskiy and colleagues have developed biometric techniques specifically tailored to avatars, since current algorithms only work on humans. “Not all avatars are human looking, and even with those that are humanoid there is a huge diversity of colour,” Yampolskiy says, so his software uses those colours to improve avatar recognition.
The team also investigated matching a human face to an avatar generated from that face – previous studies show that avatars often resemble their owners. Combining their colour-based technique with existing facial recognition software produced the best results, suggesting it might be possible to track someone between the physical and virtual worlds.
ievo manufacture robust and reliable fingerprint biometric systems, ranging from vandal resistant and practical solutions. To view the product line visit www.ievoreader.com/products
Biometric security has numerous applications that vary such as physical access control and time & attendance keeping. They all go hand in hand with each other but sometimes the practicalities might not suit the installation site. This week, The Defence Department in America will run a series of large scale tests to prove whether biometrics can control who enters military facilities without impeding the flow of traffic.
This form of biometric entry can be used in conjunction with many types of access control including fingerprint recognition, iris scanning and facial imaging. A mixture of these biometric products have previously been used to detect terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq and in other countries. But as an approach to physical access, the military has only in a limited way put their Common Access Cards (CACs) with biometric data on them to full use. Practical problems arise from this with regard to time.
A spokesperson from the project said that the database includes about 6,100 people, which is more than actually work at the facility. He said many of the DoD personnel who visit the area often also have also been enrolled. However, within the next year or so there will be are about 25,000 people who come into the building each day, and because the chosen biometric device will record physical access control, for this volume of people registered, practicalities could arise.
However, it is well known within the biometric industry that many security products integrate into leading time & attendance software facilities, devices that have been designed to specifically cope for sites such as this. In fact, one example of a large scale site is within the military sector.
The Army has shown the value of biometrics in Afghanistan and Iraq. Soldiers are using handheld devices to reach back into their database and the FBI’s database when they come across potential terrorists.The Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) has more than 7 million records after six years and can accommodate 15,000 to 17,000 transactions a day, said Tom Killion, the director of the Army’s Biometrics Identification Management Agency.
It is not surprising that of course they are looking for a cost and time effective solution. This could be achieved by fingerprint scanning as it is perhaps the most reliable and practical out of all the biometric options.
