AirPods, Upgrades, and New Partnerships: Identity News Digest

Welcome to FindBiometrics’ digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:

Apple Explores Health-focused Tech for AirPods

Apple is exploring new technological ideas for its AirPod earbuds that would extend their utility beyond fitness tracking and into healthcare applications. Citing unnamed sources familiar with the effort, The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is developing prototype AirPod devices that are designed to track the wearer’s core temperature, and that the tech giant is also exploring ways of leveraging AirPod sensors to detect the user’s posture and offer alerts aimed at helping to improve it.

Vietnamese Authorities Trial Airport Biometrics Solution

The state-run Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) is testing a biometric traveler screening system at Cat Bi International Airport in Hai Phony City, according to a new report. A special screening lane has been implemented in which travelers are authenticated against electronic identity documents using facial recognition. Speaking to a domestic outlet, ACV’s head of IT, Huynh Bao Quoc, said the authorities’ aim was to “reduce flight check-in time, increase accuracy, detect passengers using fake documents, and identify people who are wanted or banned from flying.”

HID to Provide Bahrain’s New e-Passport

HID Global has been awarded a contract to deliver Bahrain’s next-generation e-passport, helping the country to transition from a machine-readable solution to a digital one. The new passport will feature HID’s SOMA chip operating system and its HID Integrale modular ID management system; and its embedded chip will store the biometric and biographic data of Bahraini citizens. “We have a long-standing relationship with the Kingdom of Bahrain and we look forward to extending it by delivering a full end-to-end ePassport solution,” said Craig Sandness, HID’s Head of Secure Issuance and Citizen ID Solutions.

IDEMIA Upgrades Contactless Biometric Solutions

IDEMIA has launched an upgraded version of its OneLook multimodal biometric device, which is designed to read face and iris biometrics from a distance and to perform matching. The solution can now perform biometric capture more quickly, and offers a higher accuracy rate in matching; and its hardware has been redesigned. The solution was launched alongside a new version of IDEMIA’s MorphoWave device for contactless fingerprint scanning, dubbed “MorphoWave TP”. In a statement, IDEMIA emphasized that the latter is compatible “with existing contact databases and traditional contact scanners.”

BeyondTrust Adds BIO-key’s PortalGuard to Partner Platform

Identity and access management specialist BeyondTrust has added BIO-key’s PortalGuard solution to its Privileged Remote Access solutions portfolio. The news comes after BeyondTrust integrated AuthID’s Verified CloudConnect solution to the platform last month, suggesting a growing interest in IAM solutions that support biometrics. “The BeyondTrust Technology Alliance Program enables integrations with BeyondTrust Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions so that customers can maximize the value of their IT security investments,” explained BeyondTrust VP David Manks.

Zerify Gets New Sales Partner

SpeakSpace LLC has signed on as a sales partner for Zerify, known for its Zerify Meet secure videoconferencing solution, which supports biometric authentication for video meeting participants. SpeakSpace is a video and web conferencing solutions provider operating in North America. In announcing the partnership, its CEO, Tom Behan, called Zerify Meet “the industry’s Gold standard for video conferencing security,” adding that its Zerify Defender is a unique solution for securing PC devices.

Useful Sensors Gets Manufacturing Partner

Useful Sensors has established a manufacturing and distribution partnership with RS Group’s OKdo. Founded a year ago by founding members of Google’s TensorFlow machine learning framework, Useful Sensors has developed a low-cost, coin-sized computer vision modules that supports face detection and facial recognition. The startup teamed up with Taiwan’s Himax last year with an eye to the latter’s ‘WiseEye Smart Image Sensing’ technology. Useful Sensors is demonstrating its technology at this week’s Embedded World conference in Germany.

NEC White Paper Tackles Airport Innovation

To help industry professionals get a handle on this important trend, NEC has published a new White Paper, “Investing in Aviation’s Identity-First Future“. The paper covers a range of factors and considerations, including the evolution of passenger demands, key trends driving the adoption of biometrics and AI, and information on how to best invest in digital transformation. It also includes global market forecasts concerning the air travel industry from Acuity Market Intelligence, in partnership with FindBiometrics; and the “Biometric Digital ID Prism”, an infographic laying out the major industry players and their position in a forward-looking identity ecosystem.

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March 14, 2023 – by Alex Perala

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