EMVCo Wants to Set Some Biometric Card Standards – 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:

EMVCo’s Pursues Standards in ‘Biometric On Card’ Initiative

EMVCo is working on a set of performance and security requirements for fingerprint-scanning payment cards, a project the organization is calling its “Biometric on Card” initiative. A document outlining its requirements is expected to be published for EMVCo Associate review by the end of this month, with a “Technical Special Interest Meeting” planned for sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. Jianhua Ni, the Chair of the EMVCo CDCVM Task Force, says that the organization has been looking at requirements pertaining to False Acceptance Rate (FAR), False Rejection Rate (FRR), Imposter Attack Presentation Accept Rate (IAPAR), and transaction times.

Socure Acquires Berbix in $70M Deal

Socure has acquired selfie-based remote identity verification startup Berbix in a cash and stock transaction valued at about $70 million. In announcing the move, the company highlighted the “patent-pending forensics engine” of Berbix’s solution, which they say can detect spoofed IDs including AI-generated fakes, even when they are indistinguishable to the human eye. Socure has integrated Berbix’s technology into its Predictive Document Verification (DocV) 3.0 solution, which also leverages Socure’s own “ID+” technology to assess a variety of risk signals including geolocation and behavioral data.

Peoplenet Settles BIPA Case for $4.75M

Peoplenet, a subsidiary of the workforce management company Bullhorn, has agreed to a $4.75 million settlement of a class action lawsuit filed under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The lawsuit revolved around Peoplenet’s biometric time and attendance systems, which collected biometric data pertaining to workers’ fingers, hands, and faces. Class members are expected to receive checks for somewhere between $500 and 1,000, while Peoplenet itself has not admitted wrongdoing.

Innovatrics Adds DNA to ABIS, Plans DeepMind Summer School Participation

Innovatrics has added the modality of DNA to its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) for law enforcement. It’s the result of a strategic partnership with Veridos announced near the start of this year, with the companies having explained at the time that they would seek to integrate Veridos’s VeriDNA solution with Innovatrics’ ABIS. Innovatrics has also announced plans to participate in the Eastern European Machine Learning Summer School, organized by researchers with DeepMind, Google’s AI subsidiary. Innovatrics’s Image Data Synthesis Lead, Igor Janos, will be on hand to demonstrate how Innovatrics uses generative AI to improve its fingerprint matching algorithms.

Korea’s Shinhan Bank to Launch Biometric ATMs

South Korea’s Shinhan Bank plans to launch a face-based authentication for ATM access in the coming months. The bank will dip its toes into biometric access with a facial recognition system for foreign currency withdrawals in July. A larger rollout planned for September will allow customers to access their accounts with a face scan at 900 ATMs — about 20 percent of its machines. Participating customers, who will be required to register their face biometrics through a mobile app or at a bank branch, will not need to present a bank card or any other hardware token to access the biometric ATMs for financial transactions. The move comes after Shinhan experimented with face-based payments starting in 2020.

Neurotechnology Unveils New Brainwave-tracking Headset

Neurotechnology has launched a new wearable for brainwave reading, offering potential brain-computer interface applications. Dubbed the “BrainAccess HALO”, it’s a headband featuring dry-contact electrodes to support electroencephalography (EEG). Neurotechnology says it can monitor brain activity related to visual processes, as well as eye and facial muscle movements. The company is primarily known for its more convention biometrics technologies – it recently celebrated a strong performance by its iris recognition algorithm in NIST testing – but it had previously launched an EEG-based “BrainAccess Development Kit” in 2020.

NIST Testing Marks Omnigarde Advancement

South Carolina-based Omnigarde is marking continued improvement in its facial recognition technology, as demonstrated in recent testing through the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Face Recognition Vendor Test. The Omnigarde-003 algorithm showed a 16 percent improvement in its error rate compared to Omnigarde-002, and a 90 percent improvement over the company’s original solution. And it wound up in the top-five accuracy rankings among algorithms submitted by US-based vendors.

Alcatraz AI Launches Facial Recognition Module

Alcatraz AI is now enabling third party organizations to leverage the facial recognition technology behind its Rock time and access solution. The company has announced “Rock M”, a module for OEMs that delivers a combined hardware and software solution based on Quad-core ARM Cortex A76 and A55 processors. It enables facial recognition at a range of up to two meters, and leverages both 2D and 3D sensors for liveness detection, in compliance with the PAD Level 2 standard. The company says it is “currently pursuing joint ventures with leading hardware manufacturers.”

Trulioo Charts KYB Growth

Trulioo has revealed that adoption of its Know Your Business verification services has grown 586 percent in the United States since 2020. Financial services firms and e-commerce companies have been major drivers of the growth, with Trulioo citing an intensifying need for compliance with regulations such as the INFORM Consumers Act. “Organizations are turning to Trulioo because we have the unmatched ability to provide best-in-class KYB and KYC in one platform and can create optimal workflows to support regulatory compliance anywhere in the world,” asserted the company’s Chief Product Officer, Michael Ramsbacker, who spoke to FindBiometrics for the ID Talk podcast during last year’s Money20/20 USA event.

AuthID’s Shareholders Approve Directors, Resolutions

AuthID has duly held its Annual Meeting of Shareholders, and reports that all of its nominated directors were re-elected, and all proposed resolutions were accepted. The procedural smoothness of the corporate activities suggests a general sense of approval for some of the momentous changes at the company that have taken place in recent months, including an overhaul of its executive leadership and, most recently, the conclusion of a $8.2 million registered direct offering of common stock and concurrent private placement in which four directors participated.

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June 27, 2023 – by Alex Perala