NEC Australia has won a major contract to revamp the country’s National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS). The $39.5 million (USD) contract has been awarded by CrimTrac, Australia’s law enforcement technology agency.
NEC Australia will essentially replace the current system, which relies exclusively on fingerprint biometrics, with a new system that also features palm print and facial recognition. The new system will reportedly integrate with other biometric matching systems already in place, such as the National Facial Biometric Matching Capability, and as such will give police access to about 12 million facial profiles nationally. The NFBMC is currently scheduled to go live in the middle of this year, barring any political or regulatory obstacles; while the NAFIS replacement will be implemented next year.
The contract further strengthens NEC’s prominence in the Australian government security sector, with the country’s Northern Territory Police Force having started to reap the benefits of its facial recognition technology last year. The government currently appears to have a strong appetite for such technology, partly as a result of recent terrorism incidents, though of course police forces around the globe have been increasingly interested in biometric identification more generally as such technologies have grown more sophisticated and affordable.
Source: ZDNet
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April 29, 2016 – by Alex Perala
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