Long Range Facial Recognition Binoculars

The United States Navy is looking to procure a set of binoculars capable of reading faces from up to 650 feet away for identification purposes.
Department of the Navy, seeking a “Wireless 3D Binocular Face Recognition System,” the Navy is looking to aid stand-off identification of uncooperative subjects.

“High level, it’s a surveillance and identification system,”  “It’s using the ubiquitous binocular for real-time identification. The data point here is that this is to be used to add objectivity to an operation that’s highly subjective. So this is not intended for kinetic action to go arrest or detain someone. It’s more a tool to put other eyes on him or her.”

The technology essentially already exists as StereoVision has already developed a facial recognition binocular system, called 3DMobileID, which uses a three-dimensional recognition system, though it is only capable of scanning faces a maximum of 100 meters away. 

Long range identification systems are slowly making their way to the mainstream. AIRprint, a unique fingerprint scanner that can effectively scan fingerprints from as far as six meters away, recently saw a significant increase in demand following being listed in 2012′s “best of what’s new” list in Popular Science. 

Forensic technologies market to reach $17.7 billion by 2019!

According to a newly-published report, the forensic technologies market, which includes biometrics, has been valued at USD $8.3 billion in 2012 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.4% from 2013-2019, to a total of US $17.7 billion in 2019.

Also, as the report notes, the DNA profiling segment is expected to grow at an 11% CAGR in the same period. Currently, in terms of geography, North America and Europe have a higher market share, but going forward, it’s expected that Asia Pacific and RoW regions are expected to gain about 60% of the global pie.

Currently, the market is dominated by the Government and as the report also indicates, publicly-funded forensic labs account for about 60% of the forensic technologies and services market share.

iPhone fingerprint speculation has positive impact on industry as a whole

Whether or not Apple integrates a fingerprint sensor that works has yet to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: all of this speculation has had a positive impact on the biometrics industry as a whole.

Since before the launch of the iPhone 5, the internet has been ripe with rumours that Apple was looking to integrate a sensor into its iPhone, and last year, that intent became pretty clear when the tech giant scooped up prevalent fingerprint sensor manufacturer Authentec for a cool US$356 million.

Fingerprint Cards, which manufactures small fingerprint sensors and has many customers in the mobile space, has also seen tremendous growth over the past year.

Another recent research report on the global multi-factor authentication market projects that the market will reach $5.45 billion by 2017, and gives a big nod to biometric identification technologies for its role in the space.

LG puts buttons on back of G2 smartphone

LG is hoping to shake up smartphone design by placing the only physical buttons of its new flagship model on the rear of the handset. The firm says the G2 addresses the problem that mobiles become harder to control the bigger they get.

The South Korean company recently reported its strongest ever mobile phone figures. However, analysts are split over whether or not their latest innovation is a winner. The new device features a 5.2in (13.2cm) screen and is powered by Android. Its rear keys can be used to adjust its volume or - if pressed for a longer time - to activate the device's camera and note-taking software.

LG suggests that using a back-button to take a self-portrait with the front camera also makes it easier to take a steady shot. "Moving the main buttons to the back of the phone gave users more control since this place was where individuals' index fingers are naturally located," it said. "Researchers also found that moving the buttons also resulted in fewer dropped phones when adjusting the volume while talking."

LG overtook Huawei to become the world's third best-selling smartphone maker in the first three months of the year thanks to demand for its Nexus 4 and Optimus range, according to market research firm Gartner.
One of its researchers suggested the move could indeed help address issues consumers have with the design of bigger mobiles.  Research suggests LG is the world's third bestselling smartphone maker
 
"This is a potentially interesting concept for LG because as phones get larger, the position of the phone in the hand and how you use it is going to change," said analyst Brian Blau. "Whether the button on the back proves to be a winner long-term has yet to be determined, but it deserves some amount of consideration."

Recognizing People by the Way They Walk

Recognizing people by the way they walk can have numerous applications in the fields of security, leisure or medicine. This new biometric technique that takes into account the way a person walks and his/her silhouette offers significant advantages as recognition can be done remotely and does not require the cooperation of the subject.

Detecting suspicious behavior (video surveillance), access control to buildings or to restricted areas and demographic analysis of a population in terms of gender and age range are just some of the possible applications of this technology.

Walking Pattern

The role of biometrics as an artificial intelligence field is the identification of an individual based on certain physical and non-transferable aspects of his/her body, such as fingerprint or facial recognition. These are just two of the most widely used and developed biometric sources because, as the researcher states, "they are very reliable and difficult to fake, although both require that the user is close to the sensor and collaborates in the recognition process, and we can not always count on that” Hence, the importance of advancing in complementary techniques.

Silhouette

We all have a very personal way of walking. "Although it is easy to manipulate and consciously change, each person walks in a different way" There are experiments in which a person has to recognize familiar people just watching his/her silhouette in motion and the success rate is very high,” It has to be kept in mind that there are several factors that influence so that each person has a unique way of walking. From a video of the subject walking, the developed system distinguishes the background silhouette and it becomes a sequence of silhouettes, placed one upon the other, resulting in a summary image. This final representation stores all physical appearance and movement of the person walking, thus getting a unique mark for each of them.

For now, due to the margin of error that gait recognition has in not controlled real scenarios, this technique would be much more effective if combined with facial recognition. "They are complementary methods: the way you walk can be detected from a distance and does not require a high-resolution image (it can be done even against a back-light and with poor lighting), while face recognition is performed close-up and with a high-resolution image. In this way, surveys could be carried out in a wider range of conditions or, if both methods are applicable, results could be more reliable thanks to contrasting hypotheses about the identity of an individual generated by two biometric systems."