Finally, the tide looks set to turn for biometric solutions. Biodata Systems has released BioID 3.0 onto the Australian market, a revolutionary product that uses face, voice and lip-movement recognition for identification and authorisation purposes.
Users submit a video sequence while voicing a phrase of choice which is then captured and stored, either within the organisation's server environment, or on a data card such as a 'smart card'. This sequence captures the facial and voice characteristics, and measures the change in movements of the user's lips as they speak.
Once captured, the information can be used to authenticate--or verify--the identity of a user to provide access for all future activities within a system--whether that be border control, PC log-in, physical data-centre access or secure financial transactions.
The combination of several biometics--face, voice and lip-movement--results in increased precision, security and tolerance. According to Ho Chang, CEO of BioID, this is the only multi-modal biometric system in the world today where the user can be recognised in a "simultaneous process".
Other companies have gone to market with products that combine several biometric elements, such as a combination fingerprint and face-recognition system, but these are sequential, meaning that users must complete one step in the authorisation process before moving on to the next. This is not only time-consuming, but also increases the amount of errors experienced.
BioID attempts to offer the user a one-step recognition process in order to decrease inconvenience, while also increasing security.
"There is a contradiction between convenience and security. You can never have both," said Chang. "But BioID forces a compromise between the two. Now you have a system that is highly secure and easy to use".
It is also less expensive than many of the established biometric systems--such as fingerprint, iris, and retina recognition--which are all hardware dependent, and require user contact.
BioID is software-based, requiring only standard video-conferencing kits, such as a Web camera and microphone. Apart from the savings in hardware, as the system is software-based, it is also less vulnerable to vandalism or the effects of the environment.
According to a report by BioID, it is also less vulnerable to identity theft. "Most biometric systems rely on a single trait, so to defeat the system, only one feature must be stolen or imitated. The [BioID] multi-modal approach means that three separate traits must be imitated successfully."
The BioID approach is made even more impervious to attack by the fact that two of these traits are dynamic, and as such, require the user to actively perform an action for authorisation, according to the report.
I am blind, and confined to a wheel chair, how will all of this help people whoe are in my condition?