Biometrics has long been touted as the future of security. Sci-fi and spy movies and literature have placed it in the realm of the seemingly impossible and the highly invasive. The small measures that have been taken in Australia to implement these solutions have been met with arguments about privacy, hygiene and resistance to the 'Big Brother' factor.
Finally, the tide looks set to turn for biometric solutions. Biodata Information Technology 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. The sequence captures the facial and voice characteristics, and measures the change in movements of the user's lips as they speak. This information is captured and stored, either within the organisation's server environment, or on a data card such as a smart card.
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 biometrics--face, voice and lip-movement--results in increased precision, security and tolerance according to Ho Chang, President of Biodata Information Technology AP. Chang says BioID is the only multi-modal biometric authentication system in the world 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 combination fingerprint and face-recognition systems, 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 that decreases inconvenience, while 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 dependent on proprietary hardware, 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 compiled by Biodata Information Technology, 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.
BioID 3.0 biometric authentication system
Company: Biodata Information Technology
| Price: |
• Server License AU$5190 • Workstation AU$145 |
Distributor: Biodata Information Technology Australia
Phone: (02) 8296 0999
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