From the Telegraph

Facial recognition passport gates shut down

Border gates at Manchester Airport that rely on facial recognition technology had to be shut down after they failed to recognise that a couple had swapped passports.

The incident occured on 8 February and the gates were out of action for three days while immigration authorities investigated.

It is understood that the couple accidentally mixed up their passports and did not deliberately attempt to breach security. They were stopped by an official who was supervising the system and released after their immigration status was verified.

Brodie Clark, head of Border Force, the part of the UK Border Agency responsible for passport control, said: "There was no breach of security or immigration control.

"The E-gates were temporarily suspended whilst an investigation was carried out."

"The gates have now re-opened and we will continue to monitor their performance to ensure they operate safely and securely."

The gates are designed to speed up passport control, and work by comparing travellers' faces to photographs stored on a microchip embedded in every UK passport issued since 2006.

Since the first trials at Manchester Airport in 2008, they have been rolled out to other major airports including Heathrow and Gatwick. Mr Clark said that Border Force's investigation of the failure concluded that other installations were not affected.

The three-day shut down is just the latest problem to face the gates.

In December by John Vine, the Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency urged a rethink on facial recognition. His inspection found that the system often broke down and that the "effectiveness of the facial recognition gates is in danger of being compromised both by the unreliability of the technology and the frustration of staff towards their use".


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FROM BLOOMBERG

‘Minority Report’ May Come to Real World With Iris Recognition
By Chris Dolmetsch - Feb 2, 2011 12:00 AM ET


If Hoyos Corp. has its way, the world will soon resemble a Tom Cruise movie.

A closely held company based in Puerto Rico, Hoyos makes devices that photograph human irises for identification purposes, like the technology featured in the films “Mission: Impossible” and “Minority Report.”

In the movies, the technology protects super-secret labs and high-security vaults, helps chase down criminals and flashes personalized ads. In the real world, it screens employees of Bank of America Corp. and travelers at London’s Heathrow Airport and helps New York City police track prisoners.

As key patents expire and costs fall, Hoyos wants to make the technology ubiquitous, installing it on mobile phones to verify online payments and cash machines to replace bank cards that require personal identification numbers, said Chief Development Officer Jeff Carter.

“The cost of the devices has come down and the fraud is going up at such an escalating rate that it’s beginning to make sense,” Carter said in an interview at the New York offices of Hoyos, formerly known as Global Rainmakers Inc. Civil libertarians warn that the technology’s use may come with complications for privacy, and increased reliance on it may heighten the risk of misidentification.

Physical Characteristics

Biometric technology such as iris recognition uses physical characteristics including facial shape, fingerprints, retinal photos and iris patterns to confirm identities.

The technology works by photographing the iris, the colored membrane that controls how much light reaches the retina, and converting the picture into a computer code. The code is compared with one in a database.

Its history goes back to 1936, when Frank Burch, an ophthalmologist in St. Paul, Minnesota, proposed identifying people using the furrows, ridges, rings and freckling that make every iris unique.

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FROM POPULAR SCIENCE/ NEW YORK TIMES

Smart Computer-Vision Systems To Spot Prison Riots Before They Happen

Add corrections officers to the list of workers at risk of being replaced by machines. Recently demonstrated computer-vision systems can analyze imagery provided by cameras perched in prison yards, recognizing faces, gestures, and unfolding incidents and warning guards if, say, two groups of inmates appear hostile. It’s one of a smattering of experimental computer-vision systems highlighted in a New York Times piece examining how smart, observant computers may soon document our every move.

Computer-vision isn’t new – researchers have been developing the technology as long as they’ve been chasing artificial intelligence. But recent strides could soon introduce machine observers into many corners of society, from institutions like hospitals and schools to the workplace and public streets. Computer vision systems can now read a person’s face to determine his or her heart rate, register a person’s emotional response to a product, or recognize behavioral patterns.

Technology, Clay Dillow, artificial intelligence, computer vision, darpa, gorgon stare, machine vision, robotsAs such, many see computer-vision as the future of robotics. DARPA is certainly wise to its security and counterterrorism potential, having launched a program called Mind’s Eye to develop machines that can analyze visual data and communicate it to other computers or humans, even making decisions based on what they see. And perhaps there’s no better example of its proliferation than Microsoft’s Kinect addition for Xbox 360, which introduces a machine vision peripheral into the living room (the company is reportedly flirting with the idea of using the Kinect to target marketing to viewers and measure their responses to it).

The implications of that kind of tech are vast; whereas human observers can be distracted, lazy, or overwhelmed, robot observers are always vigilant and able to draw on huge databases of information. Mashed up with a citywide surveillance system like those common in the UK, facial recognition software could locate and track a lost child or a suspected evildoer while at the same time monitoring traffic patterns and issuing weather advisories.

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FROM REUTERS

(Reuters Life!) - For you sir, a canned coffee. And for madam, perhaps a nice cold tea.

A new Japanese canned drink vending machine uses facial recognition technology to "recommend" drinks based on the customer's age and gender -- and sales have tripled over those from regular vending machines as a result.

The machines, developed by JR East Water Business Co, a subsidiary of railway firm JR East Co, use large touch-panel screens with sensors that allow the machine to determine the characteristics of an approaching customer.

"Recommended" labels will then appear on specific drink products. Suggested products may also change depending on the temperature and time of day.

"If the customer is a man, the machine is likely to recommend a canned coffee drink, since men tend to prefer these. If the customer is in their 50s, though, that recommendation is likely to be green tea," a company spokeswoman said.

A woman in her 20s will be recommended a tea drink or slightly sweeter product, since market research has shown that they prefer these.


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School installs £9,000 facial recognition cameras to stop students turning up late... and teachers could be next target


The Mail Online
Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:36 CDT



The £9,000 Face Register system monitors more than 200 sixth-form students at the Sir Christopher Hatton School in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. 

Two cameras produce a 3D scan of pupils and identifies faces using minute measurements of eyes, noses and face shape. 

The software can even recognise students as they grow and their features change. 

It monitors and records students' attendance and enables the school to force anyone arriving late to make up the time at the end of the day.

The school was the first in Northamptonshire, and one of 12 across the country, to install the technology. 

Another 18 schools nationwide have expressed strong interest in the system, developed by Northampton company Aurora Computer Services. 

Kelli Foster, the school's sixth form head, said: 'The technology is just incredible. 

'Before, each pupil had to sign in and out of reception by filling in a form but now it takes under ten seconds to gather so much more information. 

'When they use the machines, they have to enter their PIN and when their faces have been matched up they select whether they are signing in or out and the reason why. 

'This information is then sent to our registration system which stores it as a record so we can track each time they come in and out of school and the common room. 





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