A biometrics contract, a sensor launch, and providers expanding their international footprints demonstrate the industry’s momentum at the close of 2022. Dermalog and Zighra have won government contracts, albeit for very different projects and opposite in scale, one involving biometrics and the other device-based authentication. Idemia’s biometrics have been deployed or expanded at several airports, and the company is opening a new service center for fintechs. In access security biometrics, Fingerprint Cards has announced a new sensor. Also on the digital identity end of the market, Thales has picked up mDL standard certification for its digital wallet, and NIST is seeking comments on updated guidelines.
Top biometrics news of the week
Dermalog has won a $48 million contract to provide biometric passports for the Democratic Republic of Congo. Details such as the price Congolese will pay remain scant, but Dermalog appears to have beat out IN Groupe, Toppan, and Semlex or its local subsidiary for the deal.
Zighra has been selected for a digital ID authentication test with Canada’s Navy. The contract is for a device-based credentials for zero-trust logical access control without a connection to the cloud. Pone Biometrics and PQShield have partnered, meanwhile, to work on post quantum cryptography for the government and defense market.
The EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium, which includes Avast and Signicat, among others, has been chosen for a large-scale pilot by the EC. The pilot is one of four, this one focussed on evaluating the ecosystem for travel applications. Those include passenger data-sharing, payments, and B2B interactions.
The Digital ID Wallet from Thales has been certified by UL for compliance to the ISO/IEC standard for mobile driver’s licenses. The standard covers security, presentation, identity verification and interoperability, and the first third-party certification gives Thales leg up as it looks to roll out its digital IDs in more jurisdictions.
The mobile version of Japan’s digital ID card is expected to be available on Android devices next May, and the country’s PM met with Apple CEO Tim Cook to spur support for My Number cards on iPhones. Cook says he will look into it. There is a clock on the project, as Japan intends to integrate its national health insurance scheme with the credential in 2024.
A draft of revised Digital Identity Guidelines from NIST includes updates for biometric identity proofing, testing and performance requirements. The guidelines apply to federal government digital identity systems, and reinforce that alternatives to facial recognition should always be available. A workshop is planned for January, and comments are being accepted until late-March.
Fingerprint Cards launched a new, smaller round biometric sensor module with an integrated security block for physical and logical access control. In addition to the new FPC1523, the company announced the integration of its FPC1025 into a smart door lock keypad from Austria’s Nuki.
Three different airport biometrics deployments involving Idemia technology were unveiled this week. Abu Dhabi’s Next50 is implementing a facial recognition system with Idemia and SITA solutions, while biometric gates for families and people in wheelchairs have gone live in Singapore. A third TSA PreCheck enrollment location is now being operated by Idemia I&S. Meanwhile in India, people are being urged to use Digi Yatra to avoid delays at the airport.
International expansions have been announced by three biometrics providers. Idemia is expanding its market presence in Japan with a new service center to support the fintech industry, while Incode has launched in the Australia and New Zealand market, and SITA has partnered with TechTalent Software to open an R&D center in Romania.
Tiandy Technologies is the latest Chinese facial recognition and video surveillance company to be slapped with sanctions by the U.S. The company allegedly made banned U.S. parts available to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, along with the more familiar accusations of involvement in ethnicity-based suppression.
Watch out for Biometric Update’s year-end series of feature articles, which will be published between now and the new year. In the meantime, we recommend catching up on our ID16.9 podcast, which also has some exciting episodes lined up for 2023.
Please tell us about any webinars, podcasts or other content we should share with the people in biometrics and the digital identity community in the comments below or through social media.
Article Topics
biometric authentication | biometric identification | biometrics | digital ID | digital identity | facial recognition