Scanning Tech a Blurry Picture By Declan McCullagh and Robert Zarate
ARLINGTON, Virginia -- Iris-scanning and face-matching technologies don't work nearly as well as their manufacturers have claimed, the Department of Defense has discovered.
In a 270-person pilot program at the Army Research Laboratory, the Pentagon tested iris recognition technology from Iridian for 26 weeks and the Visionics FaceIt system for 13 weeks. Iridian claims a 99.5 percent success rate, and Visionics predicts solid face-matches 75 to 99.3 percent of the time.
The results: Reality didn't match the hype.
At a biometrics conference on Friday, Defense Department official Steven King said that of the 270 persons checked by the Visionics system, it correctly recognized individuals a mere 51 percent of the time, and identified an individual to within a range of 10 participants 81 percent of the time. The supposedly more reliable Iridian eye-scanners, meanwhile, correctly verified someone's identity just 94 percent of the time.
King, who's an advisor for critical infrastructure protection at the Pentagon, presented his findings at the 2002 Biometric Consortium Conference. Conference sponsors include the National Security Agency, the Defense Department and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
The conference comes at a time when Washington is more interested than ever before in biometric technology. State motor vehicle agencies want to standardize using biometrics in driver's licenses, and a Democratic Party think tank recently recommended a single biometric-equipped card that would store identification, credit, banking and other information.
"We were encouraged by the study because it was set in realistic circumstances rather than in a pristine laboratory setting," King said on Friday. "You would expect some performance below manufacturer specifications since the circumstances surrounding the test affect how biometrics work."
Biometric pilot studies have found their way not only onto army bases, but also into school cafeterias.
In Pennsylvania, three school districts are testing a biometric program from Food Service Solutions that enables students to buy their lunch with their fingerprints.
After students scan their index finger, a computer program matches a unique template with their scanned fingerprint. Only a few students from the participating school districts reportedly declined to participate.
Some privacy advocates remain skeptical of biometric technology, fearing that the pervasive use of biometrics could encroach on personal privacy.
Biometric Consortium co-chairman Fernando Podio of NIST tried to reassure the skeptics. "I think for every specific application, all these groups need to get together and discuss these issues," Podio said. "Efforts need to be made to understand the specific issues and to address the concerns that some people might have, such as how the biometric data has to be protected."
Also speaking at the conference was West Virginia University Professor Larry Hornak, who described his Center for Identification Technology Research, which is the first National Science Foundation, industry and university cooperative center for biometrics.
Hornak said the center is researching whether biometric data comes from live people -- so someone doesn't lop off your hand and hold it up to a scanner -- and is exploring the effect of aging on biometric templates. The center plans to develop a hybrid identification system that uses multiple biometric indicators, such as face, fingerprint, hand geometry and voice indicators.
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com