Philadelphia Inquirer

Biometrics are the new face of security

July 21, 2003
By Wendy Tenaka

McLEAN, Va. - Place your hand on an electronic screen to open a door. Log on to your computer just by looking into the monitor. Determine the identity of a person from a photo taken 20 years ago.

All these things and more are being accomplished through biometric technologies developed at Unisys Corp.'s office in this Washington suburb.

The computer services company, which has its headquarters in Blue Bell, opened the center four years ago, and it has focused on developing homeland security technologies following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The federal government "gave us a contract two years ago to investigate biometric technologies for access controls into facilities," said Edwin Schaffner, director of identification and access-control solutions at Unisys. "As we were doing this, we had 9/11. We were in the right place at the right time."

Biometric technology makes use of identifying characteristics that are unique to an individual, such as fingerprints, an iris pattern, facial features, voice, or hand geometry. The characteristics can be encoded into software that is installed in a variety of electronic devices, such as computers, scanners and television monitors, or even a credit-card-size "smart card."

Unisys won a $244 million contract from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration last year to develop a security infrastructure for 429 airports around the country. The company also won a $1.2 billion contract from the Defense Department to improve existing face-recognition technologies used for the identification of individuals in photographic databases.

For those two contracts, Unisys has partnered with universities and dozens of large and small technology companies, including rival International Business Machines Corp. and Iridian Technologies Inc., a Moorestown company that makes software that reads human iris patterns.

Schaffner said the biometric center, on the sixth floor of the company's building here that serves public-sector customers, employs about a dozen workers. Customers include police departments and foreign governments.

One customer, the Pinellas, Fla., police department, is using face-recognition technology codeveloped by Unisys to create a database of suspects' photos taken over several years.

Costa Rica and Malaysia are using biometric smart cards developed by Unisys. The cards hold digitized identification information, including photos and fingerprints. They also act like ATM cards, and can be used to purchase goods.

"For my own personal security, I would like to see biometrics involved any time I make a transaction," Schaffner said. "It's very difficult to compromise a biometric."

He also said biometrics can simplify mundane tasks.

"I'd love to not have to fumble for my keys, and just show fingerprints to get into my house," Schaffner said.

Widespread consumer uses of biometrics in the United States are still on the horizon because of privacy concerns and needed improvements to some of the technologies.

"In other nations that don't have as much concern over civil liberties, [biometrics] are easier to roll out," said Trevor Prout, director of marketing at the International Biometric Group, an independent research company in New York.

Prout said some of the technologies, such as face recognition, are not yet reliable in determining a person's identity.

"This technology has issues with changes in lighting and angle," he said. "The issue of the angle is one of the reasons the technologies don't perform well at all in surveillance, since TV cameras are off to the side, in the corner."

Still, Prout said every large technology services company has stepped up its biometrics research since the 9/11 attacks. In addition to Unisys and IBM, Northrop Grumman Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp. and others have biometric developments under way.

Prout said sales of biometric technologies have been increasing. In 2002, worldwide sales were about $600 million. This year, he is projecting sales of $928 million, growing to more than $1.4 billion in 2004.

"Within the next two to three years, more and more people will be using biometrics in their workplace," he said. "Consumer applications are still a number of years out."