MARCH 28--eTrue (Southborough, MA; www.etrue.com) is integrating its TrueFace two-dimensional (2-D) facial-recognition technology with the Bio4 (Portsmouth, Hampshire PO3 5XR, England; www.bio4.co.uk) 3-D facial recognition and 2-D barcode system to deliver secure personal identity applications. Because of small code size, facial biometrics can be encoded onto personal cards using Symbol Technologies Ltd. (Winnersh Triangle, Berkshire RG41 5TP, England; www.symbol.com) 2-D barcodes. Bio4 also will use the Symbol Technologies PPT2740 pocket-sized computer for verifying personal ID cards running on Microsoft's Pocket PC platform, resulting in a mobile face-recognition system.
The TrueFace facial biometric system uses a 200- to 500-byte template code for personal identification (ID) cards with printed 2-D barcodes that encode people's faces. These ID cards are expected to be used to authenticate people for air travel, customs checks, government programs, and military recognition and access to facilities at banks, plants, government agencies, military bases, and law-enforcement stations.
To initiate operation, a person presents a card to a 2-D barcode reader while a digital camera takes the person's picture. TrueFace and Bio4 software checks features such as facial structures, distance between eyes, and mouth shape and size. The code of the card is checked against the picture, and a match allows access. This facial biometric can also be incorporated into passports along with information such as date of birth, address, and social-security number. The software runs on Microsoft 95/98/NT/2000, Netware 4x, and Unix.
Symbol Technologies PDF417 barcode symbology, which is in the public domain, has become a standard for 2-D portable data-file applications. A single PDF417 symbol can store more than a kilobyte of machine-readable data in a space no larger than a standard barcode symbol.
