News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page

NewsMinesecuritybigbrother — Viewing Item


Cia seeks to capture eye from distance { November 4 2003 }

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=3754802

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=3754802

CIA Seeks to Capture Eye I.D. from a Distance
Tue November 04, 2003 05:01 PM ET

By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA is trying to improve facial recognition technology which can be notoriously inaccurate, and also develop ways to identify from a distance a target in motion by the iris of the person's eye, a CIA scientist said on Tuesday.

Differences in simple factors like lighting and expression can impede identification of someone using current facial recognition technology, said Andrew Kirby, senior physical scientist at CIA's Intelligence Technology and Innovation Center.

"Those differences are so significant that my own picture taken in two different places at two different times is actually more difficult to match than it would be to match me with someone in this audience," he said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies forum on biometrics.

Kirby said his program, which was created two years ago, has set a goal of improving face recognition technology "by a factor of 10."

Currently iris recognition technology is more reliable but requires a cooperative subject who will stand in front of the scanner and line up the eye properly, he said.

"We're looking at remote iris recognition," Kirby said. It would be more valuable if the iris could be captured by a camera while the person was in motion at a distance to make the identification, he said.

"One of the main thrusts of our program is in fact to make this possible," Kirby added.

GUANTANAMO MEASURES

The U.S. Army is using biometrics, which also includes the more commonly used identification tool of fingerprints, to build identity records for detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Kirby said.

Those records will be used to identify detainees who are released if they resurface to U.S. authorities in the future, he said.

Using biometrics can be important for counterterrorism and counterinsurgency efforts, said John Woodward, director of the Pentagon's biometrics management office.

For example, with a large number of foreign locals working on military installations overseas, if that person is fired for some reason and goes to another base to get hired under a different identity, biometrics could help identify that person.

It could also be used to identify people who try to give false intelligence at one U.S. location and then try it again under a different identity at another, he said.

The goal for the future is to combine different biometrics "to give us the ability to make identification from a distance to a very accurate level," he said.

In 10 years, there will be handheld devices that "track the person's presence like a bloodhound," Tony Frudakis, chief scientific officer and founder of DNAPrint Genomics, said.

Barry Hodge, president of AcSys Biometrics Corp., said according to a recent study, the facial recognition biometric market worldwide is a $21.5 million business and is forecast to grow to $791.6 million by 2009.

"That's a huge growth rate, so obviously people are expecting a lot of excitement and things to be happening around the facial recognition marketplace," Hodge said.

Reproducing the ability of a person to recognize another in a computer is difficult, he said.

"You recognize them from the back, you recognize them from the side, in varying lighting conditions. When you see people you know, you just know them. And teaching a computer to do that is an amazingly difficult task," Hodge said.



airline-passengers
airports
cameras
chipped
databases
internet
national-id
spying
tech
tips
total-awareness
Aerial drones patrolling arizona skies
Black box in car reports you { September 9 2003 }
Bush wants domestic intelligence like britain { April 13 2004 }
California driving privacy law { September 23 2003 }
Cell phone tracking device
Cia seeks to capture eye from distance { November 4 2003 }
Court says police can require ID
Cow retinal scan [jpg]
Fingerprints for bank accounts
Government restricts public photographing { May 23 2005 }
Homeland security opening private mail from abroad
Homeland security visits small toy store
Livestock retinal scan
Lockheed remote security blimps { October 1 2003 }
Microsoft helps authorities surveillance over computers { April 5 2006 }
Police random id checks show of force
Police use xrays at night clubs { April 14 2004 }
Privacy under threat in EU US report says { December 30 2007 }
Satellite toll to make drivers pay by the mile
Secret anti war activists airport ban
Secret searches are increasing under patriot act { May 2 2004 }
Secret service questions 15 year old for school art { April 26 2004 }
Supreme court backs police on showing ID
Undercover sheriff attending fresno peace meetings
Us requires fingerprints photos from foreign visitors

Files Listed: 25



Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security
Archives
Support one-state solution for Israel and Palestine Tea Party bumper stickers JFK for Dummies, The Assassination made simple