Mike White, Senior Product Manager from HID, Extended Access Technologies explores how biometric solutions present an effective approach to securing borders.
With the global population surging and international travel returning to 2019 levels – representing 3% (or $3.3 trillion) of global gross domestic product in 2023, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization – the ability to quickly and accurately identify and verify individuals at high volumes is more crucial than ever.
To manage the movement of citizens, immigrants and travelers across borders, the demand for secure, scalable and reliable systems is clear.
Biometric technologies are stepping up to meet this growing need, offering a powerful tool for governments to ensure national security, streamline immigration processes and enhance public safety.
Biometric technologies aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution.
Fingerprint scanning, for example, provides a highly accurate and reliable method of identification, while facial recognition – a growing popular option – excels at speed and convenience, particularly in high-volume settings.
Governments and organizations need to select the most suitable biometric solution to address their specific needs and priorities.
The technology requirements for civil ID programs are largely determined by the scale of the application.
Running a countrywide program that enrolls or provides an ID to all citizens in a country means meeting the challenges of high-scale deployments.
These challenges typically include scalability, portability, ease of use and total cost.
Civil registration projects typically include the entire adult population of the country or jurisdiction, giving it the highest scale of any use case.
This has propelled fingerprint biometrics to become the most widely used biometric modality for identity authentication and verification, due to its speed, ease-of-use, high accuracy, security and cost-effective nature.
Fingerprints are often chosen due to a range of benefits that align neatly with civil ID:
Ease of use – large-scale biometric enrollment campaigns depend on public cooperation for their success, so an easy process from beginning to end is crucial.
Fingerprint biometrics only requires the press of a finger for enrollment, authentication and identification.
Affordability – fingerprint scanners are more cost-effective than many other biometric devices—and a top option for situations where budgets are tight.
When standard mobile devices or laptop computers support fingerprint scanners, government agencies can leverage the computers they already have to enroll subjects and subsequently authenticate them, improving cost efficiency.
Portability and durability – fingerprint scanners are also portable enough to be deployed in the field.
This means having a biometric scanner that is durable enough to survive rough handling and challenging environments is important.
This characteristic is reflected in “ingress protection” (IP) rating, established by the International Electrotechnical Commission.
Interoperability – because they are fully integrated not just with each other, but also with the overall civil registry or ID system, biometric scanners and the database ensure consistent biometric information is shared across systems and devices.
This consistency is supported by international interoperability standards such as ISO/IEC 19794 and 39794, and the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), for example, which not only provides a standard for fingerprint image quality to support one-to-many matching, but also certifies devices that meet its standard.
This type of certification is an assurance that these devices will work with the other parts of the system, including templates previously collected on other compliant scanners.
Law enforcement agencies also face dynamic challenges and increasing criminal threats that transcend borders, sovereignty and jurisdictions.
In many countries, the primary gap in the process is the ability to definitively identify criminal suspects in a timely manner.
Failure to possess this simple, yet vital, capability can result in consequences that undermine the rule of law, including missed opportunities to apprehend suspects or the unwitting release of perpetrators.
To streamline crime scene investigations and improve evidence collection, it is important to add more flexibility and accuracy to criminal identification and booking.
This means addressing every phase of the digital identity management process, from ensuring the capture of the highest quality images during booking to crime scene latent image analysis.
Modern biometric systems address this need by offering versatile hardware systems that support fixed workstations at headquarters, portable units for field investigations and even mobile options for officers on patrol.
This flexibility ensures evidence capture no matter the location.
Additionally, the system can scan and upload legacy fingerprint and palm print cards, preserving historical data while transitioning to a digital format.
These user-friendly applications empower officers to capture high-quality digital fingerprints, palm prints and mugshots using field-proven solutions.
The system ensures data quality and adherence to standards through a reliable and repeatable process, minimizing training requirements for officers.
This translates to a modern digital system that maximizes law enforcement resources, saving time and money while facilitating a swifter path to justice through accurate and rapid identification of suspects.
Benefits of biometrics for law enforcement include:
Scalable and cost-effective: the system is adaptable to each agency’s needs, avoiding unnecessary upfront costs.
Flexible hardware options: from fixed workstations, portable units and mobile options, it allows for maximum versatility in investigations.
Real-time decision making: it offers instant search results and criminal history for faster, more informed actions.
Improved accuracy: automated processes minimize errors and enhance matching performance.
Global collaboration: the standards-based system facilitates secure interchange of biometric records with international partners, such as the FBI, Interpol and others for broader, more valuable searches.
Streamlined workflows: it ensures repeatable processes and efficient use of officer time boost productivity. This results in proper resource reallocation and more money saved.
Faster judicial process: expedited identification and booking lead to more solved crimes.
The fight to secure a country’s borders is a constant struggle.
In the US, the issue of managing borders has risen in national prominence in recent years and the need to modernize outdated systems and procedures to make room for efficiency is urgent.
In fact, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been investing billions of dollars on a biometric entry-exit program (one billion over a ten-year period, to be more precise).
So far, it has deployed facial biometrics into the entry processes at all international airports and into the exit processes at 49 airport locations, as well as in 38 seaports and all pedestrian lanes at both the Southwest Border and Northern Border ports of entry, the CBP reports its website.
The technology has prevented more than 1,900 impostors from entering the US, the CBP states.
But what are these facial cameras and how do they work?
Envision walking through immigration checkpoints without needing to show physical documents, all while maintaining layers of digital protection based on biometric credentials.
This is all possible with an AI-enhanced multispectral imaging (MSI) camera system for facial recognition, without the need for any further overhauls to existing infrastructure.
The camera identification system is based on fusion AI that combines the MSI approach spanning visible to near-infrared (NIR) lighting, along with modern AI and machine-learning algorithms to provide superior facial recognition and presentation attack detection (PAD) in environments with widely changing light conditions, from bright light to limited or no light conditions.
It supports a combination of camera sensing technology (RGB, active structured 3D depth sensing, high-resolution periocular and 2D NIR facial flood projection) and PAD algorithms to determine whether the image is an actual spoofing attack or a legitimate user.
These algorithms have been trained using an extensive, ethically sourced dataset with billions of images across a wide number of racial characteristics.
This includes male/female displayed gender and a broad age distribution across a wide variety of racial characteristics to ensure sufficient diversity of data against facial recognition matching bias.
As biometric technologies become an even more established method of enrollment and verification, the public will become increasingly familiar and comfortable with these systems.
This growing acceptance will pave the way for even more innovative and effective use cases to improve bureaucracies, minimize wait times, reduce paperwork inconveniences and ultimately create a more efficient experience for citizens worldwide.
This article was originally published in the May edition of Security Journal Americas. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.