MULTI MODAL TECHNOLOGY MAKES BIOMETRICS WORK SAYS AURORA DEFENSE

“If you want to be successful with biometric technology,” says Aurora Defense LLC of Bethesda, Maryland, “you need multi-modal technology. Single mode biometrics cause too many problems and come up short in field tests.”

(PRWEB) February 18, 2002

Washington DC – “If you want to be successful with biometric technology,” says Aurora Defense LLC of Bethesda, Maryland, “you need multi-modal technology. Single mode biometrics cause too many problems and come up short in field tests.”

A single-mode biometric is a biometric that tests only one biometric feature. Examples of single mode biometrics are fingerprints or iris scans. Each of these relies on a certain unique biological feature. But if that feature does not test well, then the biometric either will give a false-negative, that is reject the person unfairly, or a false-positive, that is to approve the person incorrectly. Another problem with single-mode biometric systems is that they can induce delays in processing as a machine “tries” to read a fingerprint, do a face scan, or check some other biometric feature. This can lead to long lines and problems at busy locations.

“A true multimodal biometric system” says Aurora Defense, “combines different biometrics in a scientific manner so that one test supports another, raising the level of accuracy while, at the same time, operating in a more reliable manner.”

Steven King, a key Defense Department official for Critical Infrastructure Protection, recently told the Biometrics Consortium Council in Arlington, Virginia, that single-mode biometric technology did not work nearly as well as advertised. Two systems were tested by the Army Research laboratory in pilot studies, and neither performed well. For example, according to King, a single mode face recognition system tested over a 13 week period recognized individuals only 51 percent of the time. Clearly this is unacceptable for any access control system.

Aurora Defense is partnered with BioID, the only multi-modal biometric technology on the market. It combines face recognition, voice recognition and lip movement to provide a very high level of accuracy and reliability. “We think multi modal biometric technology is the wave of the future,” says Aurora’s Managing Director, Dr. Stephen D. Bryen, a former senior Defense Department official.

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