Department of Defense Awards Multimodal Biometric Recognition Contract to Spaceflight Systems, University of New Hampshire and FPR Corp
Spaceflight Systems Corporation of Bedford, New Hampshire in conjunction with the University of New Hampshire and FPR Corporation has received a Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) contract from the U.S. Army Research Office to develop a high confidence multimodal biometric recognition system.
Bedford, NH (PRWEB) February 4, 2005 -- Spaceflight Systems Corporation (SSC) of Bedford, New Hampshire in conjunction with the University of New Hampshire and FPR Corporation has received a highly competitive Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) contract from the U.S. Army Research Office to develop a high confidence multimodal biometric recognition system.
The goal of this STTR research contract is to develop a high confidence multimodal biometric recognition system based on the use of a single innovative algorithm that can be easily adapted to operate on a variety of biometric inputs. By combining biometric measurements, such as a person's face and fingerprint, a significant improvement in accuracy is expected. The U.S. Army Research Office is supporting the work with a $100,000 Small Business STTR grant.
The effort is also being supported by the New Hampshire Industrial Research Center. The IRC's mission is to assist New Hampshire industry in becoming more competitive, and thereby retain and increase industrial employment. The NHIRC helps companies by providing Technical Assistance Grants, Training and Market Research Assistance.
UNH Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Andrzej Rucinski has partnered with the SSC team to test the new biometrics technology that could improve homeland security while reducing its cost.
The system is based on an algorithm developed by FPR Corporation and has been proven to perform with superior results in preliminary testing when applied to fingerprint and face recognition. The University of New Hampshire has successfully used a modified version of the algorithm for high speed fingerprint authentication. The acronym used for the algorithm SEA", stands for Single Engine Adaptive. A single engine" does more than save money by having one machine do the work of two. It can also increase performance. Instead simply giving an answer for each biometric characteristic evaluated, which can be conflicting, the device can fuse them to give a single response.
This innovative technology will pave the way for a low cost hardware implementation, making it a viable approach for a wide range of biometric applications from broad-based low-end applications where cost is most critical to high-end systems where accuracy is most critical," said Dr. Sterling Eanes, President of Spaceflight Systems Corporation.
But the device would not need to have both types of data to function. In real life situations, sometimes you dont have a terrorists fingerprint," said Dr. Rucinski. Looking at more than one identifying characteristic will cut down on cases of mistaken identity. No single method is 100 percent right. We need multiple ways to recognize someone," said Dr. Rucinski.
The technology has thousands of potential applications, according to Dr. Rucinski. This could be used in ATMs, cars, computers, security area protection," he said. It recognizes patterns, so it could also have applications beyond identifying people, such as chemical analysis, signature recognition, or analyzing mammograms for better breast cancer diagnoses."
About Spaceflight Systems Corporation:
Spaceflight Systems Corporation is a high technology small business specializing in high performance embedded systems and software, located in Bedford, New Hampshire. More at http://ssc-nh.com
About FPR Corporation:
FPR Corporation is a high technology small business located in Merrimack, New Hampshire.
About University of New Hampshire:
The University of New Hampshire is a top-tier land-, sea-, and space-grant public university, serving more than 10,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students. More at http://www.unh.edu
About Department of Defense and U.S. Army Research Laboratory:
This project is sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Office and the content of the information contained in this press release does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the Government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.
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