Contactless Smart Cards, RFID, Payment, Transit and Security

New Zealand government has concerns over SmartGate

Monday, April 5, 2010

The New Zealand Labour Department had concerns over the country’s customs department purchase of SmartGate technology, according to a news report from Timaru Herald. The SmartGate technology enables Australian and New Zealand travelers with electronic passport to have expedited processing through customs.

The Labour Department has concerns because the technology may need to be upgraded to read fingerprint and iris biometrics, which may be costly. The system now checks the digital photo on the ePassport against the individual standing in front of the kiosk.

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Morpho announced that Australia’s Customs and Border Protection Service signed a five year agreement for service of the SmartGate automated biometric security checkpoint solution.

The SmartGate technology operates in real-time utilizing facial recognition hardware that compares the captured data of a traveler to the data contained on the chip embedded on his e-passport. Australian Customs and Border Protection Service says that implementation of Morpho’s solution has proven to be a successful way for Australian Border Protection agents to cope with growing traveler numbers while improving traveler experience at borders and maintaining the high-levels of security they demand.  

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded Accenture Federal Services a 13-month, $71 million contract to add biometric modalities and other enhancements to the US-VISIT program. US-VISIT uses digital fingerprints and photographs. A pilot program included in the contract will test facial and iris voluntary identification enrollment and matching.

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New Zealand’s government has passed legislation to enable Immigration New Zealand (INZ) to store photos of all non-New Zealanders entering the country as well as require fingerprint samples in some circumstances.

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Neurotechnology announced that it has developed three versions of embedded solutions for Android-powered devices such as smart phones and tablets.

Specifically, Neurotechnology has ported its VeriFinger Embedded software development kit (SDK), which authenticates user identities via fingerprints, VeriLook Embedded SDK, which authenticates user identities via facial recognition, and MegaMatcher Embedded SDK, which authenticates user identities via both fingerprints and facial recognition. A version that utilizes iris recognition also is in the works.

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A new Morpho company under the Safran group has been launched called MorphoTrust USA.

The new company, which was formed after the acquisition of three divisions and the headquarters of former biometrics developer L-1 Identity Solutions, will serve as an identity solutions provider dedicated to the U.S. market only.

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New Zealand border officials are seeing half of travelers through airports use SmartGates, the automated checkpoints that use the chip on e-passports and facial recognition to confirm a traveler’s identity, according to a Dominion Post article.

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