Gemalto Shines at Homeland Security 2018 Biometric Rally

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

It was a good outing for Gemalto as its Facial Recognition Solution performed well at the 2018 biometrics rally sponsored by the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) in conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Twelve companies were chosen out of a pool of applicants to showcase their facial recognition technology to address the growing challenge of traveller identification and automated border control.

Each company also had to meet several listed requirements such as time restraints, unmanned operation, and limited physical footprint. They were also evaluated in three categories: efficiency, satisfaction, and effectiveness.

The 2018 rally was done at the Maryland Test Facility (MdTF) which provides a controlled environment for laboratory evaluation and operational scenario-based testing of various biometric entry and exit concepts of operation under simulated airport conditions.

Gemalto created a solution using Live Face Identification System (LFIS) as the core technology to meet the 2018 biometric rally requirements, and the solution outperformed the average range for most metrics in addition to a 99.44 percent successful acquisition rate in less than 5 seconds compared to the average of 65 percent.

Gemalto, also known as ‘Castle’ in the anonymized results shared by the sponsors performed exceptionally well. Gemalto’s solution had the leading result for FtAR (see table) for both under 5 and 20 seconds and Face vTIR (see table) for under 5 and 20 seconds.

Regarding Face mTIR and efficiency metrics Gemalto was one of only 2 vendors to meet the goal.

Facial recognition is positioned to grow over 20 percent a year from 2016 to 2022¹ over a broad spectrum of use cases.

In addition to security at the border, LFIS can improve the traveller’s experience from curb to gate to curb by introducing self-service bag drop, speeding up security lines and even enabling biometric boarding. The technology is hardware and camera agnostic and can be used with enrolment and document verification as well. The technology can be used for other business cases where a biometric identity check is required to verify access to secure premises.

“We’re thrilled with the outstanding results our solution achieved at the 2018 rally,” said Neville Pattinson, senior vice president of Federal Government Sales for Gemalto. “Given the success of LFIS, we see this as a secure and efficient solution for government entities to interact with citizens. It can also revolutionize the air, land and sea passenger, international border, and security checkpoint experiences with increased security and added convenience to travellers.”