Biometrics Figure Prominently in Government ID Plans in India and New Zealand | Voice Biometrics News & Events

Biometrics Figure Prominently in Government ID Plans in India and New Zealand

2011 September 2

tags: biometric Identification, government services, Multi-factor authentication

by Derek Top

Multimodal authentication, including voiceprints, figures prominently in an initiative for New Zealand Post (a private company that acts as the country’s postal service) to offer a “password and digital photo service through its storefronts (aka post offices). The service is being trialed at 14 PostShop Kiwibank stores across the country as the next step in providing fuller identity verification for customers. The stores are listed in this article.

The core technology is from Daon, an identity assurance software provider with offices in Washington DC, New York, Canberra, Singapore, London and Dublin. According to reports it is capable of taking and storing digital photos, as well as capturing fingerprints and voice samples for identification purposes. The company also reports that it has won a major contract with the New Zealand Department of Labour to support the Immigration Biometrics Evaluation contract, which will collect, store and match finger and face biometric data using fixed, portable and handheld biometric capture stations.

A report by Lydia Polgreen in The New York Times describes the initiatives by the government of India to build a database of biometric data on 1.2 billion identities, keyed to a 12-digit universal identification number. The Indian government has dispatched “a small team of elite bureaucrats” to build the database. According to a press release issued in July, 2010, Daon’s IdentityX platform is at the core of India’s UID program.

Neither voice biometrics, nor voiceprints are mentioned in the context of India’s UID initiative. But the platform is designed to support multiple biometric factors and, in the past, the company has announced partnerships with biometric engine providers, including Agnitio for voice biometric identification.

via voicebiocon.com