Neurotechnologija Releases Smartcard Face-Match Add-on for the Implementation of Biometric Face-on-Smartcard Verification Systems

VILNIUS, Lithuania - Neurotechnologija, a provider of high-precision biometric identification technologies, today announced the availability of the Smartcard Face-Match add-on for the company’s VeriLook and MegaMatcher face identification engines. Like the Smartcard Finger-Match add-on released last month, Smartcard Face-Match stores and verifies biometric facial information on a smartcard, allowing individuals to maintain and protect their own information. Smartcard Face-Match provides an extra level of security compared to either smart cards or face identification alone, and when coupled with Neurotechnologija’s powerful VeriLook or MegaMatcher face template generation algorithms, Smartcard Face-Match provides fast, accurate and reliable facial identification for applications such as secured entry, computer system user authentication, financial transactions and medical data access among others.

Unlike simple face identification systems, which store, retrieve and match biometric facial information on the camera/scanner side of the system, Smartcard Face-Match uses match-on-card technology to store the original reference template of unique biometric information, in this case a face template, right on the smartcard. A microprocessor embedded in the card does the matching of face templates so that personal biometric information does not transfer to an external computer as it would in a more basic template-on-card system.

A system using Smartcard Face-Match screens a subject by first taking a digital photograph of the subject’s face (most standard digital cameras, webcams and security cameras can be used). The face’s biometric features (also known as a candidate template) are passed to the smart card where the matching process against the reference template stored on the card takes place. The only information that is passed back to the external reader is the final verification decision. The user is provided access to the confidential information or services for which authentication was required only if the verification decision is positive.

Similar to Smartcard Finger-Match, the new Smartcard Face-Match technology offers several advantages over simple smartcard or face identification systems, including:

– Enhanced security – two-factor authentication checks both the validity of the smartcard and the identity of the person presenting the card; – Privacy – the original template remains on the smartcard, providing a safeguard against misuse of information or fraudulent scanning systems; – Integration – implementing the system will not require major overhauls of existing infrastructure.

“We are pleased to release our second offering in the area of biometric smartcard technology,” said Algimantas Malickas, CEO of Neurotechnologija. “Both the Smartcard Finger-Match and Smartcard Face-Match add-ons take advantage of our fast and accurate algorithms to provide an added measure of security and privacy for users and offer a great opportunity for developers and system integrators who want to provide this technology to their customers.”

The matching algorithm may be used on any smart card implementing the JavaCard 2.2.1 standard and having 9.2 KB of EEPROM and 525 bytes of RAM (these cards are widely available) and can perform verification on the card in circa 0.8 seconds. Thus, it enables verification-on-card solutions with smartcards that have a smaller size of persistent and transient memory available. The add-on was developed utilizing a set of ISO/IEC standards (7816-3:2006, 7816-4:2005, 7816-11:2004) enabling easy integration into existing smart card and/or biometrical systems.

About Neurotechnologija

Neurotechnologija provides biometric fingerprint and face identification algorithms and software development products to security companies, system integrators and hardware manufacturers. More than 1000 system integrators and fingerprint sensor providers worldwide integrate Neurotechnologija’s technologies into their own products.

Drawing from years of academic research in the fields of neuroinformatics, image processing and pattern recognition, Neurotechnologija was founded in 1990 in Vilnius, Lithuania and released its first fingerprint identification system in 1991. Since that time Neurotechnologija has released more than 30 products and version upgrades for identification and verification of personal identity. For more information, visit: www.neurotechnologija.com.