BT/ Apple iPhones, iPads will soon be able to speak in your voice

May 22nd 2023

Biometrics biweekly vol. 64, 8th May — 22nd May

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TL;DR

  • Personal Voice is one of a handful of new assistive features that will arrive on Apple devices like iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers “later this year,” the company said
  • WhatsApp adds a new feature to lock private chats with biometrics
  • Mastercard launches open banking API to tackle fraud and ease onboarding
  • Crypto wallet firms integrate biometrics, zero-knowledge credentials for ID management
  • Neurotechnology launches biometric identity management system
  • OpenID recommends steps for governments to protect the privacy of digital IDs
  • Contactless provider Neurodactyl’s fingerprint recognition shows strong accuracy in the NIST test
  • Oura acquires Proxy, bringing digital ID applications to biometric smart ring
  • SOTI certifies Credence ID’s ECO authentication device for enterprise device management
  • Passkeys support coming to 1Password in June, BitWarden soon
  • Voiceprint BIPA case filed against Cerence. Plaintiffs include a minor riding in a car
  • HID Global’s multispectral fingerprint scanners score perfect Level 2 PAD assessment
  • Trua spun out to launch verified digital IDs for consumer applications
  • Worldcoin nears $100M funding round amid security concerns
  • Tech5 provides contactless biometrics, an issuance platform for student digital IDs in DRC
  • Kenya aims for ID issuance within three weeks, same-day birth registration
  • RecFaces face biometrics added to Dubai’s iSpace smart offices for access control
  • Veridium to provide authentication software to MTRX
  • TouchByte was bought by Salto for face biometrics integration with Cognitec
  • Keyless eyes global expansion after new partnerships with Experian, Synpulse
  • Palm and face biometric payments see more rollouts, plus a lawsuit in New York
  • Malaysian digital ID software maker Innov8tif finds a second buyer in a year
  • Mitek adds Dark Web intelligence to check and identity fraud protection tools
  • Idex reveals integration with STM, a Turkey deal, new enrollment method
  • Visa, Mastercard roll out a secure, seamless payment system for South Africa
  • ECB calls for digital ID, authentication experts to develop rules for digital euro
  • Italy advances, budgets for integration of digital IDs
  • Clearview has a regulatory friend in Austria but a cold shoulder for France
  • EU committee passes AI bill on for plenary vote; tightens rules for biometric use
  • Nigeria wants to begin producing biometric passport booklets at home
  • India launches Aadhaar operator training campaign to reduce errors
  • Jamaica digital ID to enhance social inclusion of vulnerable persons
  • Digital driver’s license getting closer in the Philippines
  • Albania updates biometric voting machines, process to thwart manipulation
  • UK’s first vote with photo ID requirement in the books; people turned away
  • UNICEF to support birth registration for 1M Nigerian children in 2023
  • G20 members urged to strengthen collaboration to develop scalable digital public goods
  • Social media will soon require ID verification in Vietnam
  • Czech banks to offer online account reactivation with iProov biometrics
  • ThreatFabric gets $12.5M to expand behavioral biometrics, analytics and global reach
  • Researchers have demonstrated that they can capture human genetic data, including medical and ancestry information, from tiny fragments of DNA from the environment using environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques
  • The electrical field created by fingerprint scanners from Integrated Biometrics for print capture kills the virus that causes COVID-19, a University of Missouri laboratory has confirmed
  • Biometric industry events. And more!

 

Biometrics Market

The Biometric system market size is projected to grow from USD 36.6 billion in 2020 to USD 68.6 billion by 2025; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 13.4% during the forecast period. Increasing use of biometrics in consumer electronic devices for authentication and identification purposes, the growing need for surveillance and security with the heightened threat of terrorist attacks, and the surging adoption of biometric technology in automotive applications are the major factors propelling the growth of the biometric system market.

 

Biometric Research & Development

Latest Research:

Breakthrough made in DNA capture

United States researchers have demonstrated that they can capture human genetic data, including medical and ancestry information, from tiny fragments of DNA from the environment using environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques.

The work has raised privacy, legal and ethical questions because captured data could be used relatively efficiently to surveil people of specific ancestral backgrounds or with particular medical conditions or disabilities.

It is also possible that eDNA technology could increase the urgency to enact comprehensive genetic privacy regulations, the New York Times reports.

The research was published this week in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution by a team led by an assistant professor at the University of Florida, David Duffy.

Environmental DNA detects traces of genetic material that all living things leave behind. The technology has been improved by scientists who use the method to track wildlife and monitor pathogens in wastewater systems. Environmental DNA can even capture genetic material from the air inside a building.

The U.S. researchers reportedly proved they can recover enough mitochondrial DNA from a small amount of water in a creek to generate a snapshot of the genetic ancestry of the population around the creek. One mitochondrial sample was even complete enough to meet the requirements for the federal missing persons database.

The research opens the possibility that law enforcement could use it to incriminate people. However, wildlife ecologists who developed the techniques say the science is not that mature.

 

Study shows fingerprint scanners from Integrated Biometrics protect against Covid

The electrical field created by fingerprint scanners from Integrated Biometrics for print capture kills the virus that causes COVID-19, a University of Missouri laboratory has confirmed.

Integrated Biometrics EVP of Solutions David Gerulski announced a collaboration between IB and the University of Missouri’s Laboratory for Infectious Disease Research during an ID4Africa livecast in 2020. Drs. Paul Anderson and Jeffrey Whyte conducted the research.

They tested a fingerprint scanner made by IB and featuring its Light Emitting Sensor (LES) technology. The electrical field killed more than 90 percent of coronavirus traces deposited by a user over the course of the two-second touch needed for accurate biometric identification. When the following scan again kills 90 percent of coronavirus particles, the protection of individuals against infection is calculated at 99 percent or higher.

The measurement is of coronavirus virions, which are viable samples of virus outside a host cell.

The test report describes the process and results, and makes clear that the device tested was IB’s Kojak scanner.

 

“Dr. Anderson and my area of expertise focuses on the examination of contagious illnesses and comprehending the ways in which a virus spreads,” says Dr. Whyte, University of Missouri. “The purpose of our investigation was to assess the effect on the SARS-CoV-2 virus when exposed to the LES technology. Results indicate that rapid identification through use of biometric scanners are both safe and effective while also reducing risk to public health and safety.”

Integrated Biometrics’ LES-based fingerprint scanners are used at the borders of more than 100 countries, including Clear’s MR kiosks, which are also deployed at arenas, and at border crossings managed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“After facing so many unknowns since the start of the pandemic, the findings announced today should ease public concern regarding transmission of COVID-19 via fingerprint scanning, and in turn increase efficiency at checkpoints,” says Fred Frye, chief scientist of Integrated Biometrics. “Additionally, our global customer base can take pride in knowing that the technology, which has been in the field for the last 20 years, has been providing a valuable service.”

 

Main News:

Apple will let you teach your iPhone to speak in your voice

Starting later this year, you’ll be able to type out a friendly greeting or your coffee order on an iPhone and hear your own voice — or something like it — speak it aloud.

It won’t require any additional apps or accounts, either; just a free software update from Apple.

Apple has developed a feature for iPhones, iPads and Macs that allows people at risk of permanent voice loss to create synthetic, sound-alike voice models. Assistive access in the Photos App is shown on the left and live speech during a FaceTime chat on the right. (Washington Post illustration; Apple)

To people who have full use of their voice, this tool — a feature the company calls Personal Voice — may not seem like much more than a clever curiosity. But for those who can no longer speak with the clarity or confidence they once did, tools like this could help them interact with the world, and the people in it, a little more easily.

Personal Voice is one of a handful of new assistive features that will arrive on Apple devices like iPhones, iPads and Mac computers “later this year,” the company said.

Apple wouldn’t elaborate on exactly when users could expect to try these tools for themselves, but the company often highlights features like these before they appear in new versions of its iOS, iPadOS, and macOS software, which historically launch in the fall.

To help you keep these new accessibility features straight — and to help flag ones you may want to use yourself — here’s our brief guide to the tools coming to an Apple device near you.

Live Speech

Once it’s enabled, you’ll be able to type out messages and remarks on an iPhone, iPad or Mac computer for the device to read out loud. And if there are certain sentences or phrases you find yourself relying on frequently, you can save these as shortcuts to play aloud with a tap.

Unless you create a Personal Voice model — which we’ll get to in a moment — you’ll hear Siri’s voice reading your words. This tool doesn’t just help when in-person conversations unfold — it also feeds that spoken audio into phone and FaceTime calls.

Apple’s Personal Voice feature must be trained on about 15 minutes of audio prompts you speak aloud. (Washington Post illustration; Apple)

Personal Voice

To make those Live Speech messages sound like you, you’ll have to create a Personal Voice model. While we haven’t gotten to try the feature for ourselves, the company claims an iPhone or iPad can create a sound-alike voice after it’s provided 15 minutes of spoken samples — in this case, a set of randomly chosen voice prompts. (Don’t worry — if you get busy or uncomfortable, you don’t have to finish the process in one sitting.)

Once that’s done, you can expect a bit of a wait — your device will chew on those samples overnight, after which you’ll be able to type out messages and hear them played back in your voice.

There’s just one more thing to keep in mind: When you build a Personal Voice model, it lives on whatever device you created it on by default. That means you’ll have to go through the training process again on any other device you want to use that model on unless you give explicit permission for it to be shared across devices.

Assistive Access

Designed for users with cognitive impairments, Assistive Access strips all the visual cruft out of the iPhone and iPad to give people a dead-simple way to interact with their device.

Consider your phone’s home screen, for example — you’re meant to choose a small number of apps you rely on to take center stage, with each getting an enormous app icon for easy visibility. Apple also streamlined how other common phone functions work — rather than asking you to make phone calls and FaceTime calls from different apps, for instance, you can set up a handful of favorite contacts for quick access. Tapping one of those names then brings up options for voice or video calls. Think of it as a sort of beginner’s mode for iPhones and iPads, and you’re on the right track.

Assistive Access also gives users a simplified messaging experience. (Washington Post illustration; Apple)

 

WhatsApp adds new feature to lock private chats with biometrics

Instant messaging giant WhatsApp says users around the world will soon be able to lock some of their intimate chats on the application using either a password or face or fingerprint biometrics.

The Meta-owned company announced in a blog post recently that it is introducing the ‘Chat Lock’ feature “which lets you protect your most intimate conversations behind one more layer of security.”

A hint about the new feature first dropped early in April.

The messaging platform has more than two billion users in over 180 countries around the world.

“Locking a chat takes that thread out of the inbox and puts it behind its own folder that can only be accessed with your device password or biometric, like a fingerprint. It also automatically hides the contents of that chat in notifications, too,” the company says.

WhatsApp believes the feature will be welcomed by people who let others use or hold their phones from time to time.

The company adds that more options will be included to Chat Lock as the months go by “including locking for companion devices and creating a custom password for your chats so that you can use a unique password different from the one you use for your phone.”

Chat Lock is one of four new features WhatsApp is adding to its platform.

Before this Chat Lock novelty, WhatsApp users were able to lock or unlock the application using biometrics, but not individual chat threads.

 

Mastercard launches open banking API to tackle fraud

A new solution promising ‘Open Banking for Account Opening’ has been introduced by Mastercard package customer identity verification with identity insights in a single API for easy onboarding and protection against fraud.

The API provides customer account ownership and digital identity verification in real-time, according to the announcement, helping banks and fintechs onboard customers to digital wallets, new bank or investment accounts, disbursements and account-based payments.

“At Mastercard, trust is our business. Our digital identity and open banking networks instill confidence on both sides of an interaction. By securing our online ecosystem, we are delivering on our promise to bring more people and businesses into the digital economy,” says Chris Reid, EVP of Identity Solutions, Mastercard.

Open Banking for Account Opening features checks against global data sources to generate risk scores. Mastercard utilizes behavioral biometrics from its subsidiary NuData Security for identity verification.

Mastercard subsidiary Finicity provides open banking technology.

 

Neurotechnology launches biometric identity management system

Lithuanian developer Neurotechnology has announced the launch of a new biometric identity management system (IDMS).

The tool, part of the MegaMatcher product line, can perform various end-user-focused tasks. From identity registry formation to comprehensive administration for civil and criminal applications, the tool can perform essential identity lifecycle procedures. These include registration, updates, status changes, history tracking, and other relevant activities, ensuring up-to-date and intuitive presentation of information.

“By introducing our cutting-edge MegaMatcher IDMS, we are greatly expanding the capabilities of our products ecosystem in the identity management domain,” explains Irmantas Naujikas, director for Neurotechnology. “Our solution will provide even more benefits in different ID projects.”

The system also offers a comprehensive set of biometric features. It includes a reportedly intuitive identity registration process, allowing accurate capture of the necessary information. Users can provide personalized biographic data to meet specific needs.

The MegaMatcher IDMS supports multiple biometric modalities, such as fingerprints, ICAO-compliant face photos, palmprints, and iris images.

Identity validation features built into the software prevent fraud attempts through liveness detection, age assessment, and quality evaluation. The software consolidates identity data from various sources into a single registry, removing duplicates and fraudulent records.

It also provides summarized statistics and reports to enable transparent data analysis for informed decision-making. Further, the system reportedly prioritizes security with encryption, integrity checks, and flexible deployment options for different hardware and software configurations.

 

Contactless provider Neurodactyl’s fingerprint recognition shows strong accuracy in NIST test

Although it was just founded in 2023, contactless fingerprint biometrics provider Neurodactyl says it has reached a top spot in NIST evaluations. The Tbilisi, Georgia-based startup ranked first for recognition accuracy for border control and visa application datasets in the NIST PFT III evaluation as of May 4, 2023.

The company’s contactless biometric capture technology allows for identification and verification just by holding a fingerprint in front of a mobile phone camera. Neurodactyl says its matching algorithms also recognize scans and photo images and can capture multiple fingerprints at once.

To achieve accuracy with challenging, poor-quality fingerprints, Neurodactyl applied new approaches in deep learning like GANs and diffusion models, the company says in a release.

Neurodactyl says in the announcement that its algorithm demonstrated the lowest missing rate for the most challenging fingerprint pairs in the datasets with flat fingerprints (“US Visit” and “The Port of Entry/BioVisa Application”). Only 0.37 percent of fingerprint templates were not recognized at a false acceptance rate of 0.01, and 0.52 percent at FAR 0.0001. Recognition by two fingers the missing rate is much lower: 0.06 percent and 0.08 percent at FAR 0.01 and 0.0001 respectively.

Besides high recognition accuracy, it also provides extremely fast matching, starting from 100 million matches per second, and a fixed-size template, meaning that biometric templates always have a standard size of 512 bytes. This makes it suitable for large-scale projects that have millions of users, according to the company.

Although contactless fingerprint accuracy has been increasing, recent tests from BixeLab have shown it is still not on par with contact systems, particularly for enrollment. Contactless fingerprint recognition, however, has become accurate enough for suitability to certain use cases.

 

SOTI certifies Credence ID’s ECO authentication device for enterprise device management

Credence ID’s handheld credential verification device, ECO, has been granted SOTI’s MobiControl certification. A company release announced that the Bay Area firm’s compact biometric authentication tool passes standards set out to ensure security, scalability and performance on SOTI MobiControl, as tested by SOTI’s engineers.

Among the Credence ECO’s multiple biometric modalities are an FBI-certified FIPS 201-compliant PIV thermal-capacitive fingerprint capture sensor, high-resolution facial recognition scanning with document authentication, compatibility with cellular networks, and a dual-interface contact and contactless smart card reader. The device runs the Android 11 operating system.

SOTI MobiControl is an Enterprise Mobility Management product that allows businesses to track and centrally manage their network of mobile devices.

“We are excited to announce our SOTI MobiControl certification,” says Bruce Hanson, CEO of Credence ID. “This certification underscores our commitment to providing our customers with the most secure and reliable biometric and mobile credential reading solutions. With this certification, we can now assure our customers that the ECO is not only feature-rich but also meets the highest standards for security and reliability.”

 

OpenID recommends steps for governments to protect the privacy of digital IDs

Technology is giving governments tools to protect the privacy of people using the digital credentials they issue, but a series of steps should be taken to make sure they are used and render them consistently effective, says a new white paper published by OpenID, titled ‘Government-Issued Digital Credentials and the Privacy Landscape.’

Contributors to the paper include the Better Identity Coalition, ID4Africa, the Kantara Initiative, the Open Identity Exchange, the Secure Identity Alliance, and the Trust Over IP Foundation, and it was edited by Heather Flanagan. Individual contributors acknowledged includes some of the most prominent names in digital identity worldwide, such as ID4Africa Executive Director Dr. Joseph Atick, Okta’s Vittorio Bertocci, Debora Comparin of Thales, Stephanie de Labriolle of the SIA, Drummond Reed of Gen Digital, and John Wunderlich of the Kantara Privacy Enhancing Mobile Credential Work Group.

The white paper is intended to consider the digital identities and credentials issued by governments in liberal democracies, where there are typically privacy laws and citizens have expectations of privacy.

The current landscape of government-issued digital IDs is reviewed, and the gaps and risks in it considered. A number of national and international regulations and standards have emerged to protect digital identities, though the report notes that some observers say they do not go far enough.

A variety of digital identity systems and applications were considered, from EU’s eIDAS regulation to Nigeria, where progress is being made on data privacy legislation, but it is not yet enacted. The privacy implications of technologies like digital wallets and protocols like SAML2 are discussed, and a privacy-enhancing architecture for mobile credentials presented developed by the Kantara working group.

Governments should improve the security and privacy posture of digital credential issuance, storage, verification and use, the paper recommends. This must include basic cybersecurity management, but also extend beyond it.

“There must also be a recognition of ongoing concerns around surveillance, the challenges of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the grey areas of legality, and the sustainability of legal protections in the face of changing administrations,” the paper argues.

The paper explains standards for biometrics and identity assurance, as well as the OSIA (Open Standard Identity APIs) initiative.

Risks that must be considered depend somewhat on the motivations of the government issuing the credentials, which vary, particularly between countries with developed and developing economies, according to the report. Risks are also inherent to many digital identity technologies, as a service that can use sensitive personal data for authentication or authorization could potentially store, correlate or distribute it.

Biometrics can introduce risks to privacy if data leaves the individuals’ device and is not stored properly, and while concepts like biohashing and revocable biometrics could help, there is little sign they are being widely adopted by governments.

The paper also touches on risks of data correlation and re-use and gaps in existing standards and laws.

 

These Weeks’ News by Categories

Access Control:

 

Consumer Electronics:

 

Mobile Biometrics:

 

Financial Services:

 

Civil / National ID:

 

Government Services & Elections:

 

Facial Recognition:

 

Fingerprint Recognition:

 

Liveness Detection:

 

Behavioral Biometrics:

 

Wearables:

 

Biometrics Industry Events

Seamless Middle East: May 23, 2023 — May 24, 2023

Biometrics Institute: Asia-Pacific Conference 2023: May 24, 2023 — May 25, 2023

Asia-Pacific Conference 2023: May 24, 2023 — May 25, 2023

Border Security Week: Jun 6, 2023 — Jun 7, 2023

Biometrics Institute: US Discussion Day 2023: Jun 21, 2023

Seamless Asia 2023: Jun 27, 2023 — Jun 28, 2023

ICT Spring: Jun 29, 2023 — Jun 30, 2023

Cyber DSA 2023: Aug 15, 2023 — Aug 17, 2023

BIOSIG 2023–22nd international conference of the biometrics special interest group: Sep 20, 2023 — Sep 22, 2023

AI and Big Data Expo Europe: Sep 26, 2023 — Sep 27, 2023

TRUSTECH: Nov 28, 2023 — Nov 30, 2023

AI and Big Data Expo Global: Nov 30, 2023 — Dec 1, 2023

Egypt Defence Expo — EDEX: Dec 4, 2023 — Dec 7, 2023

 

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