BT/ Apple patent filing for under-display biometrics capture system published

April 10th 2023

Biometrics biweekly vol. 61, 27th March — 10th April

TL;DR

A new method for capturing face, fingerprint and iris biometrics from under the display of an electronic device is the subject of a patent application from Apple newly published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Linux Foundation Janssen Project earns digital public good status
WhatsApp looks to add more biometric security layers
Self-sovereign onboarding and login system developed by Iota Foundation and walt.id
BMW introduces biometrics to its motorcycles for unlocking security
Biocube scores US patent for its contactless, multi-model biometrics platform
Neurotechnology fingerprint biometric accuracy reaches new high in PFT III
Okta brings authentication to encrypted Zoom meetings
Suprema AI unveils new OEM module to advance face biometrics performance
Fingerprint Cards surpasses 1M sensor modules shipped for biometric payment cards
Innovatrics revealed as biometrics supplier for Albania’s elections
NADRA upgrades Pak-ID biometric app with document recognition and digital signatures
Au10tix collaborates with Microsoft on reusable decentralized digital ID for enterprises
IDEMIA launches two brand new contactless on-the-move biometric devices
Telpo adds FAP60 fingerprint scanning to multi-biometric tablet
Voice Biometrics Group academic partnership leads to IngenID launch
OCR Labs denies breach report details, patches vulnerability
Yoti improves accuracy and skin tone balance for age estimation
Zwipe partners on biometric access cards for the US, payment cards for the Middle East
FIDO passkey adoption surging in APAC with 2 big announcements
Hypr passwordless report uncovers pervasive insecure authentication practices
Arana Security pitches payment possibilities of contactless biometric solution
Nordsec, PayPal move forward with a passkey and passwordless authentication products
Facephi meeting dozens of potential UK face biometrics customers through an accelerator
1Kosmos’ selfie biometric platform gains traction in India
Intellicheck provides digital ID checks to prevent fraud at auto dealerships across the US
BioID pitching deepfake and liveness detection to the Portuguese market
Carahsoft, Okta, Socure partner to fight fraud against the US government
National digital identity is ‘extremely urgent,’ says Swedish government inquiry
Consortium to run large-scale pilots for EU Digital Identity Wallet
World Economic Forum panel pushes for blockchain-based decentralized digital ID
US organizations say they’ll build firmament for AI trust
Web payment security group agrees to 2 more years
SynSense secures $10M to advance low-power vision processing SoC to mass production
iProov awarded nearly $750K by DHS S&T in the fifth phase of funding
Bug bounty launched by Shufti Pro to stay ahead of cybersecurity vulnerabilities
New Zealand digital identity trust framework law passes
Miami police use Clearview’s facial recognition in shoplifting investigations
Uganda court accepts brief from rights groups on digital ID case
India plans to boost Family ID adoption, upgrade Aadhaar to streamline service delivery
Jamaica prepares for digital ID awareness campaign, biometric passport rollout
Cryptocurrency exchange BAM Trading Services — otherwise known as BinanceUS — and its identity verification vendor, Jumio, will face a proposed class action lawsuit filed under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA)
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

Main News:

Apple patent filing for under-display biometrics capture system published

A new method for capturing face, fingerprint and iris biometrics from under the display of an electronic device is the subject of a patent application from Apple newly published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The published patent application, spotted by Patently Apple, describes the use of infrared sensors, possibly quantum film infrared sensors, to capture various user biometrics, and possible hand gestures.

Quantum film is a kind of thin semiconductor film, made up of colloidal quantum dots, mechanically and electronically bound together, which absorbs light, according to the filing for ‘Electronic Devices Having Quantum Film Infrared Sectors.’ Light sources and photodetectors could be built into the film, emitting and sensing infrared light through the display surface.

Proximity sensing and distance measurement could be used to capture two- or three-dimensional images of objects and their features, with fingerprints, faces and gestures all noted as examples.

The latest rumors have Apple waiting until at least 2025 to implement under-display biometrics, with Face ID continuing to operate from a notch cut out of the display area until then.

As always with patents, it is worth bearing in mind that even the inventions of companies that exist to make things, rather than simply sue other organizations, may never be used in the development of a commercial product.

A patent infringement complaint alleging that supermarket chain Publix violates a biometric authentication patent held by Jabaa LLC as successor-in-interest has been filed in Georgia, reports Lexology.

Jabaa, LLC v. Publix Super Markets, Inc. was filed over the grocery chain’s app’s suggestion to customers to pay for their sale with their mobile devices.

The complaint alleges one direct and one indirect infringement of the ‘Internet Transaction Authentication Apparatus, Method, And System For Improving Security Of Internet Transactions’ patent.

An online search reveals that Jabaa LLC has filed complaints against several other well-known retailers, like Kroger and Lululemon, with the former still before the court and the latter recently dismissed.

PACid Technologies alleges that the use of Fast Identity Online (FIDO) authentication protocols by a major financial institution violated its intellectual property rights, based on six different patents it owns.

The patents cover software applications giving users the option to log into bank accounts with fingerprint or face biometrics, PACid claims, according to JD Supra.

Linux Foundation Janssen Project earns digital public good status

The Linux Foundation Janssen Project, a low-code digital ID software platform developed in partnership with Gluu, has been adjudged as a digital public good (DPG) following a review by the Digital Public Good Alliance (DPGA).

According to a press release, the recognition means the Janssen Project initiated in 2020 meets the DPG Standard to ensure that digital ID systems truly encapsulate open-source principles.

The move is part of the DPGA’s objective of promoting digital public goods as a way of creating a more equitable world and increasing the visibility and prominence of open projects that have the potential to tackle global challenges and provide practicable solutions to daily problems using digital technology.

It also underpins the importance that the DPGA attaches to open-source principles and community governance as key features of digital identity infrastructure.

The Janssen Project, according to the announcement, is consistent with this, as the system is designed to enable governments set up the most secure, user-friendly, and cost-effective platforms for citizen identity while maintaining the flexibility to evolve in the face of the torrential pace of innovation in biometrics, FIDO (device-based) technology, and artificial intelligence.

“We’re thrilled that the Janssen Project was recognized as a DPG by the Digital Public Goods Alliance,” says Mike Schwartz, CEO and founder of Gluu, and chair of the Janssen Project Steering Committee, in a statement. “This recognition validates the governance of our project and the professionalism with which the engineers maintain and innovate the code. Janssen is a serious piece of software with almost 32 thousand commits in the GitHub project. It’s relied on today by governments, financial institutions, and large private-sector enterprises.”

WhatsApp looks to add more biometric security layers

WhatsApp subscribers reportedly will be able to biometrically lock individual chats, according to Android Police, filling a perceived security gap in Meta’s popular messaging service, which is known to tout its privacy safeguards.

WhatsApp can be unlocked with a passcode, fingerprint, or face. But subscribers cannot use biometrics to lock individual chat threads. That may change with the next update to Play Store, version 2.23.8.2, which reportedly will incorporate a toggle, now in development, to lock and hide chats with a fingerprint or passcode.

The news is welcome to those who trust what Meta maintains is the app’s security superiority. It includes two-factor authentication, end-to-end encrypted backup and fingerprint lock. In an Instagram post from October, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that “WhatsApp is far more private and secure than iMessage,” Apple’s instant messaging product. But WhatsApp has lagged competitors like Telegram in incorporating advanced biometric features.

Self-sovereign onboarding and login system developed by Iota Foundation and walt.id

The Iota Foundation has partnered with walt.id, which bills itself as a provider of identity and NFT infrastructure for developers, to launch a new solution that they say brings privacy protection and self-sovereign identity to identity and access management.

The new Login with Iota is an onboarding solution for Web2 and Web3, according to a blog post.

Iota notes the increased traction SSI is getting in government projects in the EU in the post, and its request for proposals a year ago for companies to join it in incorporating SSI into IAM.

Walt.id was awarded the project last June, and developed the IDP Kit as an identity provider compliant with OpenID Connect to enable the use of Verified Credentials with legacy IAM solutions. It provides an implementation of the Iota Identity Framework in its Wallet Kit and SSI Kit for developers to build applications enabled for the Self-Issued OpenID Connect Protocol (SIOP). Developers can create and register a Decentralized Identifier (DID) on the Iota Network, and then issue and verify VCs based on an Iota identity, the post says.

Users can issue VCs for access management, verify them against dynamic policies, and build identity wallets to store and manage them.

The partners have released a demo video for Web3 applications of Login With Iota, and documentation for Web2 apps.

Suprema AI unveils new OEM module to advance face biometrics performance

Suprema has unveiled its new OEM module to advance facial recognition performance, and demonstrated its new BioStation 3 product. In addition, the company’s fingerprint technology has been integrated by Vertiv to launch a smart fingerprint rack access control system for use in India.

The Q-Face Pro OEM facial recognition module was launched by Suprema AI to meet the rising demand for contactless security solutions in the post-Covid world, according to the announcement. The product was officially unveiled at ISC West, North America’s largest security exhibition, on March 29th, 2023.

The company says that Q-Face Pro features a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) and an AI-based facial recognition algorithm, providing performance for up to 50,000 users. Moreover, the company says it can detect counterfeit faces and validate users’ identities when wearing face masks, differing hairstyles, hats or glasses.

According to the company, Q-Face Pro meets European GDPR requirements. It features a Secure Element (SE) chip and user-face data encryption technology. It provides contactless authentication methods, such as QR codes, barcodes and face recognition.

The company says the AI face recognition product is suitable for use in various settings such as access control, time and attendance tracking, customer management, data centers, ATMs, unattended vending machines, door locks, vehicles and IoT.

Suprema has also introduced the BioStation 3, the first of its 3rd generation readers at ISC West 2023 in Las Vegas, NV. This new device features facial recognition processed by deep learning AI-based engine inside a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to offer anti-spoofing detection technology, the company says. The contactless biometric terminal was originally announced in November.

President of Suprema America, Bob McKee, says, “We have a reputation of being a top 50 global security company for the last 12 years, and are committed to build our brand and invest in the North American market.”

According to the company, ‘BioStation 3’ supports multiple credentials, such as facial recognition, RFID, mobile and QR codes. It also features VoIP Intercom and real-time video monitoring capabilities, making it a multi-functional reader.

Biocube scores US patent for its contactless, multi-model biometrics platform

Biocube Technologies Inc., which provides AI-powered digital identity and access management products, has been awarded a U.S. patent for its distributed architecture-based contactless multifactor biometrics platform.

According to an announcement from the India-based firm, the patent was filed in August 2020 (through its Delaware office) and approved by the US Patent and Registration Office on March 28, 2023.

The patent states that Biocube’s authentication system “comprises a biometric engine, a local database, a requesting module, and an authentication engine,” which will locally store and authenticate user data.
According to the patent, the invention’s primary objective is “to provide a safe and secured method and system of biometric authentication of personal documents or data of the user at user device without sharing or storing such documents or data with third party servers.”

The system coordinates between a user’s mobile device and a local database where user biometric ID is stored, via a client application.

Neurotechnology fingerprint biometric accuracy reaches new high in PFT III

Neurotechnology claims it has returned to “first place” in the accuracy of its fingerprint biometrics according to an evaluation from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The result of the latest PFT-III evaluation shows the clearest advantage for Neurotechnology in the comparison against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) dataset, with a false non-match rate (FNMR) of 0.007 at a false match rate (FMR) of 0.0001.

NIST tests proprietary fingerprint algorithms against four different datasets, and Neurotechnology says its latest algorithm achieved the highest accuracy scores in most.

Neurotechnology says in its announcement that its algorithms consistently led PFT III evaluations over several years, but its position was recently challenged, apparently referring to a submission by Rank One.

“We were intrigued to see other submissions challenge our algorithm, which has been the leader in the evaluation for years,” says Evaldas Borcovas, biometric research lead at Neurotechnology. “As competition arises, so does our team’s motivation and dedication to push the boundaries of our technology even further, and we are thrilled to be at the top of the PFT III evaluation once again.”

US organizations say they’ll build firmament for AI trust

The United States technology standards body has published the first version of its AI risk management framework playbook. It is part of the agency’s effort to present a coherent message about creating trustworthy AI.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has introduced the so-called Trustworthy and Responsible AI Resource Center.

Mozilla, the nonprofit creator of the Firefox browser, is similarly inspired. Executives say they have budgeted $30 million to build trustworthy and open-source AI called Mozilla.ai.

According to a NIST statement, officials intend to populate the center with “foundational content, technical documents and toolkits.” It will point AI builders, regulators and researchers to resources including metrics, datasets and standards.

One of the dangers of the AI community today is that is comprised of everything from comparatively long-established corporate teams to individuals experimenting with algorithms. The resource center by itself will not create a community with shared aims in terms of safety, but it presents a new, single point of reference and communication.

Indeed, the framework in question is voluntary. It is designed as a guide for implementing “key building blocks” for trust in AI.

Web payment security group agrees to 2 more years

An industry agreement first signed in 2019 to encourage collaboration on developing better e-commerce check-outs has been renewed.

The signers are payments vendor EMVCo, the standards group the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the authentication community the FIDO Alliance. The collaboration, which will now continue to improve commerce processes, is called the Web Payments Security Interest Group.

The trio has a number of individual efforts and initiatives as well. Above everything else, the group works on finding new business opportunities for each of the three’s core technologies.

The group is bringing more to the table at the time of renewal than when they originally teamed up, with W3C’s DIDs gaining traction and the adoption of FIDO technologies rapidly increasing.

A statement published by EMVCo states that the group will continue to focus on a couple of topics in particular.

It is not surprising that one of them is building better consumer privacy and authentication while minimizing headaches for consumers.

SynSense secures $10M to advance low-power vision processing SoC to mass production

Neuromorphic engineering company SynSense has announced the close of its $10M Pre-B+ round with funding led by Ausvic Capital.

The company has developed ultra-low-power AI chips, driven by its goal to enable neuromorphic intelligence at the network edge, the company says.

“Several current markets have strong demands for ultra-low power chips to move compute and sensory processing to the extreme network edge,” says Ray Li, a senior investment analyst at Ausvic Capital. “The neuromorphic approach of SynSense stands out as a promising path towards achieving this goal.”

According to the company, the proceeds from this funding round will accelerate mass production of its Speck chip, an event-driven, ultra-low-power smart vision processing System-on-Chip (SoC). The company says this chip combines the latest event-based image sensing technology with a 320,000-neuron processor to deliver real-time vision processing at milliwatt power consumption.

SynSense says its technology is inspired by information perception and processing in biological brains and significantly reduces dependence on cloud computing.

SynSense also plans to use the funds to bring its Xylo family of ultra-low-power devices for low-dimensional signal processing into mass production. The company says Xylo-Audio will enter markets in the second half of this year.

The company has established partnerships with companies, including BMW and CETHIK.

Last year, SynSense announced a partnership with BMW to explore the integration of their brain-like chips into smart cockpits. This was SynSense’s first venture into the field of smart cockpits.

The company says Speck enables real-time visual information capturing, object recognition and detection, and other vision-based detection and interaction functions for BMW.

Bug bounty launched by Shufti Pro to stay ahead of cybersecurity vulnerabilities

Shufti Pro is launching a bug bounty program to help prove and improve the security and reliability of its biometric identity verification software.

Shufti Pro partnered with Bugcrowd to launch the program. Ethical hackers and cybersecurity researchers will be invited to perform penetration tests (pentests) on Shufti Pro’s software in a test environment.

Those finding hidden vulnerabilities will receive a financial reward. Bounty award amounts were not disclosed.

The ultimate goal is stronger trust in Shufti Pro’s KYC, KYB, KYI, and AML services, according to the announcement.

Bugcrowd’s platform is used by numerous businesses, from Accenture and Amazon Web Services to VMWare and Zoom.

The new program aligns with recent developments like Shufti Pro’s ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification and the launch of a risk assessment service to assist organizations in identifying potential risks and complying with KYC and AML regulations.

The company also released its Identity Fraud Report 2022 last month to help organizations understand the actions they need to take to protect against digital identity fraud and financial crime.