Facial Recognition Standards Adopted by DHS

The Department of Homeland Security has announced that it has adopted a biometric facial recognition standard.

The standard will be the same as international standards commonly used in passports. The standard, according to the DHS, "will also be used to specify definitions of photographic properties and digital image attributes, and as standards format for relevant applications, including human examination and computer automated face recognition."

The biometric standard is expected to be used by security product manufacturers in the design and development of cameras, software and other technology that records facial images. It will likely be used for terrorism watch lists as well as ID-to-person verification at sensitive areas such as airports.

The new standard was created by the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), a standards development organization. INCITS is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The standards is listed as INCITS 385, and can be purchased from the ANSI webstore, webstore.ansi.org and from INCITS, www.incits.org.