DoD Awards Contract for Advanced Biometric ID System

The Department of Defense, through the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, this week awarded Ultra-Scan Corporation and the University at Buffalo's Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors (CUBS) a contract to develop a multi-biometric identification system.

The Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) contract, awarded this week, is focused on combining biometric measurements, such as a person's fingerprint and signature, to improve accuracy and processing speed.

The project builds on an ongoing initiative between the U.S. Army and Ultra-Scan to develop and deliver a highly accurate two-finger fingerprint scanner.

"While it is quite possible that the signatures of two individuals may be very similar, the chances that both their signatures and fingerprints are alike are very remote," said Venu Govindaraju, Ph.D., UB professor of computer science and engineering and director of CUBS. "Together, Ultra-Scan and CUBS are developing the science and the mathematics that will allow us to establish the optimal method of combining biometrics in a single system."

Research is also aimed at minimizing the effects that changes in human characteristics, such as age and weight or the effects of injuries, pose for accurate measurement and identification.

Biometrics-based access control systems have not been broadly deployed in large-scale applications, according to the DoD, primarily due to the wide variation in accuracy single biometric technology applications.