Galway Bay fm newsroom - Technology developed in Galway is to be used to support a major US intelligence project.
NUI Galway partner, Compact Imaging, is teaming up with SRI International to develop improved detection of attempts to evade or deceive security systems, such as fingerprint identification scanners.
The NUI Galway technology has been selected as a critical component in the development of ‘dynamic biometrics.'
It's part of the US Government’s Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity - the Odin Program.
The goal of the program is to develop advanced technologies to detect attempts to deceive biometric security systems
Conventional biometrics, such as fingerprint, iris and face, rely on static surface images of human tissue.
In 2015 the US Customs and Border Protection Agency processed nearly 400 million people entering the US.
Almost 40 million required a “secondary inspection” because of suspicious behaviour or 'adverse information' in the primary screening process.
'MRO' directly detects fake fingerprints, determines liveness and images tissue in depth to reveal sub-dermal fingerprints.
By analyzing factors such as changes in heart rate, perspiration and blood flow, the system will reliably detect whether these tissues are real or being faked.
This project will capitalise on rapid advances in Optical Coherence Tomography, the world’s fastest growing medical imaging technology.
The work is supported by the Tissue Optics and Microcirculation Imaging (TOMI) group at NUI Galway.
