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IDEMIA launches VisionPass facial recognition

IDEMIA has launched its VisionPass facial recognition solution in Africa, offering secure and contactless access control to companies of all sizes and in all markets. Hi-Tech Security Solutions spoke to Nicolas Garcia, sales director (Biometric Terminals), Middle East & Africa at IDEMIA to find out more about VisionPass.

Garcia explains, “VisionPass is a facial recognition device, designed with and for our clients, with speed, hygiene and performance in mind. It builds on IDEMIA’s experience in biometrics and expands upon our facial recognition algorithms.

“For us, frictionless means more than contactless, it is the combination of security, speed and convenience for a better user experience. VisionPass is IP65 certified which means that it is fit for both indoor and outdoor purposes. It includes a variety of technologies to ensure that people are accurately identified within a wide range of uncontrolled conditions, such as light and weather.”

To ensure the accuracy and security of its facial recognition capabilities, the device includes a camera set that takes 2D, 3D and Infrared images, analyses and compares them to make sure that there is a real person in front of the device and that the correct person is identified. Additionally, the system ensures that identification still takes place accurately, no matter what the person may be wearing, for example, spectacles or a cap etc.

Garcia explains that the mix of the three technologies (2D, 3D and Infrared), ensures that one cannot use a picture, whether printed or on digital media, or a video (which is an aggregation of 2D pictures), or even a 3D mask to gain access. The 3D camera picks up several thousand points on a face and ensures consistency of the information and therefore that the person is physically present. The infrared camera ensure that one can be identified even when lighting conditions are not optimal.

To ensure that it can handle all scenarios, Garcia says the wide-angle capture enables frictionless access to people between 120 cm tall (for someone in a wheelchair, for example), up to 200 cm. “The users don’t need to adjust or compensate for the VisionPass device, the device adjusts for them.”

While there are some companies offering enrolment for facial recognition via a ‘selfie’, Garcia explains that this is basically a 2D picture which can easily be manipulated for fraudulent purposes. “Although we recognise the convenience of using 2D pictures, we currently make use of the 3D functionality within VisionPass to raise the level of security and to ensure the person is physically in front of the reader.”

Nicolas Garcia.

For this reason, enrolment of people is done quickly and easily in front of the VisionPass device. This adds further security features for the individual and the company, such as the processing and encoding of templates on the device, which can be transferred through a secured network to a server for user rights management.

“VisionPass is aimed at environments where hygiene and security is a concern and where the use of fingerprints is not possible or not recommended,” adds Garcia. “It is specifically adapted for high throughput areas, being able to handle up to 30 people per minute.”

Additionally, he explains, “To facilitate integration into existing access control systems, VisionPass follows the IDEMIA philosophy in that it can be integrated with a range of management platforms, whether our own MorphoManager or any of our partners’ platforms.”

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