Facial recognition technology leads to arrest in bank robbery
(Tampa Tribune, May 07, 2009)
Using a vast database that contains more than six million images of criminals, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office today helped south Florida detectives arrest a man wanted in connection to a bank robbery.
Health care reform tied to IT
(Federal Computer Week, May 08, 2009)
The Obama administration’s drive to use $19 billion in economic stimulus law funds to implement electronic health records is closely linked to the administration’s agenda for broad health care reform, a top official said today.
HHS Announces Members of Committees That Will Advise on Implementation of Health IT
(Press Release, May 08, 2009)
The Department of Health and Human Services today announced the appointment of three members to the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee as well as members of the HIT Standards Committee.
Brain scanning may be used in security checks
(guardian.co.uk, May 10, 2009)
Distinctive brain patterns could become the latest subject of biometric scanning after EU researchers successfully tested technology to verify identities for security checks.
Rural India Biometric Test Set
(American Banker, May 11, 2009)
Nine Indian banks are planning to test biometric cards as a way to deliver financial services to rural people, according to the country's central bank.
BIO-key(R) Enters Strategic Partnership With Nlets
(PR Newswire, May 11, 2009)
BIO-key International, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: BKYI), a leader in finger-based biometric identification and wireless public safety solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with Nlets. Nlets is the premiere interstate justice and public safety data communications network for the exchange of law enforcement, criminal justice, and public safety-related information.
Homeland Security Committee Schedule - May 11-15
(Department of Homeland Security, May 10, 2009)
Full Committee Hearing “The President’s FY 2010 Budget Request for the Department of Homeland Security”
Facial recognition technology leads to arrest in bank robbery
Publisher: Tampa Tribune
May 07, 2009
Using a vast database that contains more than six million images of criminals, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office today helped south Florida detectives arrest a man wanted in connection to a bank robbery.
North Miami Police detectives had high-quality video of the suspect from the May 1 heist but didn't have a name. Scott McCallum of the sheriff's technical services division got the request from North Miami detectives this morning and ran the surveillance photo of the man through the database.
The Pinellas sheriff's facial recognition database is the largest in the country. McCallum was able to come up with several possible matches and provide North Miami authorities with a photo pack, the sheriff's office said.
Using the photos, witnesses identified George Meulener as the man who robbed the North Miami bank, the sheriff's office said.
The request for the photos came at about 9 a.m. today; Meulener was arrested at work by 1 p.m., authorities say.
Health care reform tied to IT
Publisher: Federal Computer Week
May 08, 2009
By Alice Lipowicz
The Obama administration’s drive to use $19 billion in economic stimulus law funds to implement electronic health records is closely linked to the administration’s agenda for broad health care reform, a top official said today.
Health information technology adoption and health care reform are “joined at the hip,” David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology, told reporters during a conference call. “I don’t think we can achieve the president’s vision of health care reform without 21st century technology. Health IT is a means to an end.”
Obama has pledged to reform the health care system and expand access to coverage. In his fiscal 2010 budget request to Congress in March, Obama proposed $630 billion to start comprehensive health care reform.
Blumenthal’s office at the Health and Human Services Department oversees $17 billion in incentive payments that will be distributed to doctors and hospitals that buy and use health IT systems. He also has $2 billion in money from the stimulus law that will be distributed in part as technical assistance grants to get hospitals, doctors and payers to exchange electronic patient data.
Next week, two federal health IT advisory groups will meet for the first time. The health IT policy panel will begin defining “meaningful use” that will determine eligibility for the incentive payments. The health IT standards committee will begin making recommendations for technical standards for health IT systems to ensure they provide appropriate data and can securely and reliably exchange information with other systems.
The advisory committees will assist in establishing rules for privacy, security and maintaining innovation, Blumenthal said. For example, the committees will provide advice on whether to maintain the Certification Commission for Healthcare IT as the organization that will certify whether vendors meet electronic health record standards to be set under the stimulus law, he said.
Also, after hearing from those committees, HHS hopes to provide direction on “meaningful use” by late spring or early summer, Blumenthal said.
“Meaningful use is very much on our minds," Blumenthal said. "Those words at the key to success.”
With the public facing swine flu concerns in recent weeks, Blumenthal also said there is "an enormous opportunity" to consider public health needs for data as part of the health IT adoption. Information systems that collect clinical data electronically can also be used to track diseases and population health, he said.
HHS Announces Members of Committees That Will Advise on Implementation of Health IT
Publisher: Press Release
May 08, 2009
Policy and Standards Committees Will Meet Next Week
The Department of Health and Human Services today announced the appointment of three members to the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee as well as members of the HIT Standards Committee. The two new federal advisory committees were established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The first meeting of the Health IT Policy Committee will be held on Monday, May 11, in Washington, D.C.
“The Policy and Standards Committees bring together a wide diversity of key stakeholders to help guide the advancement of health IT as an integral part of health reform,” stated Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS and Chairman of the Policy Committee. “It is an honor to lead one of these committees, and I am confident that these committees will provide valuable insight to help develop important health IT policy in the next few years.”
The HIT Policy Committee will make recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on a policy framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide interoperable health information infrastructure, including standards for the secure and private exchange of patient medical information.
The HHS appointees to the Policy Committee are:
David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P.
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Michael J. Klag, M.D., M.P.H.
Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Deven C. McGraw, J.D., M.P.H., Director
Health Privacy Project, Center for Democracy & Technology
An additional 13 members were appointed by the Acting Comptroller General of the United States, and four members appointed by the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate and the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. A complete list of the Policy Committee members and information about the May 11th meeting can be found at http://healthit.hhs.gov . The Presidential appointments from relevant federal agencies are expected to be announced prior to the HIT Policy Committee’s second meeting in June.
In addition, appointments were made to the HIT Standards Committee, also a federal advisory body, which is charged with making recommendations to the National Coordinator on standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for the electronic exchange and use of health information. The first meeting of this committee is scheduled for Friday, May 15, 2009.
Members appointed by HHS are:
Jonathan Perlin, M.D., Chair
Healthcare Corporation of America
John Halamka, M.D., Co-Chair
Harvard Medical School
Dixie Baker, Ph.D.
Science Applications International Corporation
Anne Castro
BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina
Christopher Chute, M.D.
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Janet Corrigan, Ph.D.
National Quality Forum
John Derr, R.Ph.
Golden Living, LLC
Linda Dillman
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
James Ferguson
Kaiser Permanente
Steven Findlay, M.P.H.
Consumers Union
Douglas Fridsma, M.D., Ph.D.
Arizona Biomedical Collaborative
C. Martin Harris, M.D., M.B.A.
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Stanley M. Huff, M.D.
Intermountain Healthcare
Kevin Hutchinson
Prematics, Inc.
Elizabeth O. Johnson, R.N.
Tenet Health
John Klimek, R.Ph.
National Council for Prescription Drug Programs
David McCallie, Jr., M.D.
Cerner Corporation
Judy Murphy, R.N.
Aurora Health Care
J. Marc Overhage, M.D., Ph.D.
Regenstrief Institute
Gina Perez, M.P.A.
Delaware Health Information Network
Wes Rishel
Gartner, Inc.
Sharon Terry, M.A.
Genetic Alliance
James Walker, M.D.
Geisinger Health System
Representatives from relevant federal agencies will be named separately. For more information about these committees, meeting dates and preliminary agendas please visit http://healthit.hhs.gov.
Brain scanning may be used in security checks
Publisher: guardian.co.uk
May 10, 2009
By Owen Bowcott
Distinctive brain patterns could become the latest subject of biometric scanning after EU researchers successfully tested technology to verify identities for security checks.
The experiments, which also examined the potential of heart rhythms to authenticate individuals, were conducted under an EU-funded inquiry into biometric systems that could be deployed at airports, borders and in sensitive locations to screen out terrorist suspects.
Another series of tests fitted a "sensing seat" to a truck to record each driver's characteristic seated posture in an attempt to spot whether commercial vehicles had been hijacked.
Details of the Humabio (Human Monitoring and Authentication using Biodynamic Indicators and Behaviourial Analysis) pilot projects have been published amid further evidence of biometric technologies penetrating everyday lives.
The Foreign Office plans to spend up to £15m on fixed and mobile security devices that use methods including "Facial recognition (two and/or three dimensional), fingerprint recognition, iris recognition and vein imaging palm recognition".
The biometric sensors and systems, it appears, will primarily be deployed to protect UK embassies around the world. The contract, about which the FCO declined to elaborate further, also mentions "surveillance" and "data collection" services.
The Home Office, meanwhile, has confirmed rapid expansion plans of automated facial recognition gates: 10 will be operating at major UK airports by August.
Passengers holding the latest generation of passports travelling through Manchester and Stansted are already being checked by facial-recognition cameras.
Biometric identity checks are also becoming more common in the world of commercial gadgets. New versions of computer laptops and mobile phones are entering the market with built-in fingerprint scanners to prevent other people running up large bills and misusing pilfered hi-tech equipment.
Among security experts there is a preference for developing biometric security devices that do not rely on measuring solely one physiological trait: offering choice makes scanning appear less intrusive and allows for double-checking.
The holy grail of the biometrics industry is a scanning mechanism that is socially acceptable in an era of mass transit and 100 per cent accurate. Researchers are eager to produce 'non-contact' biometric systems that can check any individual's identity at a distance.
The US government's secretive IARPA (Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity) is seeking development proposals to enhance such technologies. Insisting that it is not interested in 'contact-type' biometrics, it asks for ideas that will "significantly advance the intelligence community's ability to achieve high-confidence match performance ... [for] high fidelity biometric signatures".
The Humabio project, based in Greece, is involved more in blue-sky scientific thinking than in intelligence work. Its research, highlighted in the latest issue of Biometric Technology Today, is at a "pre-commercial, proof-of-concept stage".
Rural India Biometric Test Set
Publisher: American Banker
May 11, 2009
Nine Indian banks are planning to test biometric cards as a way to deliver financial services to rural people, according to the country's central bank.
The Reserve Bank of India said the banks, including State Bank of India and State Bank of Hyderabad, would issue smart cards that store a mathematical representation of users' fingerprints. Cardholders would be able to use the cards and their fingerprints to authenticate themselves when collecting wages or government benefits and initiating transactions at the point of sale.
During the test, which is set for a district in the state of Karnataka that has about 40 villages, the government will pay participating banks about $1 for each enrolled account.
Prathima Rajan, an analyst based in India with the Boston market research company Celent, said "financial inclusion" is a priority for the central bank. "Many such projects are conducted across the country in order to bring in the unbanked populace under the financial umbrella."
BIO-key(R) Enters Strategic Partnership With Nlets
Publisher: PR Newswire
May 11, 2009
WALL, N.J., May 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BIO-key International, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: BKYI), a leader in finger-based biometric identification and wireless public safety solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with Nlets. Nlets is the premiere interstate justice and public safety data communications network for the exchange of law enforcement, criminal justice, and public safety-related information.
"Nlets is pleased to announce the selection of BIO-key International as our newest strategic partner," said Steven Correll, Nlets Executive Director. "Strong public/private partnerships with organizations like BIO-key that support law enforcement and first responders help us better serve the needs of our members and the entire justice community."
BIO-key's MobileCop(R) and PocketCop(R) mobile data customers in 41 states already access national criminal justice information through Nlets' message switching system that links together state, local, and federal law enforcement and justice agencies for the purpose of information exchange. In just seconds, the Nlets network delivers critical information, such as outstanding arrest warrants and criminal history, directly to officers on the street, helping them do their jobs and protect their safety.
Under this new partnership, BIO-key will install a BIO-key owned and managed server at the Nlets highly-secured Network Operations Center (NOC) in Phoenix, Arizona. BIO-key will then be able to use available Nlets network bandwidth to provide wireless communication systems and support to law enforcement, criminal justice, and other government organizations. "We intend to take full advantage of the Nlets international communications network and their hosting capabilities to enhance the services we offer our customers. This partnership solidifies our national leadership position as a provider of wireless mobile data solution for first responders," said Mike DePasquale, BIO-key's Chief Executive Officer.
About Nlets
Nlets is the premiere interstate justice and public safety network in the nation for the exchange of law enforcement, criminal justice, and public safety-related information. Nlets, which is owned by the States, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which was created by principal law enforcement agencies of the states 40 years ago. The user population is composed of all of the states/territories, all Federal agencies with a justice component, and selected international agencies, all cooperatively exchanging data. The types of data exchanged vary from motor vehicle and driver's data, Canadian "Hot File" records, and INS databases to state criminal history records. Over 90 million records are transacted each month.
The mission of Nlets is to provide, within a secure environment, an international justice telecommunications capability and information services that will benefit to the highest degree, the safety, the security, and the preservation of human life and the protection of property. Nlets will assist those national and international government agencies and other organizations with similar missions that enforce or aid in enforcing local, state or international law or ordinances.
For more information about Nlets, please visit http://www.nlets.org/ or contact Bonnie Locke, Director of Program Management at (623) 308-3504 or press@nlets.org
About BIO-key
BIO-key International, Inc., headquartered in Wall, New Jersey, develops and delivers advanced identification solutions and information services to law enforcement departments, public safety agencies, government and private sector customers. BIO-key's mobile wireless technology provides first responders with critical, reliable, real-time data and images from local, state and national databases. BIO-key's high performance, scalable, cost-effective and easy-to-deploy biometric finger identification technology accurately identifies and authenticates users of wireless and enterprise data to improve security, convenience and privacy and to reduce identity theft. Over 1,000 police departments in North America use BIO-key solutions, making BIO-key the leading supplier of mobile and wireless solutions for law enforcement. (http://www.bio-key.com)
Homeland Security Committee Schedule - May 11-15
Publisher: Department of Homeland Security
May 10, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 10am
311 Cannon House Office Building
Full Committee Hearing
“The President’s FY 2010 Budget Request for the Department of Homeland Security”
Witness:
Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security
This hearing will provide Members the opportunity to question Secretary Napolitano about the Department’s budget priorities, as expressed in the President’s $3.5 trillion Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Proposal submitted to Congress on May 7, 2009.
There will be a webcast of this hearing