IBIA

It will soon be illegal for any local law-enforcement agency in Virginia to use facial recognition technology. On Wednesday, State lawmakers in both chambers of the General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a minor technical amendment made by Gov. Ralph Northam to legislation championed by Del. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg — which means it will become law July 1.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced the implementation of Simplified Arrival at Tampa International Airport (TPA). Simplified Arrival is an enhanced international arrivals process that uses facial biometrics to automate the manual document checks that are already required for admission into the United States. It provides travelers with a secure, touchless travel experience and fulfills a longstanding Congressional mandate to biometrically record the entry and exit of non-U.S. citizens.

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and United Airlines have become the first in the United States to trial a low-touch, biometric-enabled airport experience from check-in to boarding for domestic travelers on select flights. Using SITA’s Smart Path, passengers participating in the trial can link their driver’s license to their facial biometric at check-in. They can then move through the airport, from check-in to bag drop, security and boarding by simply scanning their face at each touchpoint.

HM Land Registry’s first Digital Identity Standard launched last month providing a step-by-step list of requirements for conveyancers’ use of digital services to verify their client’s identity securely and conveniently online. The new standard is optional. However, it offers a ‘Safe Harbour’ for those conveyancers who meet the requirements. HM Land Registry would not seek recourse against conveyancers who comply with the standard in the event their client was not who they claimed to be.

AI-assisted Detection of Biosignals and Human Emotions (Tech Explore, Apr 09, 2021)

Fundamental methodology research on autonomous learning can benefit most, if not all, computer vision tasks. With the aid of autonomous learning, we can automatically design a contextual-aware neural network for different perceived data given specific computer vision tasks. The experts study Emotion AI including the recognition and analysis of facial (micro)-expressions, emotional (micro)-gestures and for non-typical emotions, which are directly related with emotion understanding and can facilitate education, psychotherapy, remote services, and autonomous driving, to mention a few.

The NYPD Used a Controversial Facial Recognition Tool. Here’s What You Need To Know. (MIT Technology Review, Apr 09, 2021)

It’s been a busy week for Clearview AI, the controversial facial recognition company that uses 3 billion photos scraped from the web to power a search engine for faces. On April 6, Buzzfeed News published a database of over 1,800 entities—including state and local police and other taxpayer-funded agencies such as health-care systems and public schools—that it says have used the company’s controversial products. Many of those agencies replied to the accusations by saying they had only trialed the technology and had no formal contract with the company.

It's a credential that can be used to show that a person has been vaccinated. The same technology can be used to show a person's coronavirus test results. It's a way to demonstrate a person's health status, generally through a smartphone app or a QR code that has been printed. "It's really not a passport to necessarily cross borders. It's a certification. It's providing information about what your status is in some area," Dr. Zeke Emanuel, professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania and former member of President Biden's Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, told NPR.