Loss of Privacy

Bang Goes the Theory TV program, showcase gait recognition at the University of Southampton.

You can read a little more and see another video at the University of Southampton’s website.

Canada is set to start rolling out biometric identification for immigrants seeking visas. Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office has stated that a final decision as to what countries will be subjected to the biometrics will be made later this year or early 2012.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s department has begun identifying inmates by iris scans and facial recognition. It has also extended the program to its 700 sex offenders registered in the county.

Pinal joins dozens of sheriff’s offices and correctional facilities across the nation using BI2 Technologies, a Massachusetts-based biometric intelligence company. The company gives local law enforcement iris-scanning capabilities and a database shared by participating agencies.

One disturbing note is how the police obtained the money to set up such a system.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office used $30,000 in inmate welfare funds to purchase three scanners for jail use and one to capture sex offender data.

Inmate welfare funds are supposed to be used to for the benefit, education, and welfare of the inmate population. How, exactly, is taking a person’s biometric information, storing it in a database, and tracking the person, possibly for the rest of their lives, helpful to this person?

Dunhill, maker of luxury goods has a new biometric wallet available for just $825.

Virtually indestructible, the dunhill Biometric Wallet will open only with touch of your fingerprint.
it can be linked via Bluetooth to the owner’s mobile phone – sounding an alarm if the two are separated by more than 5 metres! This provides a brilliant warning if either the phone or wallet is stolen or misplaced.

The exterior of the wallet is constructed from highly durable carbon fibre that will resist all but the most concerted effort to open it, while the interior features a luxurious leather credit card holder and a strong stainless steel money clip.

Researchers at the University of Abertay Dundee and the Scottish Police Services Authority have been able to devise a method for lifting fingerprints from articles of clothing.

Refining an existing technique that’s been used to successfully recover print detail from smooth objects such as glass and plastic, forensic scientists have managed to create a kind of photo negative of fingerprint impressions on fabric. It’s a bit hit and miss at the moment, but even when clear ridge detail isn’t retrieved, the technique could still prove useful to investigators looking for other evidence.

The researchers used a method known as vacuum metal deposition that’s already been used to recover print detail on smooth surfaces like carrier bags, plastics and glass since the 1970s, but has not previously been applied to fingerprint detection on fabrics.

The fabric is placed in a vacuum chamber. Gold is heated and evaporated and spread in a fine layer over the fabric. Heated zinc is then applied, which attaches to the gold layer where the fabric has no fingerprints, leaving the original fabric to show through where contact has been made.

The success rate for recovery is still quite low, with only around 20 percent of the public said to consistently leave good ridge detail or indicate target areas for DNA collection due to the presence of sweat. Folks who have drier skin prove to be poor donors, but the technique could still lead investigators to target areas of clothing for DNA procurement and may reveal other useful facts, such as the shape of a hand or an indication of whether a victim was pushed or grabbed.

What you end up with is a type of photographic negative. Research is still in the early stages so expect more news on the matter as the researchers refine their technique.