The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has opened submissions for its Biometric Technology Rally that will be held in the spring.
Biometric systems include fingerprint, iris or face recognition.
The rally challenges participants to develop high-throughput biometric systems. Systems must implement fast and accurate user recognition within identity verification operations.
The event is open to biometric data collection systems providers. Biometric matching algorithms that can reach defined performance targets also can enter.
This year’s rally, the inaugural event, was held in March.
“The 2018 rally established very aggressive objective and threshold metrics for speed, performance and user satisfaction,” Arun Vemury, director of DHS S&T’s Biometrics and Identity Technology Center, said. “While some rally participants met a few criteria, no single commercial offering was able to meet all objectives. Additionally, we are expanding the test to include cutting-edge fingerprint systems as well as opening participation to algorithm vendors. We believe this will further accelerate improvements in biometric system performance that benefits DHS and our mission partners.”
Next year’s rally will be held at S&T’s Maryland Test Facility in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
S&T also plans to hold a Stakeholder Demonstration Day for government agencies, aviation stakeholders and international government partners.