http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20051102-072717-1172r
The Australian government has selected Cognitec Systems Corp. to use in the passport application process to help weed out fraud.
Australia became one of the first countries to roll out an electronically enabled passport containing a chip which stores a digital photograph of the holder's face -- the biometric identifier established by the International Civil Aviation Organization. The company said its algorithms would be used to compare photographs of applicants for new passports against facial images in a database containing about 6 million digitized images from previous applications.'
'This will allow (them) to detect applicants who are trying to obtain a duplicate passport or someone trying to obtain a passport using a stolen identity,' said the company in its release.
'This technology represents a quantum leap forward in identity verification and security, providing a much stronger linkage between the individual and his or her identity than traditional systems which rely solely on visual identification,' said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer in a statement. 'It will bolster the passport issuing process by providing a further safeguard against fraudulent applications.' " [Snippet]
