Interest in facial scans surges

By LEONORA LaPETER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 20, 2001

Once criticized as invasive and harassing, the technology used to scan the faces of revelers in Ybor City is getting a second look since last week's terrorist attacks.

Government and private businesses around the country are showing renewed and vigorous interest in facial recognition technology, which can be used to compare images captured on camera with those on a database.

Already, the company that produced the technology for the Tampa Police Department has submitted a briefing paper to the federal government documenting how the scans could be part of a government-run airport security system.

Viisage Technologies and Visionics Corp., the two companies that just months ago were thrown on the defensive by civil liberties and privacy advocates, now say they are fielding calls from office buildings, law enforcement organizations, malls and even schools. One company's stock tripled and the other doubled when the stock market reopened Monday.

"We're dealing with a deluge," said Joseph Atick, president of Visionics Corp. of Jersey City, N.J. "A lot of organizations that were sitting on the fence have moved forward. Public safety is a real threat. We can't allow theoretical discussions to inhibit us in safety."

The surge in interest is likely to regenerate debate about whether the technology works and whether it violates privacy. While company officials say the technology is as accurate as fingerprints, one government study said the technology is virtually useless in crowd situations.

Since last week's attacks, many civil liberties groups critical of the technology have been more muted. But they remain concerned and say Tampa's use of the software is unreliable at best.

"What we fear is that not only will it not identify people in the database, eventually it will be used to harass someone innocent, because there is no evidence at all that the signature this camera develops through use of its software is anything as unique as your DNA or fingerprints," said Mike Pheneger, a retired Army intelligence colonel and secretary of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida.

U.S. Rep. John Mica, who chairs the House aviation subcommittee and will hold a hearing on airport security Friday, is also skeptical.

"The problem I have with facial recognition is that you have to identify the suspect first," said Mica, a Florida Republican. "The U.S. issued visas to individuals to use our borders as swinging doors. Even if we had the visual facial identification, you might as well take the equipment and throw it in the Gulf of Mexico."

Despite questions about its reliability, the technology would seem to hold prospects for huge profits.

Atick, of Visionics, predicts it would cost billions to set up an airport security system for the federal government.

"The investment is just a fraction of what was lost in the wake of this tragic event," said Atick, who said he has not signed any new contracts since the bombing.

"The cornerstone of our defense must lie in our ability to identify the enemy when they penetrate our society. It requires both intelligence and identification technology such as face recognition."

The two main companies selling the technology seem to have differing philosophies about how it should be used.

Viisage of Littleton, Mass., set up cameras at this year's Super Bowl in Tampa. That day, the company also placed cameras in Ybor City for the Tampa Police Department.

Tom Colatosti, president of Viisage, said the Tampa Police Department asked the company to outfit Ybor City with a permanent camera setup. Colatosti said he refused, insisting the system should be used only in settings such as airports or jails, or where employees are entering or leaving work -- not on a public street with crowds of people.

"We were so caught up in the technology and the positive benefits of it, we didn't make the distinction," Colatosti said. "After we had a chance to reflect, we made the decision this is appropriate for the Olympics, stadiums and airports, but it's not appropriate for the streets."

Colatosti said the Tampa Police Department then pursued the other company, Visionics, for the technology.

Officials with Visionics, who say their system has a 98 percent accuracy rate, won a $2-million grant from the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency last November to create a system that would identify people at a distance or in the dark.

But a Defense Department study this year found the technology was only 40 percent accurate when the person was within two feet of the camera, said James Wayman, director of the Biometrics Identification Research Group at San Jose University.

"We never tested it in a crowd because picking one face out of a crowd reliably is a very hard thing to do," said Wayman, co-author of the report.

In Ybor City, police demonstrations have shown the system to incorrectly identify a number of people. In those cases, police were able to determine that the pictures did not match, and no one was arrested.

In fact, since Tampa began using the system earlier this year, it has produced no arrests.

But the system is only as good as the database it uses, company officials say.

The Tampa Police Department database has just 1,000 images in its database, although it has the potential for 30,000, said David Watkins, president of Advanced Biometric Imaging, the company that outfitted Tampa with a Visionics system.

Visionics officials cite the example of the London borough of Newham, where police claim to have seen a 34 percent drop in crime since they installed 300 cameras to search for criminals. That information could not be independently confirmed. Visionics says it also has systems in in Birmingham, England, and at an Iceland airport.

The other facial recognition company, Viisage, is setting up a facial recognition system for the Pinellas County Jail using a $3.5-million federal grant.

The technology is expected to be in place next summer and will incorporate 366,000 images from the Pinellas County Jail. It will be used to check people coming into and out of the jail. It also will be matched against video surveillance at banks, ATMs or convenience store to aid in capturing suspects, said Pinellas County Lt. James Main.

"What happened last week completely changes the landscape for (these companies)," said stock analyst Dick Ryan with Dougherty & Co. in Minneapolis. "This expedites a lot of interest in their products. This is not a short term pop in their stock."

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