Pentagon Orders Smartphone Device to Read Biometrics Better
The Defense Department has awarded a $3 million research contract to California-based AOptix to examine its “Smart Mobile Identity” biometrics identification package to create hardware peripheral and software suite that would turn a basic smartphone into a biometrics scanner – identifying and transferring data from someone’s eyes, face, thumbs and voice, Wired reports.
Currently, U.S. troops rely on a single-use device – the Handheld Interagency Identity Detection System (HIIDE) – to scan, upload and transmit data from someone’s facial, eye or thumb features to its wartime biometrics databases, Wired says. Troops who operate it have to bring it close to the faces and thumbs of the people they scan.