MorphoTrak Tattoo ID Algorithm First in NIST Challenge
MorphoTrak says its tattoo recognition algorithm place first in the Tattoo Recognition Technology-Challenge (Tatt-C) evaluation conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). “Prior to MorphoTrak’s work work in this area, investigators had to rely on text keywords to find tattoos [in a database] that were similar in appearance,” says Celeste Thomasson, president and CEO of MorphoTrak. “Our continuously improving tattoo recognition algorithm takes the criminal justice, forensic investigation and public security communities one step closer to a high-performance automated tattoo recognition solution.” MorphoTrak, a U.S. subsidiary of Safran Group’s Morpho division, says that in the NIST trials its algorithm “successfully found different instances of the same tattoo on the same subject, collected over time.” The company also says it “excelled at finding a small region of interest within a larger tattoo, as well as determining whether an image contained a tattoo.”
Coast Guard uses ScanEagle UAS in Arctic Search and Rescue Demonstrations
Boeing’s [BA] Insitu business unit says it conducted flight operations in July for the Coast Guard as part of the service’s Arctic Technology Evaluation 2015 Search and Rescue (SAR) exercise, which was designed to evaluate unmanned technologies in rmote area SAR and simuulat a collaborative response effort between government and industry entities to an offshore emergency. Insitu says its ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system (UAS) demonstrated beyond line-of-sight hub and spoke capabilities, launcing from the shore and handing off control of the aircraft to operators aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Healy. The aircraft delivered real-time imagery, demonstrating its ability to conduct routine operations in extreme Arctic conditions, the company says. “The lessons learned from this joint exercise will help facilitate response efforts in the future as well as develop requirements, tactics, techniques, and procedures for unmanned technologies that could be leveraged for those responses in the Arctic environment,” says Rich Hansen, Arctic Coordinator for the Coast Guard Research and Development Center.
Leidos Autonomous Marine Surface Vessel in Naval Exercise
Leidos [LDOS] supplied its 40-foot Pathfinder autonomous surface vehicle as part of Trident Spectre 2015, an annual Naval experimentation exercise. For the exercise, the prototype Pathfinder system operated on the Mississippi Gulf Coast to identify contacts of interest and transmit radar tracks and photo images to the Tactical Operations Center at Ft. Story, Va. Pathfinder was able to navigate the coast area with an onboard navigational chart and inputs from its commercial off-the-shelf radars, avoiding shoal waters, aids and hazards to navigation, and other vessels in the area while autonomously completing its assigned tasks. The craft is also being used to test software and sensors for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Anti-submarine warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel. The first vessel, Sea Hunter, is slated to launch in early 2016 and then begin testing in the Columbia River.
Tygart Technology Launches Mobile Face Recognition Capability
Tygart Technology, Inc. has launched the MXMOBILE FaceID System, which it says will provide facial recognition capabilities on mobile devices through cloud technology. Tygart says MXMOBILE enables government agencies to access the company’s MXSERVER technology, a cloud-based face recognition system that efficiently processes vast amounts of video and photo collections, on agency-managed smart phones. “MXMOBILE represents a huge technological leap forward for agents in the field, providing them with the capability to identify individuals using facial recognition in virtually real-time,” says John Waugaman, Tygart’s president. “This technology will provide identity intelligence information to law enforcement, defense, intelligence and national security organizations in a searchable, intuitive fashion, allowing them to make decisions in the field faster than ever before.” Tygart says the MXMOBILE solution is scalable.
MorphoTrak Offering Face Comparison Training
MorphoTrak, a U.S. subsidiary of Safran Group’s Morpho division, will offer vendor-independent training in face comparison, filling what it says is an “acknowledged gap in the field of computer-aided face recognition and facial identification.” The company says that while facial matching software can present a human reviewer with potential matches, it is up to the reviewer to decide whether two facial images belong to the same individual. The training will be led by Nicole Spaun, principal Facial Biometric Expert for MorphoTrak and a former forensic examiner with the FBI’s Digital Evidence Lab and Army Biometrics Program Manager in Europe. MorphoTrak says its training will follow guidelines established by the Facial Identification Scientific Working Group and will address facial review and facial identification.