The brave new world of biometric identification and passport-less travel

Just when you thought the rapid pace at which technology is altering the way we go about our daily lives couldn’t gain any more velocity, something brand-new and exciting comes along. Case in point – Sydney Airport is currently running a facial recognition programme that allows passengers to enjoy smooth sailing through their airport gates without the need to fish out their passport even once.

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Surveillance evolves as cameras get a brain

Advanced new facial recognition technology is giving ordinary surveillance systems the ability to learn, analyse what cameras see, conduct market research and even proactively mitigate risk.

Video Surveillance systems are an important step towards enhanced security, but they have certain shortfalls – they are very dependent on the ability of the control centre and monitoring team to be alert to every moment on every screen, all the time. “With surveillance cameras now in place virtually everywhere, it becomes extremely difficult to analyse who is where and what they are doing, all the time,” says Marius Coetzee, CEO of SA-based identity specialists Ideco. “This means traditional surveillance footage is typically used after an event to support investigations.”

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Ending the nuisance (and risk) of visitors’ books

Visitor records are necessary, but the days of the grubby book-based register at the guard house are numbered, says Ideco.

Filling in the visitors’ register at the entrance to office blocks or residential estates is a pet peeve of most South Africans: to simply enter a site, they must balance a cumbersome visitors’ book on their car steering wheel, etch out their details with a failing pen, and complete endless fields of personal information. This process takes time, may cause a backup of traffic behind the visitor completing the log, and – worst of all – puts their personal information at risk.

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Fast-forward banking: trusted digital identity becomes crucial

By Marius Coetzee, CEO of biometric experts Ideco.

Banking as we knew it is on its way out, with a bold new world of seamless, cardless, cashless financial systems set to change the way people live and transact forever. But this next level banking depends entirely on the ability to create a trusted link between the physical and the digital world.

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