U.S. Upgrades Biometrics Gear to Spot Terrorists
The U.S. Army and Marines are upgrading more than 4,000 Polaroid camera-sized biometric detection devices that scan, track and identify potential terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, service and industry officials said.
The Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment (HIIDE) scans fingerprints or irises, then matches them with those stored in a remote database.
"The iris, or colored part of your eye, has rings and freckles in it. The construct of an iris is very unique. You can take those aspects of the iris' characteristics and do a real quick match," said Army Col. Ted Jennings, project manager, DoD Biometrics, Common and Army specific programs. "The Army is constantly pushing and trying to take away the anonymity of the terrorist or the combatant over in theater. "
HIIDEs are part of an Army and Marine Corps effort to improve the collection and use of biometric identification data. In December, a DoD and Army task force issued a three-year contract called Biometrics Operations and Support Services-Unrestricted. The contract, worth $479 million, allows 12 firms to compete to handle a variety of biometric-related tasks, missions and functions.
"Some [vendors] will be building next-generation systems and some will be staff augmentation, consulting and strategic support," said Mike Stango, the senior project manager for biometrics with CACI International, one of the 12 firms.
The others are American Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cogent, Computer Sciences, Electronic Data Systems, Ideal Innovations, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, SAIC and Telos.
Such technologies are already affecting deployed forces, said retired Vice Adm. Albert Calland, CACI's executive vice president for integrated security and intelligence.
"If you go into a house in Iraq and Afghanistan, you need to be able to find out who is who," Calland said. "DoD is working to institutionalize biometrics, and we provide the services and solutions across all of these touch points, such as matching the fingerprints and sharing information with other agencies. You may have a latent fingerprint from an IED - maybe their fingerprint matches someone?
"Also, it is vital to be able to ensure that if you do detain or hold somebody that you start to develop a database. It is absolutely vital," he said.
U.S. forces use HIIDE during neighborhood patrols to find insurgents among a friendly population. The devices connect to a DoD database called the Automated Biometric Information System, which gathers identification data from U.S. and coalition partners.
Those devices, along with the Biometric Identification System for Access installed at the entrances of 34 U.S. forward-operating bases, will benefit from the coming switch to "blade servers," narrow network devices that can easily be added, swapped out or upgraded.
"If you have modalities other than fingerprints, such as facial recognition and iris scan information, you need a system that can do that," Jennings said.
One analyst said the switch will make a big difference.
"Blade server technology, which is extremely fast and has extremely high data capability, can turn something from a limited utility into something that is revolutionary," said Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va., think tank.
The blade servers will help efforts to collect new and different types of identifying information.
"It is important to be able to collect multimodal biometric information with the same device, such as a PDA [personal data assistant] or cell phone, which is collecting the fingerprint and is ruggedized," Stango said. "It should have the capacity to store all the information right there on the spot."
Researchers also are looking to gather identifying data from more body parts, Stango said.
"Right now, you have accepted biometric modality such as the iris, the fingerprint and facial recognition. In the future, there will be palm, DNA, partial hands and any additional touch points used to help in providing the overall picture of who someone is," he said.
Goure said biometrics technology is changing land warfare.
"With identification technology, you will know that if a farmer in southern Iraq shows up running around in northern Iraq as a taxi driver, you have reason to be suspicious," he said. *
E-mail: kosborn@defensenews.com.
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