SANE Biometrics srl

SANE Biometrics was founded in 2010 with the aim of developing a multimodal biometric access control system for use in conjunction with next-generation electronic passports. The company has a very streamlined structure, but with a wealth of skill and creativity. Its market placement puts it in an ideal position to grasp the opportunities offered by the change in technology regarding electronic passports, both in European and extra-European countries. The company’s objective is to achieve full and proper use of the data contained in passports. This data can be used not only as a means of identification in cross-border security checks, but also in a range of other similar applications, from identification for electronic payment transactions to the verification of identity for public records. The company’s technology is currently being refined and is expected to be relaunched in stages. To date, fully functional prototypes are available for OEM applications and production is expected to begin in the second half of 2011.

Skills and technologies

SANE Biometrics is developing an innovative approach to multimodal biometrics. In a multimodal biometric system, different biometric features - such as digital fingerprints and facial, voice or iris images - are combined in a fusion scheme.

The technologies generally in use often perform poorly, for example, in Match Score Fusion, validation results are defined through a weighted average of the individual scores for the various features.

The key element of the innovation introduced by SANE Biometrics consists of a proprietary technique based on Feature Level Fusion. The information extracted from various biometric sources is combined in a single feature vector, which is used to verify identity. This approach has several advantages: first of all, it provides a drastic reduction in the quantity of data to process, together with a great reduction in the verification time.

In addition, the technique provides a significant increase in recognition accuracy when compared with other commonly used methods. Finally, it completely resolves the issue of privacy in the processing of biometric data as the feature vector generated by the fusion of information extracted from the various biometric features does not allow the process to be reversed in any way to obtain the original features. This feature makes the algorithm particularly suitable for use over the Internet.

Products, services, applications

SANE Biometrics is developing a range of products, all based on the same technology platform, which is the real element of innovation and ensures the effectiveness and efficiency of the devices provided. The main products include the following:

1. idMOB: a mobile device designed to compare the live data of an individual with the data in their electronic passport.

2 IdPASS: an OEM version of IdMOB designed to compare the live data of an individual with that in their electronic passport and/or other types of identification media (magnetic cards, radio frequency identification).

3. IdPAY: a miniaturised device designed to store a series of information obtained from the contents of the bearer’s passport in an internal memory and to produce on request a digital verification token containing a pair of vectors related to the owner.

The first of these is the vector stored inside the device, while the second is generated in real time by capturing live biometric data.