Contribution of Biometrics to the Fight Against COVID-19
COVID-19 delivers a powerful blow to all areas of life. We are witnessing a global epidemic of coronavirus. Humanity has repeatedly faced the deadly epidemics of the disease — plague, leprosy, typhoid, syphilis, smallpox, cholera, various forms of flu — and no one knows in advance what it will be and how to coexist with it.
Our world is rapidly changing, now we do not live in the Middle Ages, we have opportunities and means to reduce the risks of the impact of the situation. Virtuality is becoming a new reality. Of course, the demand will increase for the virtual communication of people. It is important to understand that the person who is on the other side of the monitor is really the one he claims to be. Our digital identity will become the “imprint” of our personality in the virtual space and our trace in history. Now the virtual environment is producing a lot of fake. Security, data authenticity — this is what you need to strive to avoid a house.
In our opinion, security systems in these conditions will focus on contactless biometric systems, such as face recognition or iris recognition. For example, in our company there was a great demand for face recognition systems, mainly from foreign partners. Most of my colleagues ’questions are related to the topic: does our plugin VxFaces recognize people in masks? For reliable operation of most face recognition algorithms, it is necessary that the face is as open as possible. The likelihood of poor recognition increases if the mask has decorative elements, prints, a pronounced texture, logos, drawings. It is clear that the scenario in which every second person in the metropolis wears a mask was not tested, however, such conditions have already arrived. In this regard, the company RecFaces in an accelerated mode is working to improve the system and minimize erroneous recognition.
The development and testing of the product line is carried out without interruption. Our office works remotely. In organizations that have already switched to remote work, the demand for fixing the working hours of employees will increase, using biometrics you can take into account working hours and fix employees in front of the monitor screen. Also fix the authorization of employees in operating systems or vice versa to prevent persons without access to them.
Now, in our opinion, it is very important not to stop working and continue to improve our products, as there will be a demand for contactless technologies in the security market to identify quarantine violators in connection with a possible worsening of the situation.
This measure has been widely supported and put on foot by local governments. Due to biometrics implementation into urban environments, now it is possible to monitor people who fail to observe a 2-week quarantine. The more cameras are connected to the face recognition system, the lower the risk of ignoring quarantine regulations is.
In the banking sector, contactless biometric systems eliminate the need to visit bank offices for transactions. The educational environment must also be flexible in today's environment. Institutions, colleges, schools can take exams remotely, thanks to biometrics, educational institutions can identify their students in distance learning and accurately confirm their identity.
The global response to the worrying spread of coronavirus infection was the stay-at-home orders issued on short notice. Entertainment centers, restaurants, canteens and parks will be closed all almost over the world. This is the very moment when we have to stick to the WHO regulations to leave this dramatic moment behind.
