HSBC offers voice and fingerprint ID system to customers
HSBC has announced it will introduce voice recognition and touch security services in the UK in a major move towards the introduction of biometric banking.The bank says its internet banking customers will no longer have to remember a password or memorable places and dates to access accounts. Barclays has already introduced voice recognition software, but it is only available to certain clients. RBS and NatWest have offered finger print technology for the last year. According to news sources, the move comes weeks ahead of the launch of Atom Bank, which will allow its customers to log on via a face recognition system.HSBC says its service will be offered to up to 15 million banking customers.
Google releases cloud vision image recognition API to open beta
Technology to enable the development of applications capable of detecting faces, text, dominant colors and other features in images, will be introduced by Google, the company has announced. These capabilities are planned to become more broadly available through Google’s Cloud Vision API, technology it previewed last year and recently moved into open beta. Cloud Vision API is designed for developers looking to add image recognition capabilities in their software. According to Google, it gives them a way to embed capabilities in their software for automatically categorizing images, detecting faces and sentiment, and detecting text inside images.
Zwipe announces new smart access control solution
Biometric smart card developer Zwipe has announced a new access control solution called Zwipe ID with a built-in fingerprint authentication system. The new device is compatible with MIFARE DESFire and MIFARE Classic Access Control systems. Zwipe ID employs on-card enrollment and keeps the user’s biometric data on the card; and the company says its new offering can recharge energy via the access control readers with which it interacts, meaning a battery is not required.