Kerry Pianoforte07.08.11
On June 1, 2011, Bundesdruckerei GmbH and the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), launched their first joint sponsored project. The innovation partners co-operating in the FreeFace project are to develop methods for ID verification in the third dimension. This research collaboration is part of the Fraunhofer "Secure Identity Berlin-Brandenburg" innovation cluster and is backed by Investitionsbank Berlin's ProFIT program as well as EU funds.
In addition to the successful projects currently underway with five Fraunhofer institutes, Bundesdruckerei has now announced that it is about to intensify cooperation with Berlin-based Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI). Since November 2009, 12 companies and five Fraunhofer institutes from the Berlin-Brandenburg region have been developing innovative technologies to secure the identity of individuals, products and intellectual property.
The aim of the new joint project is to pave the way for optimized automated recognition methods and hence support the work of the control authorities when checking IDs, for instance, at international airports or border crossings. This will involve developing video-based capture systems that will enable 3D reconstruction of a person's head for the first time ever.
Broken down into two sub-projects - FreeFace Vision and FreeFace Identity - the project will first focus on setting up new systems for generating and processing highly realistic 3D views. In the second step, the innovators want to examine if and how 3D passport photos can be integrated into future security documents.
Numerous processes must be designed and enhanced before 3D images can be used in modern ID documents. The most difficult part involves the compression and representation of extremely large quantities of data with limited memory and computing capacities. It must also be ensured that the 3D image data in the document can be sent in a completely secure manner to the visualization terminal at the border control desk or to an automated recognition system.
"The tasks before us in the FreeFace project are enormous. All the same, we are convinced that this work will bring us a considerable technological leap," said Dr. Manfred Paeschke, head of Bundesdruckerei's innovation department. "Our partner, HHI, is a global leader in the development of 3D reconstruction and video compression."
This joint research project by Bundesdruckerei and HHI is backed by the Subsidy Programme for Research, Innovation and Technologies (ProFIT) by Investitionsbank Berlin and by funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
In addition to the successful projects currently underway with five Fraunhofer institutes, Bundesdruckerei has now announced that it is about to intensify cooperation with Berlin-based Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI). Since November 2009, 12 companies and five Fraunhofer institutes from the Berlin-Brandenburg region have been developing innovative technologies to secure the identity of individuals, products and intellectual property.
The aim of the new joint project is to pave the way for optimized automated recognition methods and hence support the work of the control authorities when checking IDs, for instance, at international airports or border crossings. This will involve developing video-based capture systems that will enable 3D reconstruction of a person's head for the first time ever.
Broken down into two sub-projects - FreeFace Vision and FreeFace Identity - the project will first focus on setting up new systems for generating and processing highly realistic 3D views. In the second step, the innovators want to examine if and how 3D passport photos can be integrated into future security documents.
Numerous processes must be designed and enhanced before 3D images can be used in modern ID documents. The most difficult part involves the compression and representation of extremely large quantities of data with limited memory and computing capacities. It must also be ensured that the 3D image data in the document can be sent in a completely secure manner to the visualization terminal at the border control desk or to an automated recognition system.
"The tasks before us in the FreeFace project are enormous. All the same, we are convinced that this work will bring us a considerable technological leap," said Dr. Manfred Paeschke, head of Bundesdruckerei's innovation department. "Our partner, HHI, is a global leader in the development of 3D reconstruction and video compression."
This joint research project by Bundesdruckerei and HHI is backed by the Subsidy Programme for Research, Innovation and Technologies (ProFIT) by Investitionsbank Berlin and by funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).