JULY 23--Imagis Technologies Inc. (Vancouver, Canada; www.imagistechnologies.com) ID-2000 facial-recognition technology has been purchased by New Zealand Customs Service (Wellington, New Zealand; www.customs.govt.nz). The department is investigating the use of facial-recognition software to apply against its core CUSMOD border-management system. The software was purchased through Imagis' New Zealand-based business partner ITB Solutions of Wellington.
Says Peter Rosewarne, NZ Customs IS manager, "We're using the software to develop capabilities within the workflow of our existing processes. It's being applied against CUSMOD by developing applications such as detecting false images in documents and alerts against known faces."
Imagis ID-2000 image-analysis algorithms use more than 200 facial descriptors to capture and compare an individual's face against a database, quickly identifying individuals who pose a potential threat. Features and functions include the ability to identify an individual within very large databases of images in seconds with high accuracy and to extract increased levels of three-dimensional facial information from standard digital photographs.
NZ Customs is Imagis' first customer in New Zealand. Vancouver-based Imagis established its regional office in Sydney, Australia, just three months ago.
