July 22 2021: IDEMIA is a global leader in Augmented Identity that provides a trusted environment enabling citizens and consumers alike to perform their daily critical activities (such as pay, connect and travel), in the physical as well as digital space.
The company  provide Augmented Identity for international clients from Financial, Telecom, Identity, Public Security and IoT sectors. With close to 15,000 employees around the world, IDEMIA serves clients in 180 countries. Outside its headquarters, France, IDEMIA’s Noida production plant, which is one of the world’s largest and most advanced SIM production centres. 
Its eUICC (embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card) SIM personalization has just  been awarded an accreditation from GSMA Security Accreditation Scheme and AFNOR Group (French Association for Standardization). As per the certification, IDEMIA is now authorized to produce eUICC (SMD) for automotive and non-automotive markets in its Noida production plant in India.
We spoke to Peeyush Jain,Vice president Terminal Business, IDEMIA, to understand this cutting edge ID technology:
 How has IDEMIA’s facial recognition technology evolved in the past couple of years and where do you see it in next 2-3 years? Are you predicting for facial recognition to become the norm?
With more than 40 years of experience in biometrics and over 4 billion biometric profiles managed worldwide, IDEMIA is the undisputed leader in biometric technologies. Combining years of experience in the development of facial recognition algorithms and devices for the most demanding applications (governments, airports etc.), huge investment in R&D, access to latest advances in AI and machine learning, IDEMIA proposes the most powerful facial recognition device for the access control market today. The significance of this means that with IDEMIA’ technology facial recognition can occur on an even larger scale with at most convenience, speed and following data security protocols, in the most challenging environments.
IDEMIA has developed its  own algorithms for facial recognition, and were announced as a top-tier finish at the 2020 Biometric Technology Rally hosted by the Department of Homeland Security in the US – where our algorithm achieved over 99.5% True Identification Rate (TIR) without a mask. IDEMIA’s acquisition technology displayed over 95% accuracy with a mask.
IDEMIA’s facial recognition 1:N algorithm achieved best for accuracy in the latest Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) .
FRVT measures how well facial recognition systems work for civil, law enforcement and security applications covering accuracy, speed, storage, and memory criteria. FRVT test results are acknowledged to be the gold standard of the global security industry.NIST’s March 26, 2021 test results establish beyond all doubt that IDEMIA has the best identification system on the market. Taking border control systems as an example, IDEMIA achieved the best accuracy score of 99.65% correct matches out of 1.6 million face images.
FRVT evaluated IDEMIA’s core algorithms underlying all its systems using facial recognition which address access control, public security and border control needs.
This technology is seeing much momentum as a day-to-day biometric technology not only because the technology has become more accurate and fast but also because of the contactless drive due to pandemic.
What does the future of facial biometrics look like, say in next five years?
There are multiple determinant factors when we choose any type of biometric modality. These can vary from usage, application or other socio-cultural factors. The world has undergone some severe structural and behavioural changes. In the lieu of COVID 19, the most important factor remains health issues and safety. Therefore, there is an increases demand for contactless biometrics. These can either by facial or fingerprint. Facial recognition has shown significant advantages that come with its utilisation, while its acceptance across various sectors increases.
The changes social order means organizations will have to look what serves their interests, employee safety and hygiene the most.
Re new product VisionPass
VisionPass is our latest facial recognition system for access control. VisionPass is a game-changing reader that meets all our customer needs. We use an advanced (3D + Visible Light + NIR) optical setup coupled with our algorithm which is ranked #1 in National Institute of Standards and Technology – FRVT - for 1:N algorithms that we’ve been developing for years for VisionPass to adapt to each person, not the other way round. The optical setup to capture people from four-feet to six-feet-and-six-inches tall (1.20 meters to up to 2 meters). 
VisionPass can perform facial recognition of people wearing a sanitary mask, thus enabling a fully frictionless and healthier experience as users won’t have to stop and touch their mask to lower it to enable facial recognition.
If imposed by the security requirements of a specific area, the device can also detect if the person is wearing a mask. If not, access is denied with a message displayed reminding the user to put it on.
Both new functionalities confirm the technical leadership of VisionPass, which already received several awards and nominations since its launch.
What vertical markets are you focusing in on with VisionPass?
There’s really a big variety of markets; we don’t zoom in on just one. We have seen wide implementation of our products at airports, production plants, hospitals, universities, government buildings and head offices of banks, telecom operators or insurance companies to name a few.
What are the integration capabilities you have in facial recognition technologies?
Our technology can integrate with other different devices, depending upon the use case. Keeping this in mind, we have teamed up with major global and regional access control manufacturers. These partnerships allow a multitude of different use cases and benefit owners in realizing their end goals such as compliance with health and safety standards. Various Physical Access control and surveillance manufacturer are now integrated with our facial recognition technologies like VisionPass and Augmented Vision. These provide the best frictionless experience ensuring security, speed and convenience and end-to-end result. We have also developed our in-house solution called Morpho Manager, this is used for device management and provides basic access control functionalities. It can also be linked to an advanced access control solution to enable biometrics capability when it is already integrated and helps in upgrading biometrics on an existing system.
Given the heightened concerns around individual data privacy and cybersecurity issues, what are your views on people accepting and using facial recognition technology?
IDEMIA understands that our industry is at the forefront of dealing with genuine concerns regarding facial recognition mechanisms. The company takes particular care with ethics surrounding data collection. Data is only collected for research purposes, in strict compliance with GDPR – i.e. on a voluntary basis.
We firmly believe that there should be transparency. People have the right to know how, why and where is their data being stored and used. IDEMIA doesn’t store biometric data like fingerprints or face images in the captured format. We reduce the biometric data into biometric characteristic points, give them their own templates and codes which secured before we initiate processing. It is impossible to recreate facial or finger print image from our unique format templates thus ensuring complete security & privacy to individual bio data.
For a few days, we feature a video onIdemia's Wave and Pass identification technology MorphoWave,the only terminal in the world capable of scanning and verifying 4 fingerprints in less than 1 second through a quick, simple and fully touchless wave movement of the hand, in the Techvideo spot on our home page