- Starting this fall, some students will buy their lunch
simply by looking at a web camera in the school cafeteria and saying their
name, thanks to a food service company that is tapping face and voice recognition
technology.
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- The most prevalent biometric authentication used in schools
today is fingerprint scanning, but companies such as Food Service Solutions
Inc. say they want to avoid the stigma attached to fingerprinting-especially
in schools.
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- "You bring up the word 'fingerprinting,' and there's
a connotation," said Mitch Johns, president of Food Service Solutions.
In real life and on television, only "bad guys" are fingerprinted
after being arrested by the police, Johns said.
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- "We feel like we're a leader in bringing new technology
to the market, and we feel the new system is a more acceptable device,"
he said.
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- Some of Food Service's school clients do use fingerprint
technology in the cafeteria, but according to feedback from these schools,
fingerprinting is still too slow, Johns said. Even though the students
don't have to fumble with change or swipe a card with their personal identification
number (PIN), they still have to stop and touch the fingerprint reader.
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- With face and voice recognition, students merely position
themselves in front of a web camera attached to computer monitor and say
their name or any chosen word. Reportedly, the computer identifies the
students instantly and deducts the meals from their accounts.
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- "For our system, it takes less then two seconds
for the whole process," said Jeffrey Buechler, director of sales for
BioID America Inc., the company that has partnered with Food Service Solutions
on the system.
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- BioID's biometric authentication software recognizes
a user's face, voice, and lip movement simultaneously.
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- "It measures speed, direction, and flow as you are
speaking," Buechler said. "We take lots of points around your
face and measure how they move."
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- To enroll, the student looks at the camera and says his
or her name three times for verification. "If I'm saying 'Jeffrey,'
I say my name the same way every time," Buechler said.
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- The software can be set up to add a new recording daily,
weekly, or monthly to compensate for students' growth spurts, Buechler
said. Students can opt out if they want to; it's completely voluntary.
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- Like other biometric authentication technologies, face-
and voice-recognition technology lets students buy meals at school without
cash, passwords, or meal tickets. It also prevents students who participate
in the free or reduced-priced lunch program from being identified.
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- "It will definitely reduce the stigma attached to
subsidized lunch programs. No one will know," Buechler said.
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- Johns said voice recognition keeps pass cards from being
forgotten, stolen, or lost. It also remedies the problem of students giving
out their PINs.
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- "Our technology enables kids to get their meals
without a password, without PINs, and without cards. There's absolutely
nothing for a child to pass to another child," Buechler said.
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- It's also an easier system for young students. "If
you have a kindergarten student, you have to teach them and train them
to remember and use the number," Johns said.
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- If students fool around or try to beat the system, they
just won't get lunch.
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- "You have to want to get authenticated. I could
put my hand over my face, but then I wouldn't be identified," Buechler
said. "They only have 45 minutes for lunch. I don't think they'll
fool around that much."
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- Privacy concerns
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- BioID's face and voice recognition system "is unlike
other biometrics systems in that it protects users' privacy," Buechler
said. An algorithm built into the software program prevents the data from
being used for anything else.
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- "It's taking a photograph and breaking it down into
ones and zeroes using a special algorithm, so there's no actual recording
kept," Buechler said.
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- But privacy advocates say face- and voice-recognition
technologies raise even greater privacy concerns-and the less information
you give to others, the better.
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- "Privacy advocates always follow the idea that one
should minimize the amount of data about oneself held by other parties,"
said Chris Hoofnagle, legislative counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information
Center (EPIC).
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- According to Hoofnagle, there's not much schools can
do to keep this kind of data from the police. "Undoubtedly, law enforcement
will enter and ask the school for the student data as soon as a crime occurs,"
he said.
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- Earlier this year, at Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa, police
used face-recognition technology to match mug shots of wanted criminals
with people in the crowd. In a nightlife section of Tampa, called Ybor
City, police have set up surveillance so they can continually match people's
faces to their archive of wanted criminals.
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- Hoofnagle worries that by using this technology in school,
children will become accustomed to it and will give out this kind of personal
information without thinking twice. If they grow up using this technology,
perhaps they won't question why the grocery store and government offices
use it as well.
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- "With the use of biometrics, you begin to breed
children that are used to the system," Hoofnagle said. "Especially
when you start with young people, you can easily begin to [develop] a surveillance
state."
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- Johns doesn't consider this to be an issue in a school
setting, because students choose to use the system and are aware that the
scanning is taking place.
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- "In my opinion, giving over [your social security
number] can cause far more damage than being in a school lunch line,"
Johns said. "This type of technology is already here, and its use
is going to be more prevalent."
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- Eventually, Johns said, Food Service Solutions will expand
the use of voice- and face-recognition technology to the library and for
taking attendance.
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- Before that happens, the company will see how students
respond to the technology. "We will be looking for acceptance from
the students, because they are going to have to use it," Johns said.
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- http://www.eschoolnews.com/showstory.cfm?ArticleID=2839
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