RFID Being Used To Counter Terror in Germany

Filed in archive Implementation on November 7, 2006

There seems to be turmoil in the world. Post 9/11, the situation has deteriorated and we have witnessed instances of terror attacks in many parts of the world. The intelligence agencies are on their toes and they are trying to find out ways to ward these attacks. Earlier this year in Germany, the police warded off a terrorist attack on trains and this incidence has made them more vigilant.

The Federal Criminal Investigation Office of Germany is utilizing RFID in facial recognition software trials to catch terrorists. The trials starting this November would last till the month of January. The trials are being conducted at the main railway station in Mainz. The facial recognition system is being used to zero down on people by measuring their jawbone and facial features. These trials are being conducted in order to find out whether biometric facial recognition software can be effective in pinpointing criminals among the crowd.

For the purpose of the test, six cameras have been set up for monitoring escalator and a portion of the staircase in the station. The system would be saving photographs of passersby and the two hundred people who have volunteered to carry RFID enabled smart cards during commuting. Every time the person passes through the trial zone, the RFID embedded cards would be interrogated by the system.

The system would be identifying people in the tests by measuring their jawbone and other features and comparing them with their pictures already in the database. Facial recognition software is still not regarded as reliable and the trials are being conducted in order to find out the accuracy of the software. It has been found out that the accuracy of the facial recognition software decreases with increasing number of people being photographed whereas the accuracy of RFID is nearly hundred percent. The accuracy of the software would be compared with the RFID data collected from the RFID tags with the volunteers. Authorities have also ensured that privacy of the people would not be infringed upon during the tests and people who do not wish to be photographed need not pass through the trial zone.

If the test results are encouraging it would become easier for the authorities to counter terrorism and save a number of innocent lives.