Generally regarded as a distinguished honour for ground-breaking products, the awards are organised by the European Commission (EC), together with the European Council of Applied Sciences, Technologies and Engineering (Euro-CASE).
The 3D face recognition Guardia Control System is said to generate an accurate and realistic 3D copy of a human head. The system uses 3D technology to record facial features with additional information obtained about depth using stereo cameras. The technology goes a step further by using an infrared camera to record the temperature pattern of the face with an accuracy of 0.08 degrees. The temperature varies over time but the heat pattern remains the same. According to the EC, the system’s thermal capabilities can be used to screen for diseases like SARS or avian influenza (bird flu), in addition to its use as an access control, identity theft and cross-border crime-fighting tool. The template size of the system’s biometric identifiers is said to be 1-2Kb, which makes the product ideal for chip and RFID solutions.
Guardia was formed just three years ago, with a staff of two, plus contract developers. The awards were presented by Information and Society Media Commissioner, Viviane Reding, and Eduard Mainoni, state secretary in the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, at a gala ceremony in Vienna on 22 March.
