Vol.5 No.3 (October, 2010)

Special Issue on Public Safety

Biometric identification

SAKAMOTO Shizuo

NEC possesses world leading fingerprint authentication and face recognition technologies. This paper introduces some of our products that are used in applying these core security technologies, namely, the fingerprint authentication solution SecureFinger and the face recognition development kit NeoFace. In addition, of the solutions NEC provides for more than 480 customers in more than 30 countries worldwide the paper focuses on HANIS, which is a citizen ID system supporting the public services of the Republic of South Africa and explains its future role in that country.NEC contributes to the public safety of countries all over the world by offering solutions supporting applications from criminal investigations to public services.

MIZOGUCHI Masanori ・HARA Masanori

NEC has long been carrying out R&D for improving the accuracy of automated fingerprint/palmprint matching technology. This paper introduces the technology for eliminating noise information from an image in which unnecessary fingerprints or patterns are superimposed as noise disturbance, which often causes a problem with latent prints collected at crime scenes. The development of this technology is expected to enable high-accuracy latent print matching operations while reducing the human work input.

HIGUCHI Teruyuki

Biometric authentication technology is progressing from single-modal to multi-modal authentications that are capable of increasing the certainty of biometric authentications. The biological features that coexist in the same area of the human body may be perceived as a means of multi-modal authentication. Biometric authentication using blood vessel patterns or fingerprints are seen as promising technologies for the biometric authentication domain of the future. This is because the scanning of these body areas is a relatively simple process that is easily done compared to the multi-modal authentication of other body features.

IMAOKA Hitoshi ・HAYASAKA Akihiro ・MORISHITA Yusuke ・SATO Atsushi ・HIROAKI Toshihiko

With the recent rise in crime and terrorism the need for biometric personal authentication technology increases year by year. Face recognition technology has advantages not found in other biometric personal authentication technologies, e.g. a person does not have to take any special actions for authentication, and we human can identify the person visually with his or her face image. NEC’s Information and Media Processing Labs participated in the Multiple Biometric Evaluation program, a biometrics technology evaluation program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA, that was held from January to May 2010. NEC here achieved the highest recognition performance among the participating organizations, with the highest identification rate of 95% of 1.8 million persons and the lowest verification rate of 0.3%. This paper describes the face recognition technology developed by NEC and introduces the evaluation results by NIST as well as discussing actual applications of NEC’s face recognition engine.

ASOGAWA Minoru

As discussed in the feature pages of this special issue, NEC is developing products for matching fingerprints, palmprints and face matching. In addition, NEC has since a few years ago also been conducting R&D for a “DNA analysis system that is capable of field applications.” When this system is used together with existing fingerprint, palmprint and face matching systems, a composite matching system is created that contributes significantly to the realization of a safe and secure society.

Video surveillance and monitoring systems

KOBAYASHI Kazuaki

This paper introduces a case study of the construction of a large-scale video monitoring system for security purposes. The system coordinates a monitoring camera system, a video recording system, a video display system, an infrared sensor detection system and a fence-mounted sensor detection system.We at NEC efficiently support the security business by coordinating large-scale intensive video monitoring systems and sensors and by fully utilizing the video recorders and display units developed by NEC System Technologies, Ltd.

HARADA Noriaki ・ISHIDERA Eiki ・OAMI Ryoma ・NAKAO Toshiyasu

Previously, image analysis software for human behavior was considered to be an optional extra. Recently, however, image analysis software acting as a business supporting tool has been gaining importance, and the scale of video monitoring systems is becoming larger with the spread of monitoring cameras and trends toward networked equipment.We at NEC, as well, aim to realize a video monitoring system for security which supports operators watching video monitors to become aware of abnormal states. In order to realize the system, we are attempting to put analysis technologies for human behavior into practical use. For automatically detecting prohibited activity and dangerous behavior, persons are automatically detected among the images captured by monitoring cameras, and these persons are tracked by the monitoring cameras. The obtained information is analyzed in real time in accordance with the rules preset for monitoring.This paper explains the technical problems related to the analysis of human behavior and our approaches to solving these problems. In addition, we would like to introduce examples of the applications of analysis technologies working in conjunction with associated systems.

OAMI Ryoma ・HOSOMI Itaru ・NAKAJIMA Noboru ・HARADA Noriaki

The video monitoring system was initially introduced for collection and recording of the video recorded by surveillance cameras. However, when it is combined with an image analysis technology it is expected to become a tool for improving the efficiency and functionality for the safety and security services. By targeting the implementation of a video monitoring system as an IT safety/security tool, NEC is developing a metadata analysis technology that is capable of the efficient extraction of specific images or information from the large amount of video collected by surveillance cameras according to purpose.This paper overviews the component technologies of the metadata analysis technology, focusing on the characteristics of vehicles and humans, including license plate recognition, super-resolution processing, vehicle features model matching, human face/clothing feature extraction and human feature model matching. It also introduces solutions that are applied to these technologies.

Access control system

SASAKI Tokuhito ・KURASHINA Seiji

Compared to conventional cooling type infrared detectors, uncooled infrared detectors are smaller and less expensive and it is for that reason aimed to expand their fields of applications. The targeted fields include those of security and thermography. This paper introduces the technologies used for NEC’s uncooled infrared detectors together with examples of their applications. In addition, it introduces the technologies used for uncooled terahertz detectors that have been newly developed based on technologies used hitherto for uncooled infrared detectors and to suggest future fields of application for the terahertz detectors.

OHTA Jiro

As a result of the SARS epidemic of 2003, infrared thermography systems are now in use at airports, seaports and harbors all over the world as a means to quickly detect persons who are displaying symptoms of fever. In 2009, the H1N1 influenza that occurred initially in Mexico, exerted a key influence on developments and private companies as well as airport operators are all showing a keen interest in infrared thermography systems. However, there still remain some issues in the use of infrared thermography systems for fever detection (e.g. body surface temperatures are easily influenced by ambient temperatures and the system thereby tends to yield inconsistent results). This paper discusses the developmental trends of infrared thermography products and describes efforts aimed at improvements in their utilization technologies for further increasing the accuracy of detecting persons exhibiting fever symptoms.

TAKAYAMA Naohisa ・KITAMURA Mitsuhiro

Market introduction of entrance/exit management systems is accelerating in order to meet the requirements of the personal information protection law and to improve enterprise internal schemes. In Japan, the non-contact IC card is main stream for entrance/exit management systems. However, the method has disadvantages, such as complicated operations and it is a cause of queuing at gates. The present development of a handsfree entrance/exit management system employs a semi-active system that solves such disadvantages. The new system also enables the control of personal air conditioners and lighting by linking with an indoor central monitoring system. We expect that the present system will also be of interest to the owners of offices and buildings that are aiming to introduce further more effective energy saving countermeasures.

YAMASHITA Kouji ・AMEMIYA Hideki ・NOGI Yoshinori ・UNNO Hiroshi ・
NAGAHAMA Satoshi ・SAKUMA Kouichi

More than 38 million ETC on-board units are now in use across Japan. They are used to control vehicles entering or exiting various buildings, factories, shipping storage areas etc., as well as at toll gates on expressways. NEC has developed the “INFOBEACON” that reads unique data from an ETC on-board unit and has also developed a “vehicle management system control unit” that is compatible with automatic electric car gate and roller shutter door entry systems. This paper introduces features of our developed systems and discusses actual case studies describing the installation and maintenance services that are provided throughout Japan.

Aviation safety management

KAMIYA Toshiyuki ・KOIZUMI Hirokazu ・KAWANO Minoru ・SAWADA Shinji ・SHIMAZU Hideo

Correct identification of the terrain and buildings at the periphery of an airport is an important issue in aviation security. The ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) requests the authorities in charge of aviation administrations in all countries to collect electronic data on obstacles, including the geographic features and buildings adjacent to large-scale airports. NEC System Technologies, Ltd. has developed a system for the efficient extraction of obstacles around airports by using terrain and building height data obtained from the stereo processing of aerial photographs. This system is an application of the RealScape technology that has been used in checking changes in fixed assets.

General Papers

HIROKAMI Norihisa ・FUKAUMI Hiroshi ・TAKAYA Kentaro

Trends in the usage of open system architectures and increasing system complications have been making it more difficult than hitherto to identify which device is faulty, the location of the problem and whether it is due to a hardware or software malfunction. Meanwhile, in order to enable stable system operation, it is essential to administer/manage the entire system and this is only possible by managing the configuration, performance and resource information of the system. This paper introduces the remote functions packaged in NEC products that have been designed to meet the above needs. The present status and future deployment of remote maintenance utilizing the TRS (Total Remote Support) infrastructure is also discussed.

NODA Hiroyuki ・KOGURE Satoshi ・KISHIMOTO Motohisa ・SOGA Hiroshi ・
MORIGUCHI Tatsuji ・FURUBAYASHI Takeshi

The Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) is a positioning/navigation/timing (PNT) system for the Eastern Asia and Oceania regions. It is used to supplement and enhance the updating of the Global Positioning System GPS. It consist of three satellites, QZSS improves the visibility of the satellite for terrestrial users in the low and medium altitude areas. The first satellite of QZSS was developed by the governmental sector composed of four ministries/agencies, research institutions and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). NEC was in charge of fabrication of the Navigation Payload (NP) and the entire High-Accuracy Positioning Experiment System (HIAPEX)carried by the satellite. Navigation Payload (NP) has already completed the satellite system testing and it was launched at the Tanegashima Space Center in September, 2010. This paper describes the results of the protoflight test (PT) of Navigation Payload (NP) and the navigation system test (NST) of the terrestrial system equipment at the master control station (MCS) and monitoring station (MS).