The holiday season is fast approaching. This generally means spending time
Businesses love the holidays because everybody wants to spend money. They also hate the holidays because shoplifting increases dramatically and credit and debit card fraud hits plague proportions. Imaging doesn't prevent shoplifting, but it can reduce fraud.
In the United States bank card fraud costs merchants and banks more than $1.5 billion every year. This is passed along to consumers in the form of higher interest rates and fees.
To reduce fraud, many organizations require photo identification. Try writing a check, entering a health club or boarding an airplane without a photo ID. They'll promptly tell you to take your business elsewhere. While ID reduces the chance of fraud, it doesn't eliminate it. All common forms of ID are susceptible to fraud -- they can be stolen, duplicated or counterfeited.
Eastman Kodak (Rochester, NY 716-724-4000) has developed a new technology that compresses a digital photograph or scanned image. The file is made small enough to be stored on your credit card's magnetic stripe or chip. When you use the card, the image is transferred from the card to a monitor and decompressed. The clerk can tell instantly if the person using the card is you (assuming you haven't changed your hair or grown a beard).
Eastman Kodak's solution digitizes the image of a person's face and compresses the file to 57 bytes. Compare this to a color photo which can be as large as 4 million bytes.
This tiny electronic file can be encoded into a magnetic stripe, barcode or integrated circuit (IC) chip or stored on a compact disc. More than 10 million facial images can be stored on a single CD.
Apart from retailing, the technology has other uses. One Japanese Internet provider, Innerbrain, is piloting a service that lets users send compressed images of themselves with their email messages. These compressed images are displayed as part of the email message. The recipient doesn't have to download the file or detach an attachment.
Another Internet provider is testing the technology in online chat rooms. Decompressed images let individuals identify themselves with their photos. This has implications for Internet communications that must be secure and verifiable.
One of the most promising applications involves the airline industry. A number of US airlines and card issuers are evaluating smart cards that let frequent fliers board without tickets. This process is called e-ticketing.
E-ticketing lets a traveler walk up to a card reader at the jetway and swipe his or her card. After reservations data is accessed and downloaded, the reader asks for photo ID. The customer is then cleared for boarding. While this streamlines check-in and eliminates lost tickets, there is no way to confirm the person using the reader is actually the person pictured on the ID.
To counter this, the International Air Transport Association is advocating image-compression technology. They have even recommended an image file standard. Jetway agents will be able to compare the compressed image on the traveler's credit card to their face, eliminating the need to fumble for photo ID. In addition to convenience, the technology offers a clear security benefit in the ongoing battle against terrorism.
Hotels offer another promising application. Several hotel chains and card issuers are considering a smart card that provides fast, hassle-free check-in.
The customer simply swipes a smart, bank or travel card through a reader and a room is selected based on their pre-determined preferences. The transaction is debited from the cardholder's account and a room key card is dispensed.
In the US, Citicorp worked with Kodak to develop the Image Verification System. Citicorp and Kodak successfully completed a pilot program for ID authentication at the point of sale. In addition to reducing fraud, the technology provides issuing banks a strong marketing advantage.
Customers like cards that are secure against theft, fraud and misuse. These cards are particularly attractive because they're not intrusive (there are no fingerprint scans, for example). Users don't have to remember a PIN number or take any action.
The cards also appeal to merchants because they are cost-effective, don't slow down transactions at the sales counter and can be integrated into existing equipment.
How to Squeeze a Face
Because bank card fraud is growing at double-digit rates, this technology is attracting a lot of attention. But it's not an off-the-shelf product that can be purchased like a computer. It needs to be integrated into an enterprise's existing authorization and identification systems.
The system consists of a hypercompression algorithm, a rapid decompression program and a unique verification code. The components use the image of a person's face as well as the code kept on a central database.
First, a photograph is scanned or an image of the cardholder's face is captured electronically. Kodak's patented hypercompression technology "squeezes" an image of the face using an algorithm that breaks the image down into small portions. The final file size can be as small as 57 bytes. When an ID card is swiped through a reader, special software decompresses the image and displays it on a monitor within a second.
As a final check, the system randomly extracts a series of bytes from the image file and sends them, along with the usual transaction data (sale amount and card information) to the card issuer for authorization. The selected bytes are matched against an image file stored in a database. If an image has been altered, it won't match the master file.
This verification process is difficult, if not impossible, to counterfeit because it is random and requires that specific bytes of an image match the original image on file. The verification code may contain as few as five bytes of information, so it does not slow the process or strain bandwidth resources.
In addition to banks and retailers, other organizations have pilot programs under way. The system is being tested by departments of motor vehicles, government agencies and companies handling security at corporations, secure facilities and special events.
Benefits of this technology include heightened security, easier identification and verification, improved transaction speeds and a dramatic reduction -- if not the elimination -- of fraud.
Mike Gumaer is worldwide marketing director, banking and finance markets, Kodak Business Imaging Systems.
