IDENTITY IDENTITY IDENTITY IDENTITY IDENTITY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Biometrics in Movies - http://fingerchip.pagesperso-orange.fr/

Information Security - Information Technology Laboratory National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-8930Dr.

Retinography - http://www.discoveriesinmedicine.com/Ra-Thy/Retinography

Russian Criminal Tattoos and the Vory v Zakone - EP Production Notes

The Tattoos of AMERICAN HISTORY X - 1998-2009 ReLâCHE/Rachel Schwarz

Voice Recognition Technology - School of Industrial Engineering Purdue University

INTRODUCTION

Identification techniques have and will always evolve into a more precise science. In this pamphlet I am exploring the how movies show these techniques, past, present and future. From identifying tattoos to tracking humans with RFID chips, sci-fi movies seem to be able to predict where technology is going.

Fingerprints: The patterns of friction ridges and valleys on an individual’s fingertips are unique to that individual. For decades, law enforcement has been classifying and determining identity by matching key points of ridge endings and bifurcations. Fingerprints are unique for each finger of a person including identical twins. One of the most commercially available biometric technologies, fingerprint recognition devices for desktop and laptop access are now widely available from many different vendors at a low cost.

With these devices, users no longer need to type passwords – instead, only a touch provides instant access. Fingerprint systems can also be used in identification mode. Several states check fingerprints for new applicants to social services benefits to ensure recipients do not fraudulently obtain benefits under fake names. New York State has over 900,000 people enrolled in such a system.

With his muscular frame, shaved head and goatee, actor Edward Norton’s character Derek Vinyard from the movie AMERICAN HISTORY X projects a steady aura of menace. But what really adds to that image is the variety of tattoos on his upper body. The work is all done in black and white, and was designed along the lines of body art worn by present-day white supremacist skinheads. In reality, if you look at the skin art worn by those involved in neo-Nazi groups or the white supremacy movement, you will see very similar artwork.

Each bicep sports a barbed wire

armband. Several tattoos are of icons utilized by the Nazis in Germany during World War II. An eagle carrying a swastika is on Vineyard’s right upper arm. His lower forearm has an iron cross tattooed on it and the words “white power.” The boldest and largest of his tattoos is a black swastika tattooed on the left side of his chest. This tattoo is dark enough it shows through the white undershirt that Norton is wearing in some scenes.

On Vinyard’s back, tattooed between his shoulder blades are the initials D.O.C. These stand for “Disciples

TATTOOS: AMERICAN HISTORY X

of Christ,” the fictional Aryan white supremacy group that Derek runs with in the movie. This acronym is included in the Anti-Defamation League’s online database of symbols worn by extremist groups as some real-life skinheads have chosen to copy this emblem from the movie. Additionally each of Vinyard’s shoulder blades bears a sizable portrait of a snarling dog, with the images looking much like pit bulls.

Credits for the movie list a variety of makeup artists: John E. Jackson and Christina Smith are listed as supervising key makeup, Heather

Fraker is listed as the makeup artist and Gina Rylander is credited as the body makeup artist. No credits are listed specifically for the tattoo design work.

After his release from prison, Derek Vinyard has grown back his hair and dresses to hide his tattoos. His time in prison has made him change his mind but the visible reminders of his previous life path are still etched in his skin. In reality, many people who make similar life decisions also struggle with the perception of their tattoos and their new life choices.

Many doctors and plastic surgeons

EASTERN PROMISESParticularly helpful to all (for an important story and visual element of Eastern Promises) was Alix Lambert’s documentary The Mark of Cain - which she had filmed in Russian prisons; Mortensen studied her book (among others) on the same subject, namely, criminal tattoos.

Cronenberg in turn sent the books and the documentary to Steven Knight, who incorporated the tattoo elements This facet of Mortensen’s research became “a key pivot point for our approach to refining the script with Steve,” notes Cronenberg. “Viggo

sent me books on Russian criminal tattoos which were filled with not just photos and diagrams but also texts about the meanings of tattoos. He also sent me The Mark of Cain. There’s this whole hidden world of symbolism that is immediately fascinating.”

“Tattoos suddenly became an intense metaphor and symbol in the movie. It’s a specialized world that is in fact dying because of the changes that have happened in Russia in the last decade.

“The tattoos are tied to an older Russian criminal caste with a real structure and hierarchy - the Vory V Zakone - which

Russians and Georgians, and a smattering of Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Abkhazians and, in the movie at least, Turks. The Vory were born organically in Russia during the Great Terror of the 1930s - when Josef Stalin and his henchmen purged the Bolshevik Party of “enemies of the people” and sent millions to the Gulag slave labour camps in Siberia. It was in these camps that the first Vory were formed - along with the code that dictates law among Russian gangsters. The code calls for “complete submission to the laws of criminal life.

is literally translated as ‘Thieves in law.’ It’s a brotherhood of thieves. The old saying goes - ‘There is no honour among thieves’ but what we found out was that the Vory has, if not honour, then at least a code that is adhered to - and it’s a very brutal one.”

The director clarifies that “this really is quite different from the Mafia. Also, in the modern Russian world - or the diaspora in London - it’s morphing into something quite different, which is what we wanted to explore in Eastern Promises.”

Vory V Zakone members include

EASTERN PROMISES

Voice recognition or identification system required a “voice reference template” to be created so that it can be compared against subsequent voice identification. To do this, an individual must speak a set of phrase a number of times while the system builds the template. It can include several parameters in recognizing one’s voice pattern, such as pitch, dynamics and waveform.

A main concern in voice recognition system is how to handle the variations in one’s voice whenever each identification occurs. The rate and pitch each individual say at one time is not the same all the time. In order

to help this a process comprising Hidden Markov Modeling is applied. This approach uses language models to determine how many different words are more apt to follow a particular word. The advantage is that groups of words that sound similar, for example “to”, “two”, and “too” are reduced and actual words are recognized. According to Ruggles, the error rates using this language modeling are from 1 to 15%. The most recent development in the industry introduces the use of speech synthesis technology to the voice recognition system. Here, users will be able to access data

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

that has been transferred using monitors and keyboards. The use of touch-tone keypad will be replaced by audio commands. Some of firms like Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Merrill Lynch are adopting this type of system to let users access to e-trading information. (Miller, 2000).

The worldwide market for voice recognition and verification system is estimated to reach $36.9 billion by 2003. (Miller, 2000). Customer support centers are looking at main cost savings by automating the processes through voice recognition and speech synthesis technology. They predict that using this system, they can give customer better service. Users of personal data assistants (PDA’s) will notice voice recognition applications

in the future as software algorithms become smaller and more efficient.

There are several challenges the system needs to deal with in the future. First, the overall robustness of the system must be improved to facilitate implementation in real life applications involving telephone and computer systems. Second, the system must be able to reject irrelevant speech that does not contain valid words or commands. Third, the recognition process must be developed so that commands can be set in continuous speech. And finally, the voice systems must be able to become viable on low-cost processors. Thus, this will enable the technology to be applied in almost any product. (Miller, 2000)

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

Retinography

Retinography is a sophisticated means for identifying people by the pattern of blood vessels on the retina (the innermost coat of the back part of the eye). It requires the use of a special scanner about the size of a shoe-box that can map the unique pattern of blood vessels on the retina. The pattern is so complex that even identical twins do not have the same blood vessel configuration. Those who favor its use claim retinography has an error rate of only one in a million.

There are currently a number of

biometric devices in use, machines that can identify people by their physical characteristics. Some examples include fingerprint scanners and devices that can recognize a particular voice, hand, or signature. The retinal scanner is another addition to the identification tool kit.

How Retinal Scanning Works

A retinal scanner uses infrared light for mapping. As a person looks into the eyepiece, an invisible beam of low-energy infrared light traces a circular path on the retina at the back of the eye. The blood-filled capillaries absorb more of the infrared

MINORITY REPORT

caused many organizations to think seriously of using retina scans or other biometric means to identify people at airports and ATM machines.

Some states require that truck and bus drivers be mapped by retinography. This information is used by state agencies to prevent bad drivers from holding licenses in several states to hide their driving records. A proposed—and more controversial—use of retina scans is to develop a worker registry, where everyone is scanned to make sure that they are legal citizens of the United States, and thus eligible for employment. Critics of this proposal are concerned about possible invasions of privacy and violations of other personal rights.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Retinal scanners have several advantages over fingerprinting and voice recognition systems. They do not require as much computer memory as a fingerprint scan, and they are not subject to contamination from dirt or finger misplacement. Unlike voice recognition systems, retinal scanner are not distracted by background noise or changes in voice caused by illness.

The main disadvantage of the retinal scanner is that the person has to focus on the scanner from about three inches away. This restriction makes the device difficult for ATM use because a person using a cash machine rarely focuses on one area very long and is never close enough.

light than the surrounding tissue. Because of this, there is a variation in the intensity of the reflection. The scanner measures this reflection at 320 points along the beam path. It then assigns an intensity grade between zero and 4,095. The resulting numbers are compressed into an 80-byte computer code. This code can then be compared with patterns that have already been entered into the computer’s data base.

Applications

Retina scans are already in use in the Pentagon and government and corporate organizations where people need to be identified before they can enter an area. New concerns about security from terrorism and bank and credit card fraud have

MINORITY REPORT

Face Recognition: The identification of a person by their facial image can be done in a number of different ways such as by capturing an image of the face in the visible spectrum using an inexpensive camera or by using the infrared patterns of facial heat emission. Facial recognition in visible light typically model key features from the central portion of a facial image. Using a wide assortment of

cameras, the visible light systems extract features from the captured image(s) that do not change over time while avoiding superficial features such as facial expressions or hair. Several approaches to modeling facial images in the visible spectrum are Principal Component Analysis, Local Feature Analysis, neural networks, elastic graph theory, and multi-resolution analysis. Some of

ENEMY OF THE STATE

the challenges of facial recognition in the visual spectrum include reducing the impact of variable lighting and detecting a mask or photograph. Some facial recognition systems may require a stationary or posed user in order to capture the image, though many systems use a real time process to detect a person’shead and locate the face automatically. Major benefits of facial recognition

are that it is non-intrusive, hands-free, continuous and accepted by most users.

ENEMY OF THE STATE

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that uses communication through the use of radio waves to exchange data between a reader and an electronic tag attached to an object, for the purpose of identification and tracking.

Implantable RFID chips designed for animal tagging are now being used in humans. An early experiment with RFID implants was conducted by British professor of cybernetics Kevin Warwick, who implanted a chip in his arm in 1998. In 2004 Conrad Chase offered implanted chips in his night clubs in Barcelona[64] and Rotterdam to identify their VIP customers, who in turn use it to pay for drinks.

In 2004, the Mexican Attorney General’s office implanted 18 of its staff members with the Verichip to control access to a secure data room.

Security experts have warned against using RFID for authenticating people due to the risk of identity theft. For instance a man-in-the-middle attack would make it possible for an attacker to steal the identity of a person in real-time. Due to the resource constraints of RFIDs it is virtually impossible to protect against such attack models as this would require complex distance-binding protocols.

Privacy advocates have protested against implantable RFID chips,

warning of potential abuse and denouncing these types of RFID devices as “spychips”, and that use by governments could lead to an increased loss of civil liberties and would lend itself too easily to abuse. One such case of this abuse would be in the microchip’s dual use as a tracking device. Such concerns were justified in the United States, when the FBI program COINTELPRO was revealed to have tracked the activities of high profile political activist and dissident figures. There is also the possibility that the chip’s information will be available to those other than governments, such as private business, thus

giving employers highly personal information about employees. In addition, privacy advocates state that the information contained in this chip could easily be stolen, so that storing anything private in it would be to risk identity theft.

It has been argued that RFID chipping of sex offenders in the US could be politically feasible, and allowable under the U.S. Constitution.