PRM Biometrics brings together the latest technologies available and implements these in a total solution enabling clients to manage the risk in terms of potential identity theft and fraud.

What are Biometrics?

Biometrics measurements are the methods used to uniquely recognise and identify an individual based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioural characteristics. Biometrics can be used as a means of determining identity based access control. Biometrics can assist individuals in securing their own identity by preventing the misuse and abuse of key identifiers such as credit card details, PIN numbers and passwords. Common biometric identifiers include fingerprint, iris, voice and facial recognition. Other identifiers can include ear structure and also a person's gait.

Securing Identity?

Securing your identity is important. Many people give away details of their identity every day without even realising the risk that they are taking of having their identity stolen. For example: How many times have you had to provide a person, whom you don't know, a copy of your drivers licence, passport or other identity document? When you go to the bank, to buy a phone, to book a hotel and even hire a video, you may be giving a person who you don't know, sufficient details for them to steal your identity. When you give someone a copy of your drivers licence, you are giving them your full name, your date of birth, your address, your drivers licence number, your photograph and even a copy of your signature. At The PRM Group we are working to make the practice of 'giving away your identity' a redundant practice. After all, Identity Theft costs Australians some $8 billion per annum!

ICAO Standard Photo

PRM Biometrics have developed software to enable the capture of ICAO standard photos. The standard for passports photos is known as ICAO or International Civil Aviation Organisation standards. The PRM Biometrics software enables the easy capture of these photos, with software automatically checking for lighting conditions, distance from camera, eye location, eyes visible, face occlusions & face orientation.

PRisM - Personnel Risk integrated security Management

The PRM Group Biometrics program is designed to capture a wide range of biometric information which includes an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) passport standard photograph, facial recognition, voice, palm prints and fingerprints. The technology can also capture other additional personal documents like passports, licences and identity cards which may have security features embedded in them. To facilitate this capture capability The PRM Group has created a software application and database system called (PRisM) Personnel Risk integrated security Management.

This system has been designed to capture, store and manage digitally encrypted biometric identity information and personal identity documents at the highest level of security in either a web based application, in the cloud or integrated into client based software and systems. We offer our clients the ability to capture this information and access individual identity files for applications where secure enrolment processes, access control and identity management is required.

Building a strong network for the future

PharmacyID is an Australian owned business which offers consumers a more efficient, secure and trusted identity service through their local community pharmacy. Consumers are constantly required to prove their identity for a large number of services with government and commercial businesses.

The protection of personal information is now more important than ever. Giving away personal information to multiple organisations increases the risk of someone stealing your identity and using this to commit crimes, such as borrowing money from a financial institution.

PharmacyID brings together the power of the community pharmacy network in Australia (regardless of brand or ownership) with state-of-the-art identity verification technology to solve these problems. Harnessing the trust and value of the community pharmacy network is key to providing this new service to the Australian market where only one service provider currently exists.

A new, simple and valuable identity service

PharmacyID is the brainchild of Geoff Stockton (MD of The PRM Group). After 22 years of service as a Victorian Police Officer and Inspector, Geoff has always been passionate about eliminating identity fraud and providing a more efficient and effective way for Australians to protect their identity.

PharmacyID is a private identity services company, a member of The PRM Group which is Australia's largest private on-line police check company. PharmacyID has partnered with a network of community pharmacies across Australia to provide identity verification services at a consumer level.

A new national identity service facilitated by pharmacies all over Australia will give us the ability to provide existing services to the community such as national police history checks and future services that may include, passport and visa applications, licence renewals, proof of age cards, confirmation of identity for retail purchases, banking and finance transactions and identity verification for domestic and international travel.

Digital Fingerprints

One of the oldest forms of biometrics is the fingerprint. The use of fingerprints is attributed to Sir William Herschel, a British government official in Bengal, India, in the 1850’s. He is given credit for being the first to devise a workable method of fingerprint identification. (courtesy of former Chief Commissioner of Police, Victoria, Kel Glare).

The taking of fingerprints has come a long way since the ink and roller method. Many forms of digital fingerprinting (capture and identification) are now in use world-wide.

PRM Biometrics have been using the latest digital fingerprint technology from Sagem/Morpho. It is called Finger On The Fly. With this method, the hand is waved through the machine and finger prints and fingerprints captured. We like it because it is the easiest method available, it is more reliable than other methods and it does not require the touching of a glass plate which may have been touched by many people beforehand.

PRM Biometrics have the ability to roll out digital finger print technology Australia wide through their network of pharmacies in the PharmacyID network. (www.pharmacyid.com.au)

Enrolment Services

A new national identity service facilitated by pharmacies all over Australia will give PharmacyID the ability to provide existing services to the community such as national police history checks and future services that may include, passport and visa applications, licence renewals, proof of age cards, confirmation of identity for retail purchases, banking and finance transactions and identity verification for domestic and international travel.

This new service goes beyond the current identity verification practice of the 100-point check and digital verification service by offering consumers, business and government the highest level of security and personal identity assurance by including the only systematic national 'face to face' identity verification process in Australia

PRM Identity Services

Identity Verification in Australia is worth over 1 billion dollars each year. As the rest of the world continues to advance in the field of individual identity verification and biometrics the inevitable focus on securing individual identity processes is not far away. It has already started in many areas of government and in many areas of corporate Australia.

Securing the identity of a citizen offers significant advantages to government and corporate enterprises as well as the personal security of an individual and their identity. Identity verification can be as simple as confirming who you are in order to open a bank account or verifying your identity to get a Police Check, a Drivers Licence, receive government services, get a Visa, book into a hotel, hire a video or travel through international border control and customs.

PRM Biometrics have the capacity to verify various forms of identification by linking through to the National Document Verification Service (DVS). "The Document Verification Service (DVS) is a national online system that allows organisations to compare a customer's identifying information with a government record. The DVS is a secure system that operates 24/7 and matches key details contained on Australian-issued identifying credentials, providing a 'yes' or 'no' answer within seconds. The DVS helps organisations build greater confidence in the identities of their clients and this helps protect governments, businesses and Australians from identity crime."

Facial Recognition

Facial recognition is a type of biometric that can identify a specific individual in a digital image by analysing and comparing patterns. Facial recognition systems are used for security purposes throughout the world. Most facial recognition systems work with numeric codes called face prints.

These systems identify approximately eighty nodal points on the human face and are used to measure variables of a person’s face such as length or width of the nose, depth of the eye sockets or the shape of the cheekbones. Systems generally work by capturing this digital information and then comparing it with data already captured in an image or a video. The human face is one of the most commonly used biometric traits, for both computer automated and human assisted identification.

To ensure global accessibility with systems developed by various vendors and to simplify the use of data for biometric recognition in large-scale identification (e-passport, licences, visas) a standard data format for digital face images was needed. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) started a project in 1980 focused on machine assisted biometric identity confirmation of persons. Today this is called The ICAO standard Photograph

PRM Biometrics have identified and partnered with the Imagus Technology who are the market leaders in Facial Recognition technology. Imagus Technology is a global leader in advanced intelligent surveillance, image analysis and computer vision technology. Based in Brisbane, Australia, the company is at the forefront of fast, accurate and robust solutions for video surveillance, access control, marketing and retail applications.

Imagus provides the core technology for advanced real-time systems that reliably detect and identify human beings with minimal effort using low-quality and low-cost commodity hardware such as CCTV cameras, webcams and phones. Samples can be captured unobtrusively from a distance and/or in motion, while the technology is simultaneously insensitive to pose, illumination, expression, focus, motion blur and misalignment.