PopEye (‘robust Privacy-preserving biOmetric technologies for Passengers’ identification and verification at EU external borders maximising the accuracY, reliability and throughput of the rEcognition’) is a research project funded by the European Commission, started in October 2024 for a total duration of 36 months. The main goal of PopEye is to strengthen the security at the external EU borders through the fusion of robust, unobtrusive, on-the-move biometric technologies in the aforementioned areas to maximise the traveller’s experience and improve the capabilities of Border Authorities and Law Enforcement Agencies to perform identity checks across a variety of scenarios. Biometric technologies – such as fingerprint, iris, and face recognition – have been widely adopted to perform identity checks and optimise the efficiency of security screenings, but each of these technologies has their own limitations. Therefore, there is a pressing need for advanced and more accurate biometrics that can provide enhanced security, while ensuring user’s privacy and respect for EU values and fundamental rights.

At present, the most promising approaches relative to the state-of-the-art are:

• Multi-camera visible light / NIR 2D face recognition:
• Contactless friction ridge recognition
• Iris recognition in the near-infrared (NIR) and visible spectrum

If you are interested in leanring more about this project, pelase visit PopEye website: https://popeye-project.eu/project/about/