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Electronic Eye Implant Restores Reading Vision in AMD

A groundbreaking European trial has shown that a new electronic eye implant, paired with augmented-reality glasses, can restore reading vision to patients blinded by geographic atrophy from dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The device, called the PRIMA System, enabled 84% of participants to read letters, numbers, and words through previously sightless eyes.

Viral ‘Cheater Buster’ Sites Use Facial Recognition to Reveal Tinder Profiles

Videos demoing one of the sites have repeatedly gone viral on TikTok and other platforms recently. 404 Media verified they can locate specific peoples’ Tinder profiles using their photo, and found that the viral videos are produced by paid creators.

Germany considers allowing face biometric web searches by police

An expert report commissioned by AlgorithmWatch, a European digital rights organization, has pointed out the technical and legal issues with a move by Germany to expand police powers by allowing the matching of faces against photos publicly available on the internet.

There’ve been discussions in Germany in this regard as authorities are considering legislation that will make it possible for the police to conduct live biometric facial searches against online photos on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

The idea, which has been explored at many levels of government and also criticized means, for instance, that the police can identify an unknown suspect from surveillance camera footage by matching their live faces against internet photos.

While German authorities believe this can be done without necessarily creating a database, the technical report recently released thinks that’s not feasible.

In the report, its author and information scientist Professor Dirk Lewandowski argues that any practical system for such matching actually requires the creation of a database containing pre-collected and pre-processed facial data.

He points out that beyond the computational infeasibility of matching faces directly with random photos on the internet through live web searches, especially for one-to-many searches, creating a database for that purpose also contravenes some provisions of the EU AI Act.

Lewandowski explained that it is only technically possible to perform such live face-matching against stored biometric templates because no viable method exists to conduct large-scale facial recognition against public internet images without having in place a database.

Further explaining the aspect of the EU AI Act violation, the report notes that the legislation bans real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces by law enforcement unless that is strictly necessary and authorized for specific serious crimes.

It adds that the Act also prohibits the creation of facial recognition databases through indiscriminate scraping of publicly available images, meaning that any law in German that would that would allow the police to match faces of crime suspects against social media or other public web images, or event from a dedicated database, would violate the EU Act. The author cites the example of image search engine PimEyes which has been criticized for its reliance on databases of scrapped images, although its owners have defended the “ethical use” of the website.

The technical report is viewed as another step in efforts to prevent the normalization of mass biometric surveillance and to uphold digital rights standards prescribed by the EU.

Live facial recognition systems in use by police in other countries like the UK have also faced sharp criticisms especially over concerns related to data security and privacy.

Similar concerns are also being raised in Asia where facial recognition systems are increasingly being deployed to guarantee the safety of railway and metro passengers in that part of the world.

India seeks face biometric liveness, contactless fingerprint capabilities

The Unique Identification Authority of India is introducing a new initiative and seeking deepfake and liveness detection technologies to protect Aadhaar authentication from biometric spoof attacks.

UIDAI’s Scheme for Innovation and Technology Association with Aadhaar (SITAA) calls for startups, academia and industry players to develop software domestically that can protect against deepfakes and biometric presentation attacks in real-time or close to it. The program is intended to align with India’s digital public infrastructure priorities, the authority says.

The first step in the SITAA initiative is a pilot consisting of multiple challenges, for which interested entities can apply for participation by November 14, 2025.

One challenge is to develop SDKs for active and passive face liveness detection that can prevent spoofs with photos, videos, masks, morphs, deepfakes and adversarial inputs. The software should support edge and server deployments and work with various demographics and devices. User friction should be minimized with a passive liveness-first approach, UIDAI stipulates.

Advanced presentation attack detection (PAD) solutions for Aadhaar-based face authentication are sought from academic and research institutions. The solution should be accurate, compliant with privacy requirements and scalable, and interoperable with Aadhaar APIs, as well as meeting similar criteria to the SDKs above.

Aadhaar face authentications reached 2 billion in August, just six months after the system surpassed a billion biometric transactions.

UIDIA is also seeking SDKs for authentication with contactless fingerprint biometrics using standard smartphone cameras and low-cost devices. The technology should ensure high-quality images are captured with real-time guidance, build in preprocessing and image quality checks, and apply liveness detection. The fingerprint templates generated must be interoperable with AFIS software and run efficiently on mobile and edge devices. A demo mobile app for enrollment and authentication and a quality checking and testing tool are among the required deliverables.

Under the initiative, MeitY Startup Hub will provide technical mentoring, incubation, and accelerator support. Non-profit industry group NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies) will provide industry networking, global outreach, and entrepreneurial support, according to the announcement.

The initiative is the latest in a series of steps by UIDAI to increase the use and effectiveness of biometric liveness detection within the Aadhaar ecosystem. Other recent developments along the same path include a five-year research and development deal with the ISI, and new requirements including PAD capabilities added for certification of biometric devices for use with Aadhaar at the beginning of this year.

Glaciers Are Fighting Against Climate Change – But They Are Losing the Battle

New research reveals glaciers are steadily losing their battle against the impacts of climate change. Glaciers appear to be resisting the effects of climate change by cooling the air that comes into contact with their icy surfaces. But this natural defense may not last much longer. Researchers from the Pellicciotti group at the Institute of […]