Development of an infant biometric system to solve identification challenges in low-income countries

With over 1/3rd of births unregistered in developing countries, the lack of reliable infant identification methods is a major bottleneck for governments, aid agencies, and NGOs in the delivery health services (Unicef 2013). The inability to link neonates to a health record means healthcare providers often have no idea if the child has been immunised for things like diptheria, or has a life-threatening history of anaemia. This bottleneck costs health systems hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Simprints aims to provide a solution to this problem by linking newborns through their fingerprints. While it was until recently thought that no biometric can work for the very young, our research at Univ. of Cambridge & Michigan State has shown it is feasible through innovations in image enhancement, fingerprint matching algorithms, and hardware. The commercial demand for such a technology is huge. The need for infant biometrics include applications in tracking child vaccinations, monitoring immunisation coverage, preventing baby swaps in newborn care facilities, identifying missing children, and preventing fraud in aid or food subsidy programmes. Building from our experience of successfully creating the only biometric system tailored to emerging markets, we propose to research, develop, and validate hardware and software that will allow current and future clients to accurately and securely identify newborns and infants in developing countries, and link them to a permanent record. If successful, Simprints will be the first organisation in the world able to offer this.