Queensland Transport signs up to Unisys Facial Imaging Solution

The five year licence is meant to improve security for over three million of the state's licence holders, streamline administration of the licensing system and reduce identity fraud.

"We have used the laminated licence design in Queensland for over 20 years," said Judy Oswin executive director of Land, Transport and Safety Queensland Transport.

"The new digital licence will deliver a more secure form of driver licence documentation for Queenslanders as it is harder to forge or alter. 

"It will help reduce the risk of identity theft to Queensland licence holders and give them greater confidence that their personal licence information is being kept secure. 

"It will also enable Queensland Transport to deliver services in a more convenient manner as licence holders will be able to use a card reader or the Queensland Transport website to view, update and transact on their licence and registration themselves."

As Queensland driver licences are valid for up to five years, it will take approximately five years for digital licences to be rolled out to all licence holders.

The smartcard licences will be introduced in a rolling program as existing laminated licences expire and are renewed. 

The solution includes approximately 370 purpose-built image capture devices which incorporate a camera and lights built into one unit, used to capture digital biometric facial images that are then embedded into a computer chip in the smartcard. 

The front counter devices will be used at most Queensland Transport customer service centres, some Queensland Government Agent Program (QGAP) offices and police stations in rural and remote areas. 

 Unisys will train Queensland Transport staff in facial image capture operations.

It will also provide the Cognitec facial image recognition software used to match the biometric facial image against existing images in the driver licence database.

Unisys technology partner Daon is providing biometric enrolment technology and biometric middleware software.

Oswin added that the move to digital products will set a national benchmark in biometric and smartcard based driver licences across the country.

Where a discrepancy needs further investigation, the Unisys identification and credentialing framework LEIDA (Library of eID Artefacts software) will provide the backbone case management system to connect all the elements of the Queensland Transport solution together. 

For example, where an applicant's photo matches a photo under a different name in the system it will trigger an alert, provide an immediate side-by-side comparison, and track ongoing case management if further investigation is required. 

"In today's fast and knowledge-based environment, the community wants the protection offered through effective security processes to minimise the risk of identity theft and related threats," said Allen Koehn, managing partner, Public Sector, Unisys APAC.