The proposal "3D Facial Biometric System Project" by Pixel Velocity, Ann Arbor in collaboration with Anil Jain, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, MSU, was selected by Michigan Economic Development Council (MEDC) for funding under Michigan's Technology Tri-Corridor (TX3).

Conventional 2D face recognition systems suffer from (i) different lighting, (ii) improper head alignment, (iii) cosmetics, and (iv) aging. The goal of this project is to design and build a 3D facial recognition system that will have better accuracy than 2D systems. Anil Jain and his students, Dirk Colbry and Xiaoguang Lu, have already been working on feature extraction and matching algorithms for 3D face images under a US Army contract. Pixel Velocity will design the system and embed the feature extraction and matching algorithms within Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chips to achieve real-time verification capability.

This project will help establish Michigan as a world leader in the Biometric Technology and Homeland Security markets. Facial Biometric systems are projected to be the fastest growing segment of the biometrics sector reaching $800 million of revenue by 2008.

See also an article in the Lansing State Journal highlighting other MSU projects funded under MX3.