CIC has selected Unisys Canada Inc.,to supply and support a system that will allow CIC to conduct the six-month biometrics field trial which will take place at two visa offices — in Hong Kong and Seattle — as well as the Victoria International Airport, Douglas, Pacific Highway points of entry and the Etobicoke refugee intake centre in Ontario.

"It was decided those were the places that could best utilize the trial," said Sheila Watson, manager of media relations for CIC in Ottawa.

The trial is limited to student and temporary worker applicants and refugee claimants.

The trial will test the impact of introducing two biometric technologies — fingerprint and facial recognition — on CIC operations. The estimated cost of the trial — $3.5 million — includes cost of design, delivery and evaluation.

Approximately 17,000 fingerprints and facial images will be collected from field trial participants. Analysis of the information collected will be conducted separately.

"CIC works constantly with our colleagues at Canadian Border Services Agency and Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, so this is on-going work the departments are involved in," Watson said.

ImageWare, a subcontractor to Unisys on the project, a developer of identity management solutions, is providing its IWS Biometric Engine Border Management Solution, a web-based,  multi-biometric ID management system. The product supports land, air and sea ports and utilizes biometrics including face, fingerprint and iris — during enrollment and  identification processing.

Also included is IWS proprietary software that permits the use of third-party biometric algorithms and third-party biometric scanners  and RFID reader/writers.  Verification points for the field trial will use IWS' web-based application to identify participating travellers with visas and will be installed on Unisys ES3120 enterprise server that will be housed in a secure government facility.