Noida varsity scientist bags DRDO prize for her concept of identity recognition in dark

Dr Shivani Verma, a scientist from Amity Institute of Space Science and Technology in Noida won first place in a DRDO contest for her concept that might assist in determining a person's identification based on physiological characteristics even if the face is hidden or in dark space.

According to the recently published results posted on the DRDO website, which is responsible for the country's defence forces' research and development, Dr Verma is one of the top five award winners in the individual category of the competition.

She got an award in the Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO) 'Dare To Dream 2.0' innovation contest for an original proposal called 'AI-based detection of a person based on physiological parameters.'

The Amity University said, ''It is an innovative solution considering fusion of parameters such as skeletal data, gait, occluded face recognition and movement parameters where in even if the person is moving in dark space his identity can be identified.”

The University also explained how any disguise, whether it's an intentional limp, masking one's face, or faking fingerprints, will not help the anti-social elements to escape. This would be an extremely accurate inferencing methodology for intelligence agencies, defence organisations, police and others to identify a person.

Dr Verma’s proposal is based on an intelligent inferencing recognition system based on a person's physiological data, with high recognition accuracy built-in, providing it an advantage in situations when biometric and face recognition technologies fail.

Under the supervision of Dr. MS Prasad, Director (AISST), Dr. Verma stated that the DRDO's Technology Development Fund (TDF) Scheme has requested details of the project proposal within four weeks for consideration for further development assistance of the idea into a technology grant-in-aid.

Once the details of the proposal are authorised, the DRDO will pay a 90% grant-in-aid on accelerated technology development or projects worth up to ten crore in 24 months.