Pay attention 007

28 July 2011 Last updated at 23:18 GMT By Michael Millar Business reporter "Now pay attention 007": You may think biometric security is something Q would recommend for James Bond - but should you be thinking about it? Until fairly recently many people using fingerprint or retinal scanners to get through doors would have done so to an exciting soundtrack and almost certainly have very good teeth and hair.

The use of such biometric devices was the domain of Hollywood films, as companies and governments tried to thwart suave secret agents intent on subterfuge.

Biometric verification involves identifying someone through one of their unique biological traits.

These include everything from a fingerprint, iris, retina, or outline of a hand, to ear shape, voice patterns, and even body odour.

Biometric benefit

Proponents of biometrics, such as Cyrille Bataller, director of Accenture Technology Labs Europe, say companies see benefits in terms of security, automation and convenience.

"It's a very secure way of assessing identity," he says. "You are also delegating control to a machine, rather than having to have face-to-face manual check."

"This makes it convenient because you don't need to carry a card or pay someone at the entrance to read an ID," he adds.

The biometrics industry claims there has been a sharp increase in the number of companies protecting their workplaces with this kind of technology.

This is not surprising but until recently much biometric technology was not fit for purpose.

Biometric verification identifies people using biological traits - including the unique patterns in our eyes

"Before you couldn't count on the biometric solution - we saw a lot of what is known in the industry as false rejection rates," says Itay Langer from Israeli firm BioGuard.

"In the past if you didn't put the finger in at the same angle as you originally did, it wouldn't let you in," he says. "If you had a weaker fingerprint - for example, if you did a lot of manual labour or had diabetes - you'd have a problem."

Big Brother

There are several other good reasons businesses decided a biometric solution wasn't worth the effort on the past.

These include legal concerns over collecting highly personal information from staff, and fears that multiple people touching the same machine could spread illness and disease, particularly in the healthcare sector.

Then there is the major problem of convincing staff that allowing an employer to take these unique details won't plunge them into an Orwellian nightmare of surveillance and profiling.

Security

Keeping the right people out and letting the right people in remains the chief raison d'etre of biometrics, and products have been developed that would make James Bond gadget chief 'Q' proud.

Now you can buy scanners that will register you accurately if you put your finger on the reader upside down or even back-to-front.

They have also become more affordable, with good products starting at around $200 (?122) per door reader, going up to around $1,000.

BioGuard's ID-Pod scans the veins in the hand to identify people

One of BioGuard's premium products is a $1,600 scanner which maps the veins inside your hand to make sure you are who you say you are.

"It sends an infrared light into your hand, which is harmless, it's just light," Mr Langer explains.

This also helps overcome concerns amongst staff that they will have to touch something dirty, he says.

He adds that in some places anyone other than police taking fingerprints is taboo, including Canada "where they don't want anything to do with fingerprint [technology]".

Health and safety

But biometrics can be useful for more than securing a strong room or server centre (two of the places most commonly associated with biometric security).

Firms can now put biometric readers on laptops and even printers, scanners and photocopiers.

Property developer, Ollie McGovern, created a handheld biometric reader to manage the movements of the workforce on his sites and ensure they adhered to health and safety regulations.

His Simeio fingerprint reader, which is principally used in the construction industry, is designed to make sure those entering a site have appropriate health and safety training.

"In the UK, for example, health and safety regulation is getting more and more onerous and employers are guilty until proven innocent if someone gets hurt," he says.

The Simeio fingerprint reader checks that workers have the right health and safety training

"So when contractors use the Simeio to clock in it will check whether they have the right training, insurance, and equipment to be on site," he explains.

The device can also act as an attendance monitor, which could defuse arguments over how much time a worker has spent on site.

Tara Sheehan, from building and transport firm Sheehan Contractors, uses the Simeio and says she "can't put a price" on the benefits her firm derives from its health and safety features.

"Daily it will remind staff to have the high visibility equipment they have to wear on a daily basis," she says.

"It shows we have done as much as humanely possible to ask them if they have the right equipment and we have a record that we are doing our part."

But like most firms she encountered suspicion of biometrics, particularly from older staff.

"They thought we were Big Brother - watching where they were and what they were doing all day," she says.

"But once they could see it was saving us money in the tough climate we were in they were more accepting. After a few days of moaning they accepted it," she adds.

But other workers are not so understanding and devices that attract such suspicion are inevitably going to face close scrutiny from legal authorities.

Continue reading the main story

They thought we were Big Brother - watching where they were and what they were doing all day”

End Quote Tara Sheehan Sheehan Contractors Suspicious minds "In Europe there is a general expectation that employers will carry out a risk assessment before they introduce biometrics, so that they can be confident that the inevitable interference with privacy will be proportionate," says Stewart Room, partner at law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse.

"They need to be sure that they are using biometrics for a legitimate purpose and that there is not a less privacy invasive way of achieving their goals," he adds.

In some European countries, such as Germany, there is also an expectation that the employer will consult with workers' representatives on biometrics.

In other countries, such as France, the roll out of any such plans will have to be approved by the national data protection regulator.

Advanced biometrics systems, such as those used by BioGuard and Simeio, never hold a picture of a finger print or suchlike, as the image is immediately encoded into binary and the photograph destroyed.

This makes it less likely companies will fall foul of data protection legislation.

"It's not possible to re-engineer the fingerprint," says Simeio's McGovern. "The information has no value and there's nothing you could do with it even if you are a super techie."

All of which means super spies will have to return to traditional skills, such as lifting fingerprints off martini glasses to get the job done.

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BMW unveils electric car division

29 July 2011 Last updated at 15:55 GMT By Jorn Madslien Business reporter, BBC News, Frankfurt BMW is making its first foray into the world of electric cars German carmaker BMW has unveiled two new models to launch its electric motoring division BMWi.

The i3 is an all-electric small city car, while the i8, a powerful sports car, combines an electric motor with a three-cylinder combustion engine.

To reduce weight, the cars have been constructed with light-weight aluminium under structures and bodies made from strong and light carbon fibre.

That means their batteries can be smaller without compromising on range.

"We wanted to show the carbon fibre in the raw," Ian Robertson, group sales and marketing director, said in an interview.

German jobs

The i3 city car, which will hit the road in 2013, will have a range of 150km (95 miles) on one charge.

Both the batteries and the motor lie below the floor of the car, which maximises space inside. The car seats four and has a 200-litre luggage space.

The less spacious but more aerodynamic i8 sportscar is a prototype, though a production version will go on sale in 2014. Its electrics-only range is more limited, at only 35km.

BMW will create 800 jobs at its Leipzig factory in Germany, where the cars will be built.

Flexible production

BMW is cautious about predicting how strong demand for electric cars will be in the future.

"We will make tens of thousands of these vehicles during the first few years," is all Mr Robertson is prepared to say at this stage.

Much depends on regulation, which is beyond the company's control, he insisted, such as in cities where many expect authorities to restrict access for cars that pollute.

However, the relatively simple production process for its BMWi models, which does not involve a press shop or a welding shop and keeps paintwork to a minimum, means "it is much easier to ramp up production than with conventional production", Mr Robertson insists.

BMW is hoping to launch several more similar models in the years to come, and as a number of other carmakers are thinking along the same lines, we can expect light-weight carbon-fibre cars to become a prominent part of electric motoring in the future.

Volkswagen, for instance, recently unveiled a model it calls XL1, which seats two adults, combines a 0.8 litre two cylinder diesel engine with an electric motor.

The car is constructed around a carbon fibre reinforced polymer monocoque to reduce the weight dramatically when compared with conventional cars. A monocoque design doesn't use an internal frame or chassis.

McLaren's recently launched sportscar, MP4-12C also uses carbon fibre to reduce its weight. The car is built around a single carbon fibre monocoque.

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Obama stresses debt-plan urgency

29 July 2011 Last updated at 21:56 GMT President Obama: "This is one burden we can lift ourselves"

US President Barack Obama has said Democrats and Republicans must compromise to cut the US budget deficit and raise the debt limit.

He warned time had almost run out, before Speaker John Boehner made an impassioned speech in the House of Representatives ahead of a vote.

Meanwhile, Democrats announced they would put their plan to the Senate.

The fiscal fiasco leaves the US inching closer to a potentially catastrophic default on federal debt next Tuesday.

The US government will start running out of money to pay all its bills unless a $14.3tn (?8.79tn) borrowing limit is increased by 2 August.

'Last train leaving'

At the White House, Mr Obama accused House Republicans of pursuing a partisan bill that would force Washington into another debt limit fight within months.

Continue reading the main story

It's odds-on the president won't have to veto the Republican plan, as the Tea Party seems to have done the job for him”

End Quote Mark Mardell BBC North America editor He said: "There are plenty of ways out of this mess, but we are almost out of time."

"The time for putting party first is over," he added. "The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now."

In Congress, the arm-twisting continued on Friday.

House Speaker John Boehner and his lieutenants were working to whip Republicans into line behind their plan to cut the budget while raising the debt limit.

A vote on that bill was tentatively scheduled for between 17:45 local time (21:45 GMT) and 18:15 local time (22:15 GMT), after being called off on Thursday night when it became clear Mr Boehner lacked support within his own party.

Mr Boehner appeared to have won over recalcitrant conservatives in his party by strengthening language calling for the so-called "balanced budget amendment".

That proposal calls for a vote on an amendment to the US constitution - a move certain to be rejected by the Senate.

Senior Senate Democrats said the upper chamber would vote on some sort of compromise proposal at the weekend, and invited Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell for talks.

Analysts say that if the Senate passes legislation first, it could increase the president's leverage in a final deal.

"Too much is at stake to waste even one more minute - the last train is leaving the station," Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid said.

But Mr McConnell accused Democrats of wasting precious time and obstructing a deal by vowing to block Mr Boehner's bill, should it be passed in the House.

"Republicans have been doing the hard work of governing this week," he said.

Mr Boehner convened a closed meeting of all 240 House Republicans on Friday morning to outline tweaks he has made overnight to the legislation.

Mr Boehner and other Republican leaders spent all day Thursday arm-twisting dissident lawmakers, but they were unable to win over enough conservative hard-liners.

Some Republicans - including Tea Party supporters who won House seats last year and oppose raising the debt limit under any circumstance - feel the Boehner bill would not cut enough from the US budget.

Mr Boehner's plan faces certain rejection by the Democratic-controlled Senate, as well as a White House veto threat, but could form the basis of an eventual compromise.

Brinkmanship

It would reduce spending by about $900bn and raise the debt limit by nearly the same amount.

Speaker John Boehner's plan cannot pass the Democratic-controlled Senate

The Reid plan - which Mr Obama supports - would cut $2.2tn from deficits, and raise the debt ceiling by $2.7tn.

One possible scenario is that Mr Obama and Senate Democrats could shape a bill to their liking, then dare divided House Republicans to plunge the nation into default by rejecting it.

The Boehner and Reid plans overlap in key ways, such as trimming spending over 10 years and shunning President Obama's call for tax increases on the wealthy and corporations.

But Mr Boehner's approach would force another debt-limit showdown during next year's presidential campaign, something Mr Obama has fiercely opposed.

Mr Reid's plan would see the ceiling lifted until after the November 2012 elections.

Analysts predict a last-minute scramble for a compromise and razor-edge votes in both chambers, with the high-stakes game of legislative brinkmanship expected to continue all weekend.

Washington hit its debt ceiling in May, but has used accounting adjustments, as well as higher-than-expected tax receipts, to continue operating.

In recent decades, the US Congress has increased the government's borrowing authority dozens of times as a matter of routine.

But this year newly elected conservative Republicans have demanded steep cuts to the budget deficit as the price of an increase.

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Virtual people to get ID checks

29 July 2011 Last updated at 00:12 GMT Is that cyclops the same one you saw yesterday? The faces and behaviour of online avatars could help identify the people controlling them, scientists believe.

Using both characteristics, researchers hope to develop techniques for checking whether the digital characters are who they claim to be.

Such information could be used in situations where login details are not visible or for law enforcement.

Impersonation of avatars is expected to become a growing problem as real life and cyberspace increasingly merge.

Signature moves

Avatars are typically used to represent players in online games such as World of Warcraft and in virtual communities like Second Life.

As their numbers grow, it will become important to find ways to identify those we meet regularly, according to Dr Roman Yampolskiy from the University of Louisville.

Working out if their controller is male or female has an obvious commercial benefit, he said. But discovering that the same person controlled different avatars in separate spaces would be even more useful.

As robots proliferate we will need ways of telling one from the other, said Dr Yampolskiy.

"It's useful for profiling of avatars for marketing purposes by businesses in virtual worlds," explained Dr Yampolskiy.

"It also has some applications in forensic tracking of avatars across multiple virtual communities."

The technology may also have implications for security if a game account is hacked and stolen.

Behavioural analysis could help prove whether an avatar is under the control of its usual owner by watching to see if it acts out of character.

The research looked at monitoring for signature gestures, movements and other distinguishing characteristics.

Limited expressions

Researchers discovered that the lack of possible variations on a avatar's digital face, when compared to a real human, made identification tricky.

However, those limited options are relatively simple to measure, because of the straightforward geometries involved in computer-generated images.

Dr Yampolskiy's team generated large data sets made up of many possible faces in Second Life and Entropia Universe and then studied them to spot key characteristics.

"It's very preliminary work as we are still collecting data," he said. "So far we have been very successful."

Dr Yampolskiy pointed out that another factor driving the need for avatar identification was the increasing use of telepresence and augmented reality.

Especially for businesses, it will be important to ensure that on-screen facsimiles represent the people they purport to.

Further work by the group will extend the identifying work and behaviour monitoring to robots.

As more and more machines start to work alongside people access to controlled areas would rely on being able to tell one from another.

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Jilted generation

28 July 2011 Last updated at 23:26 GMT By Alvin Hall Poorer Than Their Parents, BBC Radio 4 Thousands of young people have protested against rising tuition fees and poor job prospects Many young people in Britain are set to be in a worse economic position than their parents, but is there any sympathy among older generations and is their cause gaining support from politicians?

"I'm 100% livid, I think that's the best way of putting it. We're going to get more angry than we are now."

Twenty-five-year-old City worker George Lewkowicz is mad about the economy.

He is typical of many young Brits under the age of 30 who have come to realise that their financial prospects are substantially less bright than that of their parents' generation.

When I first met George last year, he predicted young people would take to the streets - and he was proved right as thousands of students from across the UK protested against the rise in university tuition fees and the scrapping of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA).

Today, George predicts this disquiet is only set to escalate:

"There is this huge population of older people who have essentially had it all, and my generation are then paying for their retirement."

When this dawns on people, George argues, "the riots will happen".

Pessimism

Shiv Malik, author of Jilted Generation - a book which examines the prospects for the 80s generation onwards - looks at his peers and sees further evidence of the impact a financially tight future is having on young people.

Continue reading the main story

If you ask people 'Is Britain going to be a better place to live in five years time?', the majority are saying no”

End Quote James Morris Greenberg Quinlan Rosner "From my middle-class cohort of friends - people who should be doing well - they're delaying having children, having families, settling down. They don't know what to do with their lives.

"They get personally depressed about this stuff, and it's a quiet depression that happens everyday.

"No-one is paying attention to it, and that's the most upsetting thing. The impacts are going to be huge."

Is the sense of pessimism that Shiv sees among his friends valid, or are young people just whining?

James Morris, pollster with Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and former speechwriter for Ed Miliband, says his research confirms Shiv's observation across generational lines.

British youth unemployment hit a record high in 2011 and commentators fear a "lost generation"

"If you ask people 'Is Britain going to be a better place to live in five years time?', the majority are saying no.

"If you ask older people... there's a consensus that this generation of teenagers, and particularly people in their 20s, are going to have a much harder time than their parents did."

However, Mr Morris makes an interesting qualification.

He says that while the dominant view among young people is that success requires effort, there is an important difference.

"If you look at my grandparents' generation, the kinds of hours they worked, the kind of work they did, the drudgery of [the] work... it's something young people today aren't minded to accept.

"They want a more interesting career. So there's a legitimate concern here that people's expectations about a decent job have changed."

Political priority

But what do the accused - the baby boomers - think?

James Morris says his research indicates that people in their 40s and 50s are the most pessimistic about the prospects for the younger generation - they are more worried about young people than young people are themselves. So does the older generation feel they have a responsibility to do something about it, too?

"They don't buy into that," say James.

George Osborne (left) and Ed Miliband have concerns over future generations' debt

"Baby boomers don't feel like their wealth should be taken away from them and moved to the younger generation.

"They feel the government ought to act to create the right sort of opportunities for younger people to move on."

Pollsters like James Morris see evidence of a gathering movement of support of the financial prospects of young people, and are advising the Labour Party that this is something people really care about.

And party leaders from across the political spectrum are responding by making this a real priority.

Continue reading the main story

We need to address consequent problems... but it's not fair to have a revolution where most of the victims are of a certain age”

End Quote Angus Hanton The Intergenerational Foundation In the government's Spending Review announced last October, the Chancellor George Osborne put forward the case that "there is nothing fair about running huge budget deficits, and burdening future generations with the debts we ourselves are not prepared to pay".

Labour leader Ed Miliband is taking a slightly longer-term view. He talks about the "promise of Britain" - the expectation that next generations will do better than the last, whatever their birth or background.

He says he is worried that is being eroded.

Who will shout loudest?

There are also some signs of sympathy among the baby boomer generation. Angus Hanton, a baby boomer himself, has founded a new think-tank called The Intergenerational Foundation to lobby for fairness between the generations.

He sees clear culpability on the part of his older peers.

"Let's take my own house [which] I bought 16 years ago for ?160,000. It's in south-east London. It's now worth about ?1.15m.

"So I've gained a million pound windfall to which I do not feel entitled, and that windfall, at the moment, is tax-free. Were I to sell [the house], there's no tax on that gain."

Continue reading the main story

Alvin Hall's Poorer Than Their Parents continues on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 30 July at 12:00 BST and is repeated on Wednesday 3 August at 15:00 BST.

"It may appear very lucky for me, but the reality is when I sell, it will probably be to a younger person who'll be getting a mortgage and spending most of their working life paying off that windfall which went to me. I don't think that's fair."

Angus Hanton recognises that people from across the generations face a tough financial future, but he offers a final observation that captures the bottom-line perspective for Britain's youth:

"We need to address consequent problems... but it's not fair to have a revolution where most of the victims are of a certain age."

On this the under-30s would definitely agree.

But with government spending being slashed, it is not just students who have taken to the streets in protest.

Just as young people may feel they have started to persuade the politicians and opinion formers about the seriousness of their plight, the generations before them are not sitting by quietly waiting to see what happens - as the recent pension protest in London showed.

One must wonder: since there are so many baby boomers in the UK - an estimated 12 million - will their protests drown out the voice of the disaffected youth?

Alvin Hall's Poorer Than Their Parents continues on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 30 July at 1200 BST and Wednesday 3 August at 1500 BST. Listen again via the BBC iPlayer or by downloading the Money Box podcast.

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FA urgently needs reform say MPs

Whittingdale MP wants FA overhaul

The Football Association has been urged by MPs to make big changes in the way the game is run in England.

A report by MPs stresses the need to address the financial instability and the levels of debt in football.

John Whittingdale MP said: "Significant changes need to be made to the way the game is run to secure the future of England's football heritage."

Portsmouth became the first Premier League club to go into administration in February 2010.

"No one doubts the success of the Premier League in revitalising English football," Whittingdale said.

"But it has been accompanied by serious financial problems throughout the football league pyramid."

The Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee [chaired by Whittingdale] has recommended that more rigorous measures should be introduced to promote a sustainable business and should underpin self-regulation measures introduced by the Premier League and the Football League.

Continue reading the main story

The FA is the organisation for the job, but it has some way to go getting its own house in order before it can tackle the problems in the English game

John Whittingdale MP

The report also suggests that a strong fit and proper persons test is consistently applied, and that the selling of a club's ground should not take place unless it is in the club's interest.

The Committee report also said that "there is no more blatant an example of lack of transparency than the recent ownership history of Leeds United" and has urged the FA to investigate if necessary with the assistance of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

Other recommendations include an end to the Football Creditor's Rule, an FA review of expenditure at grass roots level, and a restructuring of the FA board.

"The FA is the organisation for the job, but it has some way to go getting its own house in order before it can tackle the problems in the English game, and address the future," Whittingdale added.

"We need a reformed FA to oversee and underpin a rigorous and consistent club licensing system and robust rules on club ownership, which should be transparent to supporters."

Continue reading the main story Matt Slater,
BBC sports news reporter

"The Culture, Media and Sport Committee's report on Football Governance is 112 pages of good sense and honorable intentions. Those eight evidence-gathering sessions, hundreds of written submissions and trips to see what German football looks like were not wasted. Sadly, we have been here before: many, many times. Government interventions into English football have been as regular and pointless as England's failures in summer tournaments. MPs get bored, ministers move on, governments change, football stays the same. Will this time be any different?"

The Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee's findings now pass to Sports Minister Hugh Robertson, who will co-ordinate the Government's response and relay to football's governing bodies which recommendations it would like to see adopted.

"We will look carefully at the report in detail before setting out the Government's plans in our response," Robertson said.

"But it's clear that no change in the areas of governance, financial regulation, transparency and the involvement of supporters is not an option.

"There is a moment here for the football authorities to respond positively and decisively to both the content and spirit of the report and we will be working with them to achieve this," he added.

Shadow Sports Minister Ian Austin was equally supportive of the measures and recommendations made in Friday's report.

"The game needs strong leadership on governance issues, transparency for every professional club and proper involvement for supporters and fans because giving fans a bigger stake in their clubs and a greater say in the decisions which are made by football's governing bodies should be an integral part of modern football," Austin said.

"In the period ahead it is important that the FA build on reforms to be considered by their shareholders next month and the Premier League embraces the need for change by making a clear commitment to improved governance arrangements."

Some of the recommendations made may not meet with the Premier League's approval, but the corporation have said they will await the Government's response before reacting to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee's findings.

David Bernstein took on the role of FA Chairman in December 2010

"The CMS Select Committee has undertaken a lengthy and considered inquiry into the governance structures of English football, one we were happy to contribute to with both written and oral evidence," the Premier League said in a statement.

"We, along with the other football authorities, will now consider the report's contents and await the Sports Minister's response before taking a view on the recommendations and any part the Premier League may have to play in implementing them."

Supporters Direct, which gives advice and funding to fans wanting to enhance representation and set up trusts at clubs, has welcomed the report into football governance in England.

Brian Burgess of Supporters Direct said: "The Select Committee's inquiry has provided a welcome opportunity to consider the challenges facing football in this country and hear the views of the fans.

"With 52 clubs who are or have been in the top 92 having suffered from insolvency events since 1992 it is clear that things cannot carry on as they are.

"We look forward to working with the Government, the FA, the Premier League and the Football League to develop practical solutions to respond to the report's recommendations," Burgess added.

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Premium travellers boost BA group

29 July 2011 Last updated at 08:46 GMT International Airlines Group CEO Willie Walsh: "It's good to be back in the black"

International Airlines Group (IAG), formed by the merger of BA and Iberia, has swung to a first-half profit of 39m euros (?34m), boosted by a rise in premium travellers.

That compared with a 419m-euro loss made in the same period a year earlier.

But it said fuel costs had risen 34.8% to 2.4bn euros in the six-month period and said that fuel was still a "significant issue".

The company expects its annual fuel bill to total 5.2bn euros.

BA and Iberia completed their merger in January this year.

'Significant growth'

Revenues for the half-year rose 17.9% to 7.8bn euros.

The company also reduced its net debt by almost a half to 480m euros.

IAG said it had seen "continued strength in premium markets", adding that while its long-haul business was stable, the short-haul European market remained "highly competitive".

"We expect significant growth in operating profit this year, with improvements in both our unit revenue and unit cost performance versus 2010 and are on track to reach our synergy targets," IAG said.

But it said it expected the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the political unrest in North Africa and the Middle East to reduce its operating profit for the year by 90-100m euros.

Charles Stanley analyst Douglas McNeill said: "These are good results at the upper end of expectations but the year-ago period was depressed by the ash cloud crisis and strikes at BA."

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