* FERET overview
  John Paul Jones, July, 2001

  FERET, a Department of Defense project initiated in 1993 and
  completed  in early 1998, entailed the disbursment of public
  funds  into  three  main  areas:  1)  research   grants   to
  universities;  2) development grants to private corporations
  that used the publicly  funded  research  to  implement  the
  technology;  3)  government-sponsored  testing  wherein  the
  publicly funded but privately  owned  corporations  competed
  for development grants. Thus, from start to finish, the face
  scan technology appears to have  be  funded  primarily  with
  tax-payer money and designed to meet criteria established by
  the federal government. Once developed, the  technology  was
  primarilly  bought--again with tax-payer money--by state and
  federal government agencies of the United States, as well as
  foreign  governments, e.g., China, interested in the control
  and tracking technology.



  The Department of Defense is now  scurying  to  improve  the
  existing  face  scan  technology through a 50 million dollar
  extravaganza of compassion and control  called  the  HumanID
  project.  Once again, the DoD is funding university research
  with the goal of identifying people 500 feet from  a  sensor
  in   a   variety  of  lighting  and  background  situations,
  according to Wired Magazine, March 14, 2001, which fact  can
  be   verified   by   visiting   the  Department  of  Defense
  CounterDrug Technology Development Program Office web  site,
  where  you  can read about the new Facial Recognition Vendor
  Test 2000. The following corporations submitted systems  for
  evaluation  in  the  FRVT 2000: Banque-Tec International Pty
  Limited C-Vis Computer Vision  and  Automation  GmbH,  eTrue
  (formerly Miros), Lau Technologies, Visionics Corporation.

  (Note: That this technology was  purchased primarilly with
  tax-payer money can be verified by looking at the list of
  Viisage and Visionic Corporation's first customers, as of
  01/20/2000:

  U.S. Federal and State agencies:

  NSA, DoD, INS, DARPA, NIJ (National Institute of Justice)
  Army Research Labs, ARKANSAS, MASSACHUSETS, FLORIDA, NEW
  MEXICO, CONNETICUT, ILLINOIS, WISCONSIN, ARIZONA,
  NEW JERSEY

  Foreign Governments:

  Communist China
  Eastern Europe
  Philipines
  Isreali Ministry of Defense (MOD)