Tag Archives: biometric

EBTS the Movie, “Inside the FBI’s EBTS”: Using Google’s NotebookLM to Create Videos From Non-Copyrighted Material

Do you want to skip the book and watch the movie version? Thanks to Google’s NotebookLM, you can.

I used the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Electronic Biometric Transmission Specification (EBTS) for this exercise.

What should you NOT upload to NotebookLM?

But there’s two things I need to say about the EBTS:

  • First, the EBTS is a public document and not a top secret document. You can download the EBTS yourself from the https://fbibiospecs.fbi.gov/ebts-1/approved-ebts-1 URL. For my test I used version 11.3 of the EBTS from earlier this year.
  • Second, the EBTS is a public domain document and is not copyrighted. This is something I need to emphasize. If you’re going to take a magazine article and make a movie out of it, the copyright holder may have something to say about that.

Both points are important. If you want to upload your employer’s confidential report into NotebookLM for analysis…well, you probably shouldn’t. But the public, non-copyrighted EBTS is safe for this exercise.

Uploading the EBTS to NotebookLM

So I uploaded the EBTS into NotebookLM, and as expected, I received a short text sumnmary of the document.

“This document outlines the technical specifications for the electronic exchange of biometric and biographic information between various law enforcement agencies and the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Next Generation Identification (NGI) System. It details the Transaction Offense Types (TOTs), which are the standardized requests and responses used for services such as identification, verification, investigation, and data management. Furthermore, the text specifies the precise data fields, formats, and codes required for the submission and retrieval of diverse biometric data, including fingerprints, palm prints, facial images, and iris scans, while also setting forth image quality specifications for scanner and printer certification.”

Now I could continue to query NotebookLM about the document, but I chose to request a video overview instead. This feature was introduced a few months ago, but I missed it.

“Video Overviews transform the sources in your notebook into a video of AI-narrated slides, pulling images, diagrams, quotes, and numbers from your documents. They distill complex information into clear, digestible content, providing a comprehensive and engaging visual deep dive of your material.” 

So I launched the video overview creation feature, and waited. As I waited, I mused upon the time it would take me to create this video manually, and I also mused on the usual LLM warning that the result may contain inaccuracies.

I didn’t have to wait that long, maybe 15 minutes, and Google delivered this 7-minute video.

Inside the FBI’s EBTS. Created by Google NotebookLM based upon EBTS Version 11.3.

Not too bad…especially considering that the video was created based upon a single source. Imagine if I had provided multiple sources, such as an old version of the Electronic Fingerprint Transmission Specification (EFTS); then the video may have covered the evolution of the standard.

Oh, and I also created a 12-minute audio version, which NotebookLM structures as a two-host podcast. This is similar to the podcast I generated in late 2024 about…me.

Unpacking the EBTS standard. Created by Google NotebookLM based upon EBTS Version 11.3.

In an environment where many people like to watch or listen rather than read, this helps provide a quick overview. But you still have to dive into the document and read it to truly understand it.

Reducing Biometric Marketing Internal Bias By Using Bredemarket

Identity/biometric marketing leaders continuously talk about how their companies have reduced bias in their products. But have they reduced bias in their own marketing to ensure it resonates with prospects?

I recently talked about the problem of internal bias:

“Marketers are driven to accentuate the positive about their companies. Perhaps the company has a charismatic founder who repeatedly emphasizes how ‘insanely great’ his company is and who talked about ‘bozos.’ (Yeah, there was a guy who did both of those.) 

“And since marketers are often mandated to create both external and internal sales enablement content, their view of their own company and their own product is colored.”

Let’s look at two examples of biometric marketing internal bias…and how to overcome it.

Google Gemini.

Internal bias at Company A

  • Company A does not participate in the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Face Recognition Technology Evaluation (FRTE) for technical reasons. 
  • As a result, the company’s marketing machine constantly discredits NIST FRTE, and the company culture is permeated with a “NIST is stupid” mentality. 
  • All well and good…until it runs into that one prospect who asks, “Why are you scared to measure yourself against the competition? Does your algorithm suck that bad?”

Internal bias at Company B

  • Company B, on the other hand, participates in FRTE, FATE, FRIF (previously FpVTE), and every other NIST test imaginable. 
  • This company’s marketing machine declares its superiority as a top tier biometric vendor, supported by outside independent evidence. 
  • All well and good…until it runs into that one prospect who declares, “That’s just federal government test data. How will you perform in our benchmark using our real data and real computers?”

Internal bias at Bredemarket 

Well, I have my admittedly biased solution to prevent companies from tumbling into groupthink, drinking of Kool-Aid, and market irrelevance.

Contract with an outside biometric product marketing expert. (I just happen to know one…me.)

Google Gemini.

I haven’t spent 30 years immersed in your insular culture. I’ve heard all the marketing-speak from different companies, and I’ve written the marketing-speak for nearly two dozen of them. I can ensure that your content resonates with your external customers and prospects, not only with your employees.

All well and good…until…

Reducing internal bias at Bredemarket 

“But John, what about your own biases? IDEMIA, Motorola, Incode, and other employers paid you for 25 years! You probably have an established process that you use to prepare andouillette at home, based upon a recipe from 2019!”

Google Gemini.

I don’t…but point taken. So how do I minimize my own biases?

My breadth of experience lessens the biases from my past. Look at my market-speak from 1994 to 2023, in order:

  • We are Printrak, a nimble private company that will dominate AFIS with our client-server solution.
  • We are Printrak (stock symbol AFIS) a well-funded public company that will dominate AFIS, mugshot, computer aided dispatch, and microfiche.
  • We are Motorolans, and our multi-tier Digital Justice Solution has a superior architecture to that of Sagem Morpho and others.
  • We are MorphoTrak, bringing together the best technologies from MetaMorpho and Printrak BIS, plus superior French technology for secure credentials and road safety…unencumbered by the baggage that weighs down MorphoTrust.
  • We are IDEMIA North America, bringing together the best technologies from MorphoTrust and MorphoTrak for ABIS, driver’s licenses, and enrollment, coupled with the resources from the rest of IDEMIA, a combined unbreakable force.
  • We are Incode, not weighed down with the baggage of the old dinosaurs, and certainly not a participant in the surveillance market.

Add all the different messaging of Bredemarket’s clients, plus my continuous improvement (hello MOTO) of my capabilities, and I will ensure that my content, proposals, and analysis does not trap you in a dead end.

Reducing internal bias at your company 

Are you ready to elevate your company with the outside perspective of a biometric product marketing expert?

Let’s talk (a free meeting). You explain, I ask questions, we agree on a plan, and then I act.

Schedule a meeting at https://bredemarket.com/mark/

Stop losing prospects! Use Bredemarket content for tech marketers

Identity and Expression

(Part of the biometric product marketing expert series)

Whether you are a human or a non-person entity (NPE) with facial recognition capability, you rely on visual cues to positively identify or authenticate a person. Let’s face it; many people resemble each other, but specific facial expressions or emotions are not always shared by people who otherwise look alike.

All pictures Google Gemini.

But in one of those oddities that fill the biometric world, you can have TOO MUCH expression. Part 3 of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Document 9303, which governs machine readable travel documents, mandates that faces on travel documents must maintain a neutral expression without smiling. At the time (2003) it was believed that the facial recognition algorithms would work best if the subject were expressionless. I don’t know if that holds true today.

But once the smile is erased, any other removal of expression or emotion degrades identification capability significantly. For example, closing the eyes not only degrades facial recognition, but is obviously fatal to iris recognition.

And if you remove the landmarks upon which facial recognition depends, identification is impossible.

While expression or lack thereof does not invalidate the assumption of permanence of the biometric authentication factor, it does govern the ability of people and machines to perform identification or authentication.

Communicate with the Words of Authority

Biometric marketing leaders, do your firm’s product marketing publications require the words of authority?

John E. Bredehoft of Bredemarket, the biometric product marketing expert.

Can John E. Bredehoft of Bredemarket—the biometric product marketing expert—contribute words of authority to your content, proposal, and analysis materials?

I offer:

  • 30 years of biometric experience, 10 years of product marketing expertise, and complementary proposal and product management talents.
  • Success with numerous biometric firms, including Incode, IDEMIA, MorphoTrak, Motorola, Printrak, and over a dozen biometric consulting clients.
  • Mastery of multiple biometric modalities: friction ridge (fingerprint, palm print), face, iris, voice, DNA.
  • Compelling CONTENT creation: blog posts, case studies and testimonials, LinkedIn articles and posts, white papers.
  • Winning PROPOSAL development: managing, writing, editing for millions of dollars of business for my firms.
  • Actionable ANALYSIS: strategic, market, product, competitive.

To embed Bredemarket’s biometric product marketing expertise within your firm, schedule a free meeting with me.

Make an impact.

When the Games Stopped: March 11, 2020

In late 2019 and early 2020 I was working on a project promoting biometric entry at sports facilities and concert venues…until a teeny little worldwide pandemic shut down all the sport and concert venues.

Some of you may remember that a pivotal day during that period was March 11, 2020. Among many many other things, this was the day on which basketball fans awaited the start of a game.

“8 p.m. [ET; 7 p.m. local time]: In Oklahoma City, it was just another game day for Nerlens Noel and his Thunder teammates, who were warming up to play the visiting Utah Jazz.”

The day soon became abnormal after a meeting between NBA officials and the two coaches. Unbeknownst to the crowd, the officials and coaches were discussing a medical diagnosis of Rudy Gobert. (That’s another story.)

“8:31 p.m. [ET]: Teams were sent back to their locker rooms but the crowd at Chesapeake Energy Arena weren’t informed of the cancellation immediately. Instead, recording artist Frankie J, the intended halftime entertainment, put on his show, while officials decided how to break the news.”

Eight minutes later, the crowd was instructed to leave the arena.

Twenty minutes after that, the NBA suspended all games.

Imagen 4.

A little over a month later, on April 19, millions of people were huddled in their homes, glued to the opening episode of a TV series called The Last Dance…the only basketball any of us were going to get for a while. And of course, these games were on decades-long tape delay, and we already knew the outcome. (The Chicago Bulls won.)

And that was our basketball…until the suspended season resumed on July 30 under very bizarre circumstances.

Anyway, all of that was a very long time ago.

Imagen 4.

Games and concerts have been back in business since 2021, and identity verification and authentication of venue visitors with biometrics and other factors is becoming more popular every year.

Drew Mabry Recommends a Human in the Loop: Trust Me, It’s Critically Important

I’m conducting an experiment in which an AI bot, “Bredebot,” is writing on the Bredemarket blog and on LinkedIn with almost no restrictions.

Don’t do this at home. It’s not a good idea.

This post describes an example in which Bredebot misses a critically important point about Bredemarket’s target audience in the identity/biometric industry.

Bredebot reacts to Drew Mabry

Earlier today, I asked Bredebot to write a post analyzing a Drew Mabry quote:  

“The true competitive advantage isn’t the Al tools themselves but how you use them. Your unique processes for data capture, knowledge management, and building trust are the real ‘moat.’ Al becomes powerful when it’s integrated with your proprietary insights and context, making your approach impossible to replicate.”

Moat. I like that. Imagen 4 (via Bredebot.)

Mabry also advocates including a human in the loop: his firm, Fast + Light, always asks at least one human (preferably two) to review all AI-generated content.

In my Bredebot experiment, I rarely edit what Bredebot says. If you know me, it’s very obvious that Bredebot wrote this and I didn’t.

“Building Trust: In the identity and biometrics space, trust isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s paramount. If customers don’t trust you with their most sensitive data, you simply don’t have a business. Your processes for privacy, security, transparency, and ethical AI usage are not just compliance requirements; they are fundamental differentiators. How you communicate these efforts, how you manage data breaches (heaven forbid!), and how you constantly reinforce your commitment to security are all part of this trust-building moat. This is where your wombat customers, usually burrowing away, will emerge to praise (or criticize) your efforts.”

While I certainly agree with the sentiment, and obviously don’t mind the reference to wombats, I would have made one change.

The t word

I would have modified Bredebot’s use of the T word. Just because Mabry used it doesn’t mean that Bredebot has to do the same.

Why not? Because the word “trust” is massively overused in the identity/biometric industry. So much so that you can’t tell one company from another.

Imagen 4.

“Now perhaps some of you would argue that trust is essential to identity verification in the same way that water is essential to an ocean, and that therefore EVERYBODY HAS to use the t-word in their communications. 

“Don’t tell that to Black Ink Tech, who uses the trademark ‘Truth Over Trust.’

“And no, they didn’t violate any law by using an unapproved word. Instead, they got attention by standing out from the crowd.”

And identity/biometric firms are the primary hungry people (target audience) for the Bredemarket blog.

So I definitely would have edited that paragraph.

So why didn’t I?

Changing the subject

I’m going to dodge that question by asking you one.

Do you need an experienced human to help your identity, biometric, or technology organization product marketing?

  • Strategy and/or tactics?
  • Content and/or proposals and/or analysis?

Visit this page to set up a free meeting with Bredemarket. I’ll ask some questions to get things moving.

Stop losing prospects! Use Bredemarket content for tech marketers

The Transitive Property, Technology, Biometrics, Content, and Product

Follow along.

If I am the technology product marketing expert…

…and if I am the biometric product marketing expert…

…and if content marketing and product marketing significantly overlap…

…then I am not only the biometric content marketing expert…

…but am also the technology content marketing expert.

I’m claiming it all.

Technology Product Marketing Expert

Are you a technology marketing leader, struggling to market your products to your prospects for maximum awareness, consideration, and conversion?

I’m John E. Bredehoft. For over 30 years, I’ve created strategy and tactics to market technical products for over 20 B2B/B2G companies and consulting clients.

But my past isn’t as important as your present challenges. Let’s talk about your specific needs and how I would approach solving them.

Consulting: Bredemarket at https://bredemarket.com/mark/

Employment: LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/in/jbredehoft/

Technology product marketing expert.

Battling deepfakes with…IAL3?

(Picture designed by Freepik.)

The information in this post is taken from the summary of this year’s Biometrics Institute Industry Survey and is presented under the following authority:

“You are welcome to use the information from this survey with a reference to its source, Biometrics Institute Industry Survey 2025. The full report, slides and graphics are available to Biometrics Institute members.”

But even the freebie stuff is valuable, including this citation of two concerns expressed by survey respondents:

“Against a backdrop of ongoing concerns around deepfakes, 85%
agreed or agreed strongly that deepfake technology poses a
significant threat to the future of biometric recognition, which
was similar to 2024.
“And two thirds of respondents (67%) agreed or agreed strongly
that supervised biometric capture is crucial to safeguard against
spoofing and injection attacks.”

Supervised biometric capture? Where have we heard that before?

IAL3 requires “[p]hysical presence” for identity proofing. However, the proofing agent may “attend the identity proofing session via a CSP-controlled kiosk or device.” In other words, supervised enrollment.

Now remote supervised enrollment and even in-person supervised enrollment is not a 100.00000% guard against deepfakes. The subject could be wearing a REALLY REALLY good mask. But it’s better than unsupervised enrollment.

How does your company battle deepfakes?

How do you tell your clients about your product?

Do you need product marketing assistance? Talk to Bredemarket.

Stop losing prospects! Use Bredemarket content for tech marketers