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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will hold a testing event for electronic passports that features biometric data. The test should increase technological complexity and will probably irritate many national governments, chip vendors, and reader makers. At a three-day meeting, many questions arose as to whether those affected are ready to meet an extended deadline for implementation that has been set for October 26, 2005. By that time, 27 visa-waiver countries will have to issue biometrically enabled, machine readable passports or their citizens will not be allowed to enter the U.S. The countries affected include most of Europe, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. Among topics covered are the reactions of various European stake-holders and Secretary of State Colin Powell, who fears that an unrealistic deadline will for all practical purposes ensure that systems will not be interoperable. Still to be developed for product components are benchmarks for gauging speed, performance, and acceptance ratio for biometric technology. A spokesman for Philips Semiconductors says the company is working on making the package as thin as possible, while assuring stability. 'ICAO standards, which make passport interoperability feasible, do not address the backbone system,' says a spokesman for Infineon.
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