Kessel Run TACFI (Tactical Funding Increase) project leverages Paravision’s face  recognition capabilities to deliver authenticated access to facilities and online services 

SAN FRANCISCO — Sept 7, 2022 — Paravision, the trusted leader in Vision AI, today announced it received an increase in funding, or TACFI, for its U.S. Air Force Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract. The project involves developing and delivering a converged identity solution providing next-generation physical and logical access control for the Air Force’s Kessel Run development facilities and staff. 

The Air Force first granted Paravision the SBIR award in May 2020 to deploy its industry-leading face recognition and computer vision technology with Kessel Run. To this point, Kessel Run has benefited from Paravision’s unique ability to use a singular biometric across identification and authentication use cases, including physical access control and facility security. 

The project’s next phase will build upon Paravision’s existing PLASMA (Physical Logical Access, Security and Management Automation) system’s research and development efforts in AI and machine learning to meet increasing security threats in cyberspace and the physical world. PLASMA focus areas include expanded analytics capabilities, 2D liveness and anti-spoofing, mobile biometric enrollment, deepfake detection, and migration to a cloud-based environment. 

Through multi-factor authentication and real-time analytics, Kessel Run security staff leverage converged identity for both physical and digital access, improving security posture, safety, and overall situational awareness of their facilities. PLASMA enables rapid and effective decision-making and anticipation of future security threats through the power of AI. 

It’s an amazing opportunity to innovate in safety and security with one of the most forward-thinking organizations in the U.S. Government. This next phase of the project will continue to increase efficiency and improve security at Kessel Run and other facilities in anticipation of growing threats to national security in our increasingly interconnected, online world.
Dave Singer, Paravision VP & GM of Public Sector

This January, the National Institute of Standards and Technology ranked Paravision first in its rigorous 1:N Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT), making Paravision the first U.S. company to hold the top position in that benchmark since 2019. In April, the company was ranked first overall in face matching accuracy in the DHS Biometric Technology Rally, notably delivering 100%  accuracy across all demographics. This level of face recognition accuracy, combined with complementary AI-based computer vision technology such as activity recognition, sets the stage for high performance in dynamic workplace environments like Kessel Run.

The news comes after Paravision recently announced that it had received the Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) award from the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center’s (JAIC) Data Readiness for Artificial Intelligence Development program (DRAID). The program enlists US-developed AI solutions as part of the DoD’s ongoing AI transformation and has a total value of $241 million.