bioMETRX announced that several key executives from the former Sequiam Corporation will be working with the company in various roles. Former CEO Chris Barrow and former Chief Biometric Officer and President Kevin Henderson will work with bioMETRX to offer continuation to customers. Chris Barrow will work on global operations and long-term strategic development on behalf of bioMETRX. Kevin Henderson, V.P. of Business Development at bioMETRX will work closely with the COO in defining and pursuing business opportunities for the company.

The House of Representatives of the Philippines may scrap the electronic voting system project former Speaker Jose de Venecia, after lawmakers discovered that the state-of-the-art biometric system failed in a recent dry run. The dry-run last month showed that the e-voting system failed to recognize the thumbprints of those whose data were inputted. Out of 50 prints submitted by House employees, the system recognized only 11. The system - which includes a biometrics machine and laptops for each of the 238 congressmen - was put in place in January during the term of de Venecia who was booted out early February by his colleagues.

LaserCard Corporation has received a follow-on purchase order to supply more than $1 million worth of optical memory cards to the Italian Government to be used as Foreign Resident ID Cards. The purchase order was received from LaserCard’s Rome-based Authorized Value Added Reseller, Laser Memory Card, which supplies and supports Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, the government’s prime contractor on the project. LaserCard has previously supplied approximately $18 million worth of optical memory cards and secure encoders for both the Italian Citizen and Foreign Resident ID Card programs.

bioMETRX has filed 5 new patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The products covered by the filings include tool storage chests, liquor cabinets, gun display cases, portable luggage and mailboxes with added biometric locking and secure access. The company currently owns several patents integrating biometrics into padlocks, thermostats and garage door openers, as well as the use of biometrics as is applied to securing and retrieving electronic medical records.

Fujitaka, a Japanese company has begun development on a vending machine that uses face recognition technology to check a smoker’s age and keep anyone under the age of 20 from having access to cigarettes. Purchasers who failed a digital camera “age test” would need to show the machine an ID card to establish they were legally allowed to smoke. The system compares facial characteristics including bone structure, sags and crow’s feet against a record of more than 100,000 people and Fujitaka says the system gets it right in nine out of ten cases.

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L-1 Identity Solutions and its enterprise access division, Bioscrypt have launched the next generation of its VisionAccess 3D face reader which is intended for corporate and government markets to control entry and exit of facilities. The reader features the most advanced 3D face processing capabilities on the market. In addition, it has the ability to store up to 60,000 face templates for large facility deployments. The system uses the entire facial surface structure of a person’s face. The VisionAccess 3D face reader can also be used in conjunction with proximity cards, smart cards and tokens for multi-factor authentication. The world’s largest casino, the Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel, uses VisionAccess 3D Face Readers to authenticate 12,000 employees and Bioscrypt’s V-Smart fingerprint readers to control access to restricted areas.

Lumidigm and Alphatronics are creating an outdoor biometric access control solution called OctoLine utilizing the Lumidigm Venus fingerprint sensor. The Alphatronics OctoLine is a set of modular components that can be configured into a custom access control solution. The Fingerscan biometric module employs Lumidigm’s fingerprint sensor in indoor or outdoor environments. Other OctoLine modules include contactless card readers (proximity and MIFARE), barcode scanners, LED displays, touch screens, and ticket printers. This rugged access control solution performs outdoors in all weather conditions.

“Alphatronics built their reputation on robust, reliable outdoor access control—they know it better than anyone,” said Bill Spence, Lumidigm’s Vice President of Transaction Systems. “Adding a biometric component expands their markets and meets a growing customer need for reliable fingerprint applications in harsh environments like ports, airports and transportation venues.”

Effective June 1, 2008, Siemens will bundle its identity management and biometrics business at Siemens IT Solutions and Services in the new unit Identity Management and Biometrics. The newly formed unit combines the Siemens IT Solutions and Services biometrics center in Graz, Austria and the solutions for identity and access management from the Siemens Healthcare Sector. The solutions used by Siemens in its projects include biometric solutions for recognizing fingerprints, hand vein patterns, facial shapes and voices.

The Department of Defense’s Biometrics Task Force is releasing a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) for services and supplies for DOD’s biometrics program. The scope of the request for the Biometrics Operations and Support Services-Unrestricted (BOSS-U) contract includes all services, supplies and related hardware and software required to govern DOD’s biometrics program. The BOSS-U contract will have a three-year base period with two one-year option periods. The total value for the contract is expected to be approximately $479 million. DOD expects to release the RFP about 30 days from posting of the notification.

The Sequiam Biometrics ScanQ Fingerprint Authentication Scanner and Software is now being offered as a biometric security option on personal and business computers. The scanner, which is compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista, comes with multi-factor authentication for opening and using specific files, logging into Windows, and an assortment of other security measures. The fingerprint scanner is built right into a mouse for easy space integration. The USB-powered ScanQ is offered for $70.