FaceKey will join with Argon ST in responding to a Department of Defense Request for Information for the development of a tactical biometric device for the American military in the form of a handheld miniaturized device providing multi-modal identification technology. Part of FaceKey’s role will be to supply Fingerprint Recognition, as well as Face Capturing and Face Recognition Technology for the miniaturized weapon. FaceKey will also be providing their Search and Match Advisor Technology.

Industry specialist Royston Flude has been tapped to head Identica Corp.’s new European office to serve the company’s international demand for its vascular biometric technology and credentialing solutions. Dr. Flude, a physicist and engineer, formerly occupied senior positions with Shell Chemicals, Reed International, Lafarge Coppeé, Philips and Manpower.

Biometric Services International (BSI) held the first meeting of the Biometric Technology Working Group (BTWG) in Morgantown, WV on October 9, 2007. The BTWG, comprised of vendors, manufacturers, integrators, and government and private sector users was established by BSI to assess user requirements and define industry development priorities to address those requirements. The group will issue a State of the Biometric Industry Report that will include specific recommendations on Standards and Interoperability; Education & Training; Socio-Political Impact and Technology. Twenty-three organizations participated in the meeting. The next meeting of the group is scheduled for mid to late January.

By leveraging the latest BioIDENTICA® SDK from Bromba GmbH, realtime North America, Inc. announced that its bioLock software is now compatible with over 50 standalone USB fingerprint devices such as the UPEK Eikon reader and over 100 models of laptops with built-in fingerprint readers. bioLock can restrict the logon to SAP applications (security level I), every transaction (level II), and any fields or info types (level III). Independent from the user of an SAP solution, bioLock will uniquely identify the actual user and log his or her activities into the standard log file. With this identity management tool for SAP solutions, one now has proof who did what and when within the system. Also, the latest version of bioLock now has an ‘invitation only’ function. An ‘invitation only’ table defines which person is invited to use which function.

bioMETRX, Inc. and Master Lock Company have announced the availability of the Master Lock smartTOUCH™ garage door opener at Home Depot retail locations. The universal garage door opener recognizes its user by simply touching the device. The product works with most automatic garage door openers, such as Craftsman®, Genie®, Marantec®, Wayne Dalton® and others. It can recognize up to 20 different users. The national rollout to more than 1,900 U.S. Home Depot stores represents the largest and widest distribution of a consumer biometric product in the United States, according to bioMETRX.

The White House has released an updated National Strategy for Homeland Security document but does it say anything new? Prepared by the Homeland Security Council advisory group, the report outlines preparedness and prevention efforts, including border security, surveillance, biometrics and information-sharing. It covers ID cards, cargo identification and tracking, passenger screening and cyber-security threat detection and neutralization. In addition, the strategy discusses biometrics as an effective tool in establishing identity to help protect against terrorism. Also, it states the United States should continue to encourage countries that are not participating in the Visa Waiver program to develop and deploy biometric passports. The strategy asserts a need for enhanced screening programs involving various identity documents such as the WHTI and Real ID Act. Furthermore, the report said, the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program should make continued efforts to expand its biometrics to 10 fingerprints, from two, when visitors enter the country. However, no mention is made in that section of the report of Congress’ requirement to implement the U.S. Visit program to track visitor exits.

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Cherry Electrical Products will unveil its G83-14601 and G83-14701 series keyboards with include an integrated AuthenTec AES 2501B fingertip swipe sensor at the Biometrics 2007 Conference. The G83-14601 also features a PS/SC smart card reader at the top of the keyboard which is compatible with the CardMan 3121 software package. Operating systems included: Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, XP 64Bit, CE, Linux, Mac OS X and Vista.

The Department of Defense’s Biometrics Task Force (BTF) has outgrown its mission and organizational home to the point that it has become its own ongoing entity known as the Biometrics Defense Agency (BDA) which will cover use of the technology in all aspects of military operations. The BDA will mandate the scope and direction of biometric efforts and explain who does what with biometrics in DoD. The focus of the BTF has been on the war on terrorism and by creating this agency officials hope to refocus it on information assurance.

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Afraid of biometrics because you think they are unsanitary and germs are being spread? Purdue University’s Biometric Standards, Performance and Assurance Laboratory has conducted a study to determine how much bacteria live on biometric devices after use. The researchers found that while the glass surfaces of fingerprint or hand geometry scanners may contain prints or other dirt, they only harbor the same amount of bacteria as typical doorknobs. During the study, three types of biometric devices (fingerprint, hand geometry and vein recognition) were coated with staph and E. coli bacteria. Subjects, wearing sterile gloves, touched the devices and the transfer of bacteria was measured. An identical test on a metal doorknob found that the bacteria transferred to subjects’ hands were nearly identical to that of the biometric devices.

Bioscrypt’s VeriSoft logical and physical access manager has received the Best Buy award in SC Magazine’s Biometric Tools 2007 review. Also, its V-Station fingerprint reader and VisionAccess 3D Face Reader received perfect marks in all categories of features, ease of use, performance, documentation, support and value for money.