Legiant, a provider of time and attendance software, has announced the addition of biometric time clock solution HandPunch GT-400, developed by biometric terminal supplier Schlage, to integrate with their own Legiant TimeCard technology. The new system, which is based on new technology, is able to eliminate buddy-punching via biometric clock-in, but additionally brings a variety of employee self-service features to the clock station.

Oklahoma City based biometrics developer, Human Element Biometrics, has developed a tool to help ease the problems associated with current paper sign-in systems at correctional institutions such as halfway houses, according to a News OK article.

With paper based sign-in systems these institutions were never able to be completely sure whether or not those signatures were coming from the people they were supposed to, however, with the company’s new system, fingerprint recognition eliminates the questioning of a signers identity.

Computer with built-in fingerprint readers sales have risen 91% in recent months, according to a Silicon article. Findings from a survey showed many feel this jump in sales is due mostly as a result of computer users tiring of dealing with numerous passwords or pass phrases.

The survery also showed that many of those who did not report tiring of passwords reported that they are overly careless with their computer security choosing high risk passwords such as “password” and/or sharing their passwords with coworkers and friends.

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Australian, British and U.S. agencies worked together to help find a suspected rapist who fled Australia to Britain in 2006, according an Australian IT article. Thanks to fingerprints collected by the U.S. when the man was traveling through the country and the new biometric passport program in the UK, a match was found in an old rape case from Australia even though the man had been successfully living under an assumed name in Britain. The offender is in custody and waiting to appear in court.

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Following rigorous testing of its biometric products such as flash drives, time clocks and mice, Avalon Technology Group (ATG) has been chosen by Biometric Security Group (BSG) to distribute their products to the Gulf Region in the mid east.

BSG’s partners in the region are among the largest IT companies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and Bahrain among others. Although the original order was only for ATG’s time clocks, once the rest of their products finished testing their entire line was added to the order.  

Retica Systems, a developer of iris-based biometric technology, has announced their contract with the U.S. Army for design, development, testing and evaluation of the company’s iris technology for identifying threats from a distance called Eagle-Eyes.

As the need for identifying wanted individuals from a distance has become increasingly important and increasingly hard to pull-off, Retica has worked towards a system that meets those goals. Eagle-Eyes is touted as being capable of scanning a crowd and identifying individuals at varying distances.  

Cognitec, a developer of face recognition technologies, has received the an award for Product Line Strategy of the Year from consulting firm Frost and Sullivan for its FaceVACS kit. The award was given due to the product’s performance and benefits to the end-user.

The collection of FaceVACS capabilities is able to function as a facial search tool, facial scan tool for video surveillance, identification verification for border control, ID card issuance, access control and a kit helping software companies develop new products based on the FaceVACS technology.  

Cryptomathic has released a new product that the company says will accelerate the speed of inspecting electronic passports.

There have been concerns about the time it will take for e-passports to be read at border checkpoints with extended access control (EAC) systems. EAC is an additional security protocol that will be used on European Union passports next year to protect the extra biometric data stored on the travel document.

Unison, a union for Westminster City Council workers, has told the council to boycott the use of biometric time clocks to replace standard punch card clocks due to a lack of consultation prior to their installation as well as union members being suspicious over the council’s ability to properly safeguard the data, according to a Public Service article.

Dean Ingledew, Westminster’s director of community protection, is hoping the city will have the technology up and running soon as it is expected to help alert proper people if someone working alone at night goes missing. Unison, however, refutes that statement as they say no one in the union works alone. Additionally, Unison refutes the claim that the biometric systems will be used for access control as none of the units have been installed at doors as of yet, only within offices.  

L-1 Technology, a developer of biometric technologies, has altered the capabilities of its facial biometric devices by incorporating technology from Texas Instruments (TI), a semi-conductor and multiple other technologies developer. Previously, L-1’s 3d face reader required a connection to a server to operate. Now with an embedded Linux-based database management system from McObject, called eXtremeDB, and embedded processor based on TI’s DaVinci technology, L-1’s face reader, intended for access control purposes, is able to operate as a stand-alone device boosting both speed and convenience for the user.