ImageWare® Systems, headquartered in San Diego, California received a one-year, multiple award initial task order contract valued in excess of $100,000 from Boeing Integrated Defense Systems unit. ImageWare will support Boeing customers and help drive awareness of systems capabilities and solutions. In addition, ImageWare will integrate its IWS™ Mediator™ solutions, including two-way speech to speech and multilingual chat, into Boeing’s open architecture program environments, which include its Command and Control Middleware and Information Assurance applications.  

Futronic Technology Company’s FS88 USB2.0 Fingerprint Scanner was certified by FBI to be compliant with PIV-071006 Image Quality Specification for Singer Finger Reader. This means that FS88 meets the US Federal Information Processing Standard 201(FIPS 201) for Personal Identification Verification (PIV) of Federal Employees and Contractors. After FBI certification, FS88 is listed in the US General Services Administration (GSA) FIPS 201 Evaluation Program Approved Product List. Using the Hong Kong-based company’s proprietary advanced CMOS sensor technology and precise optical system, FS88 meets rigorous requirements on fingerprint image quality of PIV-071006. It provides a cost effective solution for border control, identity card, driver license, voter registration and any type of civilian AFIS applications that need superior finger image quality for accurate authentication.  

The City of Tahlequah in Oklahoma is using eleven Ingersoll Rand Schlage HandPunch 3000 terminals to track and manage the city’s 129 employees. Eight of the hand geometry terminals reside on the city’s network while three remote locations use dial-up mode to transfer time and attendance data to the HR Department. The employee enters an ID number and then places a hand on the platen of the HandPunch terminal. Verifications take less than a second. Sue Stacy, Tahlequah’s Human Resources Director, for one, loves the system. Stacy states “The system calculates everything, including hours, sick leave and vacation. It provides better management and tracking of our employees.”  

What used to take two days is not taking 30 minutes, according to UKvisas, the UK’s visa checking agency.

The program has been rolled out in stages since 2007 and has already handled more than 1 million applicants, according to the ZDNet UK. The system collects fingerprints and digital photographs to make sure visas are not given to those previously removed from the country or anyone traveling under a false ID. The system is in use at the UK’s 150-plus issuing posts.

The UK is using a system from PA Consulting Group and Software AG.

Read the full story here.  

Titanium Group Ltd., San Jose, Calif., has developed a facial recognition sign-on system for the Hong Kong Immigration Department. The biometric sign-on solution, with audit trail, uses human face authentication combined with traditional user ID and password for securing the department’s Electronic Passport System. Further information was not available.  

Biometrics will be used to screen construction workers entering the Olympic grounds in London, according to The Times in London. Olympic organizers are also considering using the technology to screen the 9 million ticket holders to the 2010 games.

The Times states that facial and palm recognition will enable 100,000 construction works access to the site. The story, however, shows a picture of a fingerprint scanner. The use of biometrics is part of a £354 million strategy to secure the 500-acre Olympic Park during its construction, which starts in June.

Read the full story here.  

Memphis-based biometrics company Snowflake Technologies launched its identity verification system which uses vein pattern recognition. The system identifies enrolled users by scanning the subcutaneous vein patterns in his or her hand by placing a in the device for a second to verify identity. The system works because, like a snowflake, no two vein patterns are alike.

“Once thought to be only part of sci-fi and government espionage movies, biometrics solutions are real and readily available to progressive companies today,” Brad Silver, Snowflake vice president of business development, said. “Forget PINS, signatures and photo IDs. You already have everything you need to confirm your identity, and it’s just below the skin’s surface.”  

Atmel’s FingerChip biometric security solutions will be integrated into Phoenix’s FailSafe and SecureCore Pre-boot Authentication products. Phoenix FailSafe will enable secure, remote tracking of fingerprint sensor data in the event of laptop theft or loss.

SecureCore PBA integrated with Atmel’s FingerChip Biometric Solutions provides for Biometric User Authentication at the preboot level. Phoenix SecureCore PBA enables user authentication from core systems software (also known as BIOS or firmware) to the operating system directly, to achieve single sign-on into the Windows O/S environment. Both Atmel and Phoenix are California-based companies.  

Pennsylvania-based Datastrip has announced that the Public Review Draft of the International Symbology Specification – Datastrip 2D - is online.

The specification was developed by AIM Global’s Technical Symbology Committee. Datastrip 2D is a variable-size, variable-density two-dimensional symbology. The bar code can encode text, binary and biometric data, and it includes Reed-Solomon error detection and erasure correction algorithms.

Datastrip 2D is designed to be printed on flat surfaces such as ID cards, driver’s licenses and passports that require machine-readable biometric data. The Public Review process ends March 20, 2008.  

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is expanding the operation of their biometrics-at-sea program to the south Florida Straits. This effort between US-VISIT and the Coast Guard uses mobile biometric technology to identify illegal migrants who are apprehended while attempting to enter the United States through the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and now, the Florida Straits.

Rear Adm. Wayne E. Justice, director of response policy said, “Broadening the scope of the program represents DHS’s commitment to use every tool we have to deter, detect, apprehend, and prosecute illegal migrants, migrant smugglers and smuggling organizations.”