- Email: [email protected]
Veridicom still waiting for crucial deals to complete
BTT JUNE
6/4/01
11:56 AM
Page 4
(Black plate)
BUSINESS WATCH
In brief • French supplier of fingerprint identification devices Sagem has launched Morphoaccess, a terminal intended for the access control market. The product can be used directly as an access control solution or it can be integrated into existing access control systems. Alternatively, specific biometric applications can be developed via a modular environment running on a standard PC platform. The product also has a real-time clock, allowing it to be used in time and attendance applications, and can operate in both authentication or identification mode, the supplier claims. • AiT’s recently launched healthcare division affinitex has announced a live pilot project for its personal wireless device, VeriMe. Starting in July at a large primary care and teaching hospital in the USA, each user will be enrolled and issued with a personal unit containing their fingerprint templates and a unique key. As a user subsequently approaches a network access point, their VeriMe unit is automatically detected. The user then authenticates themselves via the on-board fingerprint sensor. If successful, the device itself is authenticated, through use of a private key. When the user leaves the terminal they are automatically logged off. affinitex aims to run up to four such pilots over the next few months. • Irish speaker verification system supplier Buytel has completed the outright purchase of SpeakerKey from US firm ITT Industries. SpeakerKey is part of the software that underlies Buytel’s voice verification service, Voicevault. Elsewhere, Buytel recently completed a second round of funding which amounted to 15 million, with Accenture Technology Ventures and WestLB leading the investment.
4
Corporate News
Alliance
Veridicom still waiting for crucial deals to complete
Net Nanny and Snipware will secure credit cards
US silicon fingerprint technology supplier Veridicom is still surviving as it waits for a number of company-saving deals to reach completion. Showing grit and determination to outlive its current financial crisis, the company even managed to man a modest exhibition booth at the recent CardTech/SecurTech show in Las Vegas, USA. Naeem Zafar, a company spokesman, told Btt: “We are now going through the process of signing documents and exchanging money for our chip blueprints. There are still three companies interested in restarting the company, however, one of which is extremely active. I now expect the deals to conclude in June.”
Net Nanny Software International (NNSI) and Snipware are to join forces to develop a user authentication system for online credit card transactions. The companies plan to combine Net Nanny’s keystroke dynamics technology BioPassword with Snipware’s email and password verification protocol to authenticate people using credit cards for internet transactions. When the solution is complete, it could provide a means to cut down online transaction fraud rates, which have been estimated to be as high as 40% in certain product categories by the Internet Fraud Prevention Advisory Council. Meanwhile Net Nanny has also formed a strategic alliance with TouchCredit Financial Services, a provider of payment solutions. The idea is to integrate BioPassword with TouchCredit’s Biometric Credit issuing technology. This creates random, one-time use, time sensitive credit numbers for each online purchase.
Contact: Naeem Zafar at Veridicom, Tel: +1 408 565 6007, Fax: +1 408 565 6016
Financials
Bioscrypt revenue makes headway toward US$13m The newly formed US supplier Bioscrypt has published upbeat results for the first quarter of 2001 and remains confident that it will be able to meet its ambitious yearend target of US$13 million. Revenues for the first quarter reached US$1.86 million, up from US$0.02 million in the first quarter of 2000, although associated this rise was a net loss of US$6.14 million for the quarter compared with US$0.87 million in Q1 2000. Gross margins of the newly acquired BII improved to 20.4% of sales, thanks to cost reduction efforts and because product manufacturing was transferred from the USA to an Asian-based third party. In a separate announcement, fabless semiconductor company AuthenTec said it would bundle Bioscrypt’s algorithm with its fingerprint sensors for PC-based implementations. Bioscrypt uses a pattern recognition algorithm as the basis for its fingerprint authentication systems. Contact: Lorelei Luchkiw at Bioscrypt, Tel: +1 905 624 7717, email: [email protected]
Contact: Nika Herford at NNSI, Tel: +1 425 688 3008, Fax: +1 425 688 3010
Partnership
Viisage drums up business in the Middle East market US face recognition software supplier Viisage has teamed up with Silver Network Electronics, a Kuwait-based supplier, in a bid to drum up business in the Middle East. Silver Networks is a subsidiary of WJ Towel and has carried out over 30 major projects for the Kuwait Defense System with another 10 in the pipeline. According to Viisage’s president and CEO Tom Colotosti: “Their customers have been evaluating biometrics for the last seven to eight years and have selected facial recognition as one of the primary biometrics to be used to enhance existing systems as well as new systems to be installed.” Silver Networks will initially market Viisage’s FacePASS, FaceFINDER and FaceEXPLORER products. Contact: Tom Colatosti at Viisage Technology, Tel: +1 978 952 2211, email: [email protected]
Biometric Technology Today • June 2001
6/4/01
11:56 AM
Page 4
(Black plate)
BUSINESS WATCH
In brief • French supplier of fingerprint identification devices Sagem has launched Morphoaccess, a terminal intended for the access control market. The product can be used directly as an access control solution or it can be integrated into existing access control systems. Alternatively, specific biometric applications can be developed via a modular environment running on a standard PC platform. The product also has a real-time clock, allowing it to be used in time and attendance applications, and can operate in both authentication or identification mode, the supplier claims. • AiT’s recently launched healthcare division affinitex has announced a live pilot project for its personal wireless device, VeriMe. Starting in July at a large primary care and teaching hospital in the USA, each user will be enrolled and issued with a personal unit containing their fingerprint templates and a unique key. As a user subsequently approaches a network access point, their VeriMe unit is automatically detected. The user then authenticates themselves via the on-board fingerprint sensor. If successful, the device itself is authenticated, through use of a private key. When the user leaves the terminal they are automatically logged off. affinitex aims to run up to four such pilots over the next few months. • Irish speaker verification system supplier Buytel has completed the outright purchase of SpeakerKey from US firm ITT Industries. SpeakerKey is part of the software that underlies Buytel’s voice verification service, Voicevault. Elsewhere, Buytel recently completed a second round of funding which amounted to 15 million, with Accenture Technology Ventures and WestLB leading the investment.
4
Corporate News
Alliance
Veridicom still waiting for crucial deals to complete
Net Nanny and Snipware will secure credit cards
US silicon fingerprint technology supplier Veridicom is still surviving as it waits for a number of company-saving deals to reach completion. Showing grit and determination to outlive its current financial crisis, the company even managed to man a modest exhibition booth at the recent CardTech/SecurTech show in Las Vegas, USA. Naeem Zafar, a company spokesman, told Btt: “We are now going through the process of signing documents and exchanging money for our chip blueprints. There are still three companies interested in restarting the company, however, one of which is extremely active. I now expect the deals to conclude in June.”
Net Nanny Software International (NNSI) and Snipware are to join forces to develop a user authentication system for online credit card transactions. The companies plan to combine Net Nanny’s keystroke dynamics technology BioPassword with Snipware’s email and password verification protocol to authenticate people using credit cards for internet transactions. When the solution is complete, it could provide a means to cut down online transaction fraud rates, which have been estimated to be as high as 40% in certain product categories by the Internet Fraud Prevention Advisory Council. Meanwhile Net Nanny has also formed a strategic alliance with TouchCredit Financial Services, a provider of payment solutions. The idea is to integrate BioPassword with TouchCredit’s Biometric Credit issuing technology. This creates random, one-time use, time sensitive credit numbers for each online purchase.
Contact: Naeem Zafar at Veridicom, Tel: +1 408 565 6007, Fax: +1 408 565 6016
Financials
Bioscrypt revenue makes headway toward US$13m The newly formed US supplier Bioscrypt has published upbeat results for the first quarter of 2001 and remains confident that it will be able to meet its ambitious yearend target of US$13 million. Revenues for the first quarter reached US$1.86 million, up from US$0.02 million in the first quarter of 2000, although associated this rise was a net loss of US$6.14 million for the quarter compared with US$0.87 million in Q1 2000. Gross margins of the newly acquired BII improved to 20.4% of sales, thanks to cost reduction efforts and because product manufacturing was transferred from the USA to an Asian-based third party. In a separate announcement, fabless semiconductor company AuthenTec said it would bundle Bioscrypt’s algorithm with its fingerprint sensors for PC-based implementations. Bioscrypt uses a pattern recognition algorithm as the basis for its fingerprint authentication systems. Contact: Lorelei Luchkiw at Bioscrypt, Tel: +1 905 624 7717, email: [email protected]
Contact: Nika Herford at NNSI, Tel: +1 425 688 3008, Fax: +1 425 688 3010
Partnership
Viisage drums up business in the Middle East market US face recognition software supplier Viisage has teamed up with Silver Network Electronics, a Kuwait-based supplier, in a bid to drum up business in the Middle East. Silver Networks is a subsidiary of WJ Towel and has carried out over 30 major projects for the Kuwait Defense System with another 10 in the pipeline. According to Viisage’s president and CEO Tom Colotosti: “Their customers have been evaluating biometrics for the last seven to eight years and have selected facial recognition as one of the primary biometrics to be used to enhance existing systems as well as new systems to be installed.” Silver Networks will initially market Viisage’s FacePASS, FaceFINDER and FaceEXPLORER products. Contact: Tom Colatosti at Viisage Technology, Tel: +1 978 952 2211, email: [email protected]
Biometric Technology Today • June 2001