- Email: [email protected]
Viisage deal is done
NEWS
In brief • Viisage has been awarded a US$734,000 contract extension to fund the third phase of its facial recognition project with the Pinellas County's Sheriff 's Office (PCSO) in Florida. The supplier will focus on the expansion of the project into other Florida-based law enforcement agencies. Earlier work saw the introduction of image capture systems at detention facilities, jail visitation centres and courthouses, as well as initiatives to implement face recognition capabilities in patrol cars. • Iridian Technologies and the General Directorate of Abu Dhabi Police have announced that the iris-based National Expellees Tracking and Border Control System has processed over one million travellers todate. The system was implemented to deter illegal immigrants from entering the United Arab Emirates (UAE) via air, land and sea ports of entry. The system has caught over 4,300 illegal or expelled immigrants carrying false travel documents.
26 October 2004. Slovenia is one of the 27 countries that have a visa waiver arrangement with the USA. According to a report by the European Biometric Forum, Bojan Trnovsek, an undersecretary at the country’s Interior Ministry said that the country will do all it can to start issuing passports with biometric features. Trnovsek said that the introduction of passports with biometric features was not an easy task, and indicated that Slovenia’s interior minister Rado Bohinc has appointed a special task force to deal with issues involving technology and implementation. Slovenia will be consulting other countries and international organisations regarding the introduction of these measures. The country is also awaiting the International Civil Aviation Organization’s update to its initial recommendations, which is expected this March.
company news
ZN/Viisage deal is done After almost a year of waiting, the acquisition of ZN Vision Technologies by Viisage Technology has been completed, creating the biometric industry’s largest facial recognition technology company. The deal, which was first announced in March 2003, had been severely hampered by questions from the US Securities and Exchange
• A bingo hall in Wyoming is using a biometric system from Solutions Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of T & G2. The SecureTime Biometric ID System is being used to track employee access and timekeeping. • The European Patent Office has announced its intention to grant Fingerprint Cards a patent - EP1330185 - based on a swipe sensor system design. The patent describes a system based on a sensor that reads partial images from a moving fingerprint, and where the sensor surface is considerably smaller than the fingerprint area itself. The company has also filed corresponding patent applications in Japan and the USA.
Biometric Technology Today • February 2004
Commission (SEC) surrounding Viisage’s method for recognising revenues on its drivers’ licence contracts. While the deal may have proceeded at snail’s pace over the last year, the companies have been proactive in working together on a number of major contracts – the companies’ combined offering has been at the heart of deals with the Province of Alberta, Canada, the State of Oklahoma, USA, and the United Arab Emirates. The new company could have approximately 50% of the overall facial recognition market, some analysts have calculated. Certainly, the geographical reach of the supplier is impressive, with Germany-based ZN having had a strong presence in Europe and Viisage being one of the market leaders in the USA. In terms of technology, the companies say that they have made good progress in bringing together the Eigenface technology from Viisage and the hierarchical graph matching technology from ZN. This integration will be central to the future company’s success. (Viisage’s technology development had apparently not kept pace with its closest rivals, such as Identix, in recent years, while ZN has reportedly got one of the better systems on the market.) Contact: Ralf Biesemeier at ZN, Tel. +49 234 9787 25, Fax +49 234 9787 77, email: [email protected] Bill Aulet at Viisage, Tel: +1 978 952 2200
Events Calendar 23–25 February 2004 Miami Beach, Florida, USA
26–29 April 2004 Washington, DC, USA
The Winter 2004 Biometrics Summit This annual biometric industry event is focusing on case studies, legal issues and general activities within the biometric identification community. Contact: ALI Conferences, Tel: www.aliconferences.com
This annual smart card, ID and biometric conference and exhibition is focusing on technological realities this year. There have been fewer attendees in recent years but this is still a large event comprising a sizeable exhibition and wide range of relevant conference seminars. Contact: Thomson media Tel: +1 212 803 8777, www.ctst.com
12–16 April 2004 Orlando, Florida, USA
15–17 July 2004 Hong Kong
Biometric Technology for Human Identification
International Conference on Biometric Authentication
Part of the SPIE Defense and Security Symposium, the purpose of this conference is to provide a scientific forum for researchers, engineers, system architects, and designers to report recent advances in this important area of human identification using biometrics. Contact: Bonnie Peterson email: [email protected], http://spie.org
This conference is designed for researchers, engineers and vendors from different disciplines to exchange ideas, identify problems, evaluate system performance, and explore new research directions. The conference will also include three competitions: FVC2004 (Fingerprint), FAC2004 (Face) and SVC2004 (Signature Verification). Contact: www4.comp.polyu.edu.hk/~icba
CardTech/SecurTech
5
In brief • Viisage has been awarded a US$734,000 contract extension to fund the third phase of its facial recognition project with the Pinellas County's Sheriff 's Office (PCSO) in Florida. The supplier will focus on the expansion of the project into other Florida-based law enforcement agencies. Earlier work saw the introduction of image capture systems at detention facilities, jail visitation centres and courthouses, as well as initiatives to implement face recognition capabilities in patrol cars. • Iridian Technologies and the General Directorate of Abu Dhabi Police have announced that the iris-based National Expellees Tracking and Border Control System has processed over one million travellers todate. The system was implemented to deter illegal immigrants from entering the United Arab Emirates (UAE) via air, land and sea ports of entry. The system has caught over 4,300 illegal or expelled immigrants carrying false travel documents.
26 October 2004. Slovenia is one of the 27 countries that have a visa waiver arrangement with the USA. According to a report by the European Biometric Forum, Bojan Trnovsek, an undersecretary at the country’s Interior Ministry said that the country will do all it can to start issuing passports with biometric features. Trnovsek said that the introduction of passports with biometric features was not an easy task, and indicated that Slovenia’s interior minister Rado Bohinc has appointed a special task force to deal with issues involving technology and implementation. Slovenia will be consulting other countries and international organisations regarding the introduction of these measures. The country is also awaiting the International Civil Aviation Organization’s update to its initial recommendations, which is expected this March.
company news
ZN/Viisage deal is done After almost a year of waiting, the acquisition of ZN Vision Technologies by Viisage Technology has been completed, creating the biometric industry’s largest facial recognition technology company. The deal, which was first announced in March 2003, had been severely hampered by questions from the US Securities and Exchange
• A bingo hall in Wyoming is using a biometric system from Solutions Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of T & G2. The SecureTime Biometric ID System is being used to track employee access and timekeeping. • The European Patent Office has announced its intention to grant Fingerprint Cards a patent - EP1330185 - based on a swipe sensor system design. The patent describes a system based on a sensor that reads partial images from a moving fingerprint, and where the sensor surface is considerably smaller than the fingerprint area itself. The company has also filed corresponding patent applications in Japan and the USA.
Biometric Technology Today • February 2004
Commission (SEC) surrounding Viisage’s method for recognising revenues on its drivers’ licence contracts. While the deal may have proceeded at snail’s pace over the last year, the companies have been proactive in working together on a number of major contracts – the companies’ combined offering has been at the heart of deals with the Province of Alberta, Canada, the State of Oklahoma, USA, and the United Arab Emirates. The new company could have approximately 50% of the overall facial recognition market, some analysts have calculated. Certainly, the geographical reach of the supplier is impressive, with Germany-based ZN having had a strong presence in Europe and Viisage being one of the market leaders in the USA. In terms of technology, the companies say that they have made good progress in bringing together the Eigenface technology from Viisage and the hierarchical graph matching technology from ZN. This integration will be central to the future company’s success. (Viisage’s technology development had apparently not kept pace with its closest rivals, such as Identix, in recent years, while ZN has reportedly got one of the better systems on the market.) Contact: Ralf Biesemeier at ZN, Tel. +49 234 9787 25, Fax +49 234 9787 77, email: [email protected] Bill Aulet at Viisage, Tel: +1 978 952 2200
Events Calendar 23–25 February 2004 Miami Beach, Florida, USA
26–29 April 2004 Washington, DC, USA
The Winter 2004 Biometrics Summit This annual biometric industry event is focusing on case studies, legal issues and general activities within the biometric identification community. Contact: ALI Conferences, Tel: www.aliconferences.com
This annual smart card, ID and biometric conference and exhibition is focusing on technological realities this year. There have been fewer attendees in recent years but this is still a large event comprising a sizeable exhibition and wide range of relevant conference seminars. Contact: Thomson media Tel: +1 212 803 8777, www.ctst.com
12–16 April 2004 Orlando, Florida, USA
15–17 July 2004 Hong Kong
Biometric Technology for Human Identification
International Conference on Biometric Authentication
Part of the SPIE Defense and Security Symposium, the purpose of this conference is to provide a scientific forum for researchers, engineers, system architects, and designers to report recent advances in this important area of human identification using biometrics. Contact: Bonnie Peterson email: [email protected], http://spie.org
This conference is designed for researchers, engineers and vendors from different disciplines to exchange ideas, identify problems, evaluate system performance, and explore new research directions. The conference will also include three competitions: FVC2004 (Fingerprint), FAC2004 (Face) and SVC2004 (Signature Verification). Contact: www4.comp.polyu.edu.hk/~icba
CardTech/SecurTech
5