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Technology Stocks : Safeguard Scientifics SFE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: robert miller who wrote (1202)	3/8/1998 11:34:00 PM
From: John Arnopp	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4467

bob, I am new to this biometrics stuff (as serious investing), but I have been looking into it since Safeguard/XL Vision got involved with LASX, and since Who? Vision started getting all the press. I've also been following the NRID board and others closely, since the Who?/NRID contract. My best guess goes like this: W?V has contracts with SPOT/MAG (monitors and keyboards) to incorporate very cheap & reliable fingerprint readers into products. They have licensed the software to develop the security applications from NRID. (That's all fact.) Then, they sell millions of these things -- half as marketing gimmick and half as real security applications for (mostly) internal networks, (some) electronic commerce/banking, and (very few) commercial web site access. But, the key is that many will be sold and they will become the de facto standard because of their very low price (almost unnoticeable when incorporated into the hardware). It'll be the same thing for cameras on monitors--almost free to get, and it would cost something extra to make them useful, but who wouldn't want them so that they had the opportunity to use them? Anyway, people will realize that they don't want to give their fingerprints to everyone in the world just to get access to a web site. Just like you wouldn't give your SSN to somebody, but you might give a made-up password. So, that's where the LASX cards come in. They've got your fingerprint in them, and so do you. You can use the card to enroll in a web site (really, even into any kind of electronic commerce, because it should be secure enough for that). You swipe a card through an incorporated reader, and also place your finger on the print scanner, then the local software does the compare, and if it's good, you're in and the access code (something else, not your fingerprint) is transmitted to the site for authentication. Therefore, you have almost perfect security, no need for passwords, but you still have to carry the card around. So, that's what I'm thinking now for a tie in between Who? Vision and Lasertechnics (soon to be Acxess, Inc.). Perhaps I'm a lunatic, and there will be no integration, and XL just likes LASX's current business -- but I doubt it. Anybody see anything else here? Thanks, --John PS: Why are you waiting until after the split? I realize the commissions will be less, but I think there will be significant announcements in conjunction with and around the time of the meeting, voting, and splitting/name change. Just my opinion, though.