Looks like a competitor, BII, got a bio-ID deal from the Mexican national legislature:
Biometric Identification Inc. to supply
fingerprint ID System to Mexico's
Chamber of Deputies
SHERMAN OAKS, CA - Biometric
Identification, Inc. (BII), a leading innovator in
creating and applying fingerprint authorization and
verification technology, announced today that it has
won the contract to supply Mexico's Federal
Camara de Dipulados (Chamber of Deputies) with
an advanced fingerprint verification and
authorization system that verifies the identity of
each representative voting on every piece of
legislation or motion.
BII's Veriprint 2000 fingerprint device is at the
core of the Mexican legislature's new digital
electronic voting system which has a total contract
price worth over $US 3 million. BII is installing
over 500 of its terminals in the Chamber so that the
legislators can make quorum calls and vote
electronically from their desks. An additional 14
units also will be installed to control access
throughout the recently renovated Palacio
Legislativo. The project is scheduled to be
completed in the fall.
The Veriprint 2000 terminal measures a compact,
6" x 5," and is completely self-contained. The
representative simply places his or her finger on the
unit's scratch-resistant platen. Fingerprint scanning,
enrollment, storage and verification are all
performed by the system's powerful Digital Signal
Processor and memory chips.
Once a legislator's identification has been verified,
he or she can register a vote. A vote of the entire,
500-person Chamber of Deputies can be tallied in
five to seven minutes, vs. more than an hour
previously. Votes are displayed electronically on
panels along the sides of the chamber that list each
legislator's name and show how he or she voted.
The Veriprint 2000 system features BII's
innovative, full-finger, 2Di Ridge Pattern
Recognition fingerprint verification software
system, which images the entire two-dimensional
ridge pattern of the fingerprint, providing several
times more accuracy than other Biometric-based
systems, at one-quarter the size and half the cost.
"The Deputies required the most advanced
technology to deliver maximum security and
convenience, and we are pleased to have been
selected over other Biometric system vendors,"
said Bob Kamm. BII's chief executive officer.
"BII's 2Di software by far provides the best
overall performance, accuracy and price of any
Biometric-based identification system," Kamm
added. "Our superior software uses a full
fingerprint ridge recognition algorithm, and our
advanced hardware design incorporates fully
programmable software."
Mexico is the second nation to use BII's Veriprint
2000 system in its national legislature, according to
Jay Wahl, BII's director for Latin America. Last
year, the Venezuelan legislature installed 290
terminals for use in the Chamber of Deputies and
Senate.
"Safeguarding democratic processes has a high
priority in Latin-American nations," said Wahl.
"Our system makes fraud virtually impossible.
We're proud that we've earned the trust of
governments and local systems integrators in
implementing convenient, unobtrusive, highly
accurate security systems that support democracy
and help build confidence in legislatures."
"Users such as legislators in Mexico and Venezuela
who are custodians of public trust, and everyday
users who need to protect valuable personal
information and intellectual property stored in
computers and networks, demand the kind of
speed, reliability and convenience our systems
deliver," Kamm asserted. "the 2Di algorithms set
the gold standard for accurate, secure, foolproof
fingerprint identification." said Jose Anastasio Villa
De Alba - Technology Director. The 2Di Software
is fully programmable and can be upgraded to
future releases that incorporate advances in the
rapidly evolving microprocessor and biometric
identification fields.
BII's provides biometric security systems and
software used by some of the world's largest
companies, who incorporate BII's technology in
their products to protect home and office access,
as well as access to computers, local area
networks, and the Internet and intranets.
* * *
It looks like BII also uses a pattern recognition algorithm, but from its press releases you'd think that IDX, along with all other competitors, uses a minutiae-based system.
Some background on BII, which is privately owned: It was spun off at the end of 1996 from Arete Associates, a privately-owned 140 person DoD California-based think tank for the past twenty years. BII has licensed its algorithm from Arete. BII itself has a staff of 28. Since the spinoff and through April 30, BII has had revenues of $776,000 and a loss of $1,843,000. In May, it got an infusion of cash from Sonoma Resources Corporation, a Canadian company previously involved in mining in Argentina (huh?) under terms that allowed Sonoma to get a 45% ownership through the use of convertible debentures and the payment of $5 million. According to the June 16 PR announcing this deal, "BII may be merged into or acquired by Sonoma."
Also, according to that PR, "The fingerprint portion of the market is estimated to encompass 77% of the total biometric market." |
