Biometric technologies company Cross Match Technologies Inc. expects to raise $114.2 million after expenses from its portion of an initial public offering totaling 11.8 million shares, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday.In the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Cross Match said it expects the offering to price between $14 and $16 per share.

Cross Match will sell 8.3 million shares of the total offering. Smiths Group plc, a maker of airport x-ray machines, and former Cross Match Chairman Theodore Johnson will sell the remaining 3.5 million.

Cross Match plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol “CROS.”
Source: Forbes

2007, London, UK security software vendor fingerPIN Ltd is gearing up to sign its first distributors as it announces its official channel launch. The company, which has been operating since June 2006, has been selling via the direct route to the UK market and is now keen to supplement this by establishing a channel quickly. It is due to sign two, as yet unnamed, distributors later this month.

fingerPIN offers OEMs, systems integrators, VARs and distributors logical and physical access solutions using its patented multi-fingerprint sequence technology. The fingerPIN is a biometric fingerprinting technology that increases the complexity of penetrating single fingerprint security methods. It transforms an existing single fingerprint reader into a sophisticated multiple fingerprint reader through a simple software upgrade. Through the fingerPIN the risk of someone fraudulently logging on or accessing a secure area using a third person’s fingerprint data is reduced to 1 in 10,000 trillion1 due to the difficulty of cracking a combination of several unique fingerprints used in a specific sequence.

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A4Vision Inc. today announced that it has won Best Application in the 2007 IP Security Awards for its innovative 3D face biometric technology implementation at a major European bank. The IP Security association (IIPSEC) award recognized the one-of-a-kind access control system installed at the Geneva Headquartered firm that identifies and grants facility access to the 2,100 employees based on a face match and without ID cards, keys or PIN technology. In using only biometric identification, the system eliminates the risk of tokens and keys being lost, stolen or misused.

The IIPSEC Judges Panel concluded, “The European bank implementation of A4Vision technology is an excellent application of an impressive product. It gives the world a look at the future of one of the many ways biometrics will be used not only in financial services but all industries. 3D face recognition is a superior access control technology that can eliminate the use of cards thereby adding convenience and reducing the cost of facility security.”

Adding biometrics, such as 3D face recognition, within an organization’s security infrastructure to verify a person’s identity, ensures that only authorized persons may enter a building through existing entrances.

Grant Evans, A4Vision CEO said, “The recent implementations A4Vision has participated in are clear evidence that the efforts we have made over the past 4 years are driving significant value to the many organizations that are using our technology. Recognition as the best and most innovative IP security application demonstrates the benefits of our system and the future potential of the technology.”

A4Vision’s advanced 3D facial recognition system directs structured, invisible light onto a subject’s face to create a facial grid of 40,000 measurable data points. The system performs multiple facial scans and comparisons against a database of stored images and corresponding data, performing accurate identification at sub-second speeds, from which authorized persons are confirmed for access. A4Vision’s 3D facial readers secure entrance areas of the bank in combination with other security components of the installation.

L-1 Identity Solutions, Inc., a leading supplier of identity solutions and services, is part of the Northrop Grumman team that will provide multiple, fully-integrated multi-modal ABIS systems (Automated Biometric Identification System) to the Department of Defense (DoD) for broad use in the accurate and fast identification of individuals.“Being a part of powerful contract teams like the one led by Northrop Grumman is one of the many important ways for us to contribute to critical biometric identification projects at the federal and international level,” said Robert V. LaPenta, Chairman, President and CEO of L-1 Identity Solutions. “This award is an important milestone in establishing L-1 as a credible AFIS/ABIS supplier and positions us well for future opportunities, including the FBI Next Generation Identification (NGI) initiative expected to be competed sometime during 2007.”

The DoD ABIS system is expected to be critical in providing accurate and fast identification of individuals in the field as part of the global war on terrorism. It will become the biometric repository for all identification types that links to the intelligence community and civilian agencies. The system is initially expected to support up to 2.4 million finger, face, palm and iris records, and a lesser number of unsolved latent prints.

To implement the system that will incorporate, among other things, full-forensic functionality, the Northrop Grumman team, including L-1, will deploy the Identix ABIS System that is based upon underlying FaceIt facial recognition, BioEngine fingerprint technology, and iris recognition technology. Professional services from L-1 also will be included to support legacy data conversion and rationalization, as well as system architecture, design, implementation and ongoing support. Other additional products provided by L-1 include workstations for Ten Print and latent fingerprint examiners, as well as forensic face matching.

The L-1 biometric system will allow for tight integration with DoD service-oriented architectures and will support both centralized and forward-deployed operations using the same software that can support changing and varied sets of mission parameters. This system is highly scalable, providing full criminal AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) functionality seamlessly, whether used on modern blade architectures or portable laptops. The system’s open, standards-based architecture will allow for seamless support of third party legacy collection systems and is designed to support current and future DoD systems, as well as other inter-agency biometric systems.

Validity Sensors, Inc., a privately held biometric company specializing in high quality durable fingerprint sensors, today kicked off its “Hit it with a Hammer” marketing campaign. Due to their extreme ruggedness, Validity sensors are so durable you can literally hit them with a hammer. Validity’s web site (http://www.ValidityInc.com) shows a video clip of a three-pound sledgehammer directly hitting the face of the fingerprint sensor with the sensor surviving intact. A live hammer demonstration will also be on display in Validity’s booth (#IP228, Sands Convention Center) at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV from January 8-11.

Another measure of fingerprint sensor durability and ruggedness is the pen drop test. A standard ball point pen is dropped on the face of the sensor to a height that cracks or breaks the sensor. While other sensors are damaged at a height of 10-20 cm, the Validity sensor can withstand pen drops from beyond 3 meters.

Scratch resistance is also an area which Validity sensors excel. Using a standard pencil hardness test, the Validity sensor continues to perform flawlessly after repeated scratches with a 6H pencil, much higher than competitive solutions.

“The key to ruggedness is making the sensor surface out of Kapton(R) plastic,” said Curt Chandler, Vice President of Technical Marketing at Validity Sensors. “The silicon chip is located away from the actual fingerprint imager and out of harm’s way. This leaves only the plastic exposed, which can take an extraordinary amount of abuse.” The exposed area also has superior resistance to ESD, harsh chemicals and abrasion. These properties promote the Validity sensor as the obvious choice for rugged environments where silicon-based technology sensors will not survive.

For more information about Validity’s LiveFlex(TM) technology, visit: www.ValidityInc.com.