Secure printing market leader Jetmobile announced today the release of SecureJet Auth-Fingerprint, a biometrics user authentication system for HP LaserJet multifunction printers and digital senders. This product controls the usage of all the device functions by adding a professional fingerprint enrollment and recognition system, securing its access, stopping unauthorized usage and allowing the tracking per user.

MFPs and Digital senders are active parts of the IT infrastructure, being capable of sending emails, accessing network folders or even being the walkup node of sophisticated document workflow solutions. Ensuring outgoing emails sent from MFPs have genuine and accurate sender email address, or that only authorized users can use fax, color or black and white copiers, is part of current IT departments security and cost control concerns. Providing fast and reliable authentication for other functions such as secure printing, virtual private mailbox, fax or workflow increase productivity and user satisfaction.

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Mecklenburg County, NC, Sheriff Jim Pendergraph will announce at a press conference Monday, July 17, the implementation of a Sex Offender Registry and Identification System (SORIS). This system uses cutting edge technology to register and positively identify convicted sexual predators using iris recognition biometric technology, the quickest and most accurate identification technology available.

Iris recognition biometric technology positively determines the identity of an individual by capturing a high-resolution digitally encrypted photograph of an individual’s iris. The technology can tell the difference between twins or even an individual’s right and left eye. The technology is non-intrusive - requiring the person to simply look into the camera. “The eyes never lie,” said Sean Mullin, president and CEO of Biometric Intelligence & Identification Technologies, the developer of the SORIS system.

“July 17th marks the official beginning of this important project,” said Sheriff Pendergraph. “The SORIS system will provide my office with a new tool for protecting children by quickly identifying registered sexual offenders in our community. I look forward to demonstrating the system’s capabilities at the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association conference.”

SecurePhone is a system that boost security by verifying the identity of somebody making a phone call or sending a text message.

“As far as we know there is no other biometrically-enabled digital signature application available for mobile devices that can guarantee security by storing and processing all sensitive information on the device’s SIM card,” explains SecurePhone technical coordinator Roberto Ricci at Informa in Italy. “Because biometric data never leaves the device’s SIM card and cannot be accessed, except by the verification module which also runs on the SIM card, the user’s biometric profile is completely safe. This is important to meet the highest privacy requirements.”

The system, which is designed primarily for PDA-phones but could also be used in new generation smart phones and WiFi-enabled PDAs, offers three methods of biometric identification. One employs the digital cameras that have become commonplace in mobile devices along with a face recognition application to identify the user based on their facial features. Another uses voice recognition software – also detecting any asynchrony between speech and lip movements - and the third verifies the handwritten signature of the user on the device’s touch screen. The three methods are used in combination to enhance the overall levels of security and reliability, and most importantly they require no hardware additions to mobile devices.

Read more at CORDIS, or see SecurePhone’s website.

Viisage Technology Inc. moved again to strengthen its portfolio of biometric systems for homeland security and access control Monday by acquiring an iris-scanning company, Iridian Technologies Inc., for $35 million in cash.Since last year, when longtime defense executive Robert LaPenta engineered a $100 million investment in Viisage, the Billerica, Mass.-based company has used acquisitions to expand from its intial core in facial-recognition technology into fingerprint and iris biometrics.

In January, Viisage spent $770 million in stock to buy fingerprint biometrics provider Identix Inc. The following month Viisage grabbed iris scanner SecuriMetrics Inc. for $28 million in cash.

The Iridian deal is expected to close next month. Moorestown, N.J.-based Iridian, which has 27 employees and is privately held, is to be combined with SecuriMetrics.

Once the deal is complete, LaPenta expects to rename Viisage as L-1 Identity Solutions to reflect the company’s status as a full-service biometrics vendor.

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..according to an editorial today at CityWire. Placed well to capitalise on the influx of demand for biometric security caused by 9/11, RC Group believes the demand for biometrics is growing on a global scale, and that it is well placed to take full advantage.

Offering both biometric and radio frequency identification (RFID), Raymond Chu, RC Chief Executive, belives the company is ideally placed. He explained that the two technologies may be used in tandem, offering the example of a laptop. Facial recognition will keep unwanted visitors out, while RFID will track the laptop until it leaves the premesis. At this point, facial recognition returns via CCTV, ensuring that the laptop is in the possession of it’s rightful owner.

‘The message about biometrics is getting through,’ said Chu. ‘We use it in my own office, and once you have, you’d never go back.’