Sequiam Biometrics, a consumer-centric fingerprint biometrics technology company headquartered in Orlando, Florida, has designed and developed a range of products that are set to change our everyday lives. These products are trademarked by Sequiam Biometrics as Consumer and Lifestyle Biometrics products (CLBs).

Sequiam Biometrics flagship product, the BioLock, is both affordable and user-friendly. The BioLock functions as a deadbolt, retailing for under $300. This price point matches the cost of mid-range traditional locks currently sold in the marketplace – an important factor in enticing consumers to purchase innovative new technologies at affordable prices. In addition, the BioLock is designed such that it aesthetically resembles a conventional door lock thus retaining the consumer mindset of having a traditional door lock with enhanced convenience and security features.

The launch of Sequiam Biometrics’ consumer-focused biometric products has resulted in biometrics technologies entering the mainstream consumer market.

Crossing the chasm - “Sequiam Biometrics’ vision is to transform a biometrically-enabled security product into a convenience product for consumers,” says Nicholas VandenBrekel, CEO of Sequiam Biometrics.

“Sequiam Biometrics foray into the consumer biometrics marketplace is a very encouraging step for the industry. Biometrics being inculcated into our everyday lives is a significant shift in the current dynamics of the market, heralding the value and benefits of convenient security solutions,” says Sapna Capoor, Frost and Sullivan Industry Analyst.

Rigorous testing and validation of consumer products is undertaken by Sequiam Biometrics to ensure that only totally reliable products are introduced in the marketplace. To ensure this, Sequiam Biometrics has invested heavily in research and development (R&D) for many years. This evaluation process has involved piloting products with a cross-section of consumers and modifying the product based on direct consumer feedback.

Sequiam Biometrics’ extensive consumer biometric product portfolio includes products for the following key market sectors:

• Home Security Systems (BioVault, BioLock, Early Adopter OEM product)
• Financial
• Healthcare
• Hospitality Industry

Sequiam Biometrics has focused its energies on developing a wide range of consumer lifestyle biometric applications that are designed to serve these vertical markets. Also, in the pipeline are exciting products that will further enhance convenience levels for consumers that would normally not even consider integrating biometrics into their lifestyles. The compelling consumer value proposition that is Sequiam Biometrics is ready to engulf consumers in a gripping manner.

In what looks to be the beginning of the end in terms of Tony Blair’s farewell, the PM has touched on the government’s society, human rights and foreign policy.  Here’s the juice:

I don’t want to live in a police state, or a Big Brother society or put any of our essential freedoms in jeopardy. But because our idea of liberty is not keeping pace with change in reality, those freedoms are in jeopardy … we can only protect liberty by making it relevant to the modern world. That is why identity cards using biometric technology are not a breach of our basic rights, they are an essential part of responding to the reality of modern migration and protecting us against identity fraud …

In the next parliamentary session, the centrepiece will be John Reid’s immigration and law and order reforms. I ask people of all parties to support them. Let liberty at last stand up for the law-abiding citizens in this country.

The new anxiety is the global struggle against terrorism without mercy or limit. This is a struggle that will last a generation and more. But this I believe passionately: we will not win until we shake ourselves free of the wretched capitulation to the propaganda of the enemy, that somehow we are the ones responsible …

If we retreat now, hand Iraq over to al-Qaida and sectarian death squads and Afghanistan back to al-Qaida and the Taliban, we won’t be safer; we will be committing a craven act of surrender that will put our future security in the deepest peril …  [source]

Similarly timed was an advert in the Guardian depicting Tony Blair as a Hitler, labelled with a barcode above his lip.  I was pretty disgusted to see this kind of reference.  The tagline was, “id cards have worked well in Europe before.” 

The pressure group, No2ID, claim the government’s ID scheme will “choke” practical freedoms, with the simplest things in life “no longer under your control.”  Now, how does carrying a new form of identification suddenly turn you into a caged animal?  Everyone should be free to do what they like.  Why are background checks manditory on school workers?  That’s an invasion of their privacy.  But I bet No2ID supporters would be a little miffed at a pedophile teaching their 9 year old son about what makes babies.  They seem all for making life easy for terrorist organisations in our country, though.  I would be interested to know two things - 1) the average age of the no2id supporter and 2) the number of no2id supporters who have fallen victim to identity theft or experienced the threat of terror first hand.

How does biometrics constitute a new level of privacy invasion?  The photograph on my passport is a physical identifier.  I am not scared that other identifiers that are slightly more technical may be used.  Bring on the ID card, because I have nothing to hide.

BOSaNOVA, Inc., announced today a strategic partnership with biometric authentication solution company Valid Technologies. The partnership will further enhance BOSaNOVA’s award winning line of thin client solutions by providing users fully integrated state of the art biometric technology.

“The integration of VSSA biometric user verification with BOSaNOVA thin clients provides enterprise IT with the base architectures urgently needed to create a truly productive, manageable, and secure user environment,” says Gregory Faust, President of Valid Technologies. “IT and users both win with a client and security platform that is extremely easy to use and highly versatile. The solution is highly competitive on initial cost and has a total cost of ownership far below that of deploying traditional PC clients and user authentication solutions based on complex passwords or multi-layered solutions.”

Valid Technologies’ Valid Secure System Authentication (VSSA) is a biometric authentication solution that delivers enhanced security to thousands of customers worldwide. The combination of VSSA and BOSaNOVA thin clients provides users with increased security and improved productivity with the touch of a finger.

“After extensive research into secure authentication BOSaNOVA chose Valid Technologies due to their superior technology and our shared commitment to the IBM midrange market,” says BOSaNOVA President, Martin Pladgeman. “We’re excited about biometric technology as a perfect complement and logical extension to our other productivity and security features such as Single Sign-On and SSL encryption.”

Bioscrypt Inc., a leading provider of identity verification technology, today announced the release of the latest version of its VeriSoft Access Manager software application, designed to comply with Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS 201) Personal Identity Verification (PIV) requirements. The product will be on display at the ASIS 2006 Expo from September 25-27 at booth 4127.Under the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 mandate, the PIV program uses a credential (smart card) that will contain two fingerprint templates (compliant with the ANSI/INCITS 378 fingerprint minutiae data interchange format standard) to verify and provide user authorization when accessing either a federal building or computer (physical or logical access).

Among the new features introduced to VeriSoft, to comply with PIV2 requirements, is the ability to register PIV2 cards for network authentication as well as PIV2 card integration with all VeriSoft applications and services. VeriSoft supports all of the FIPS 201 assurance levels for card authentication and provides interfaces for developers to use Bioscrypt’s GSA-certified algorithm to write ANSI/INCITS 378 fingerprint templates to the card.

Further to the previously-announced listing of the ANSI/INCITS 378 fingerprint algorithm on the FIPS 201 Evaluation Program Approved Product List, Bioscrypt has now met the requirements for logical access with this release of VeriSoft. The company is also in the process of addressing the requirements for physical access by introducing a new reader to its Veri-Series line.

“We believe Bioscrypt’s Door to Desktop® technology can help government organizations address FIPS 201 mandated biometric and card access control for both facilities and computers,” said Robert L. Williams, President and CEO, Bioscrypt Inc. “With our fingerprint algorithm already qualified for use in the PIV program, our new VeriSoft application designed for PIV, and a physical access control reader being manufactured to address PIV requirements, we look forward to having the opportunity to assist the US government in its efforts to enhance security, increase efficiency, reduce identity fraud and protect personal privacy of their federal employees and contractors.”

IBM has invested a quarter of a billion dollars in a ‘mock bank’ intended to showcase future technology, designed to protect and monitor activity in the so-called Armonk.

Financial services executives will be allowed into the bank to gain a window into the technologies set to enhance their future operations.

The facility includes a surveillance system that monitors how much time customers spend in different sections of the branch and to what extent they are viewing product displays, biometric authentication devices that recognize users through the veins in their fingers, and automated teller machines that take deposits and recycle the cash for dispensing.

Big Blue has set up similar facilities in the U.S., China, and Europe.