Following several years of research and development of the finger vein pattern recognition technology at the Hitachi, Ltd., Central Research Institute in 1997, the company received a substantial number of patents. Because of the unique and “non-traceable” nature of the biometric technology, counterfeiting is not possible. Given the progress of today’s ubiquitous information society, the need for practical and accurate biometric solutions is growing at a fast pace. Finger vein pattern recognition meets effectively these demanding requirements and allows for the efficient deployment of biometric authentication devices for a variety of applications. Hitachi has now commercialized the operating system and various applications including PC login devices and validation devices for ATMs for various fields in Japan. The validation device for ATMs is fast becoming a de facto standard, with about 80 percent of the financial institutions in Japan adopting finger vein biometrics as of the end of March in 2007 (Based upon our independent ATM market analysis within Banking sector).

As adoption levels of finger vein pattern recognition increase in Japan, the level of interest in the overseas market is also increasing. To date, Hitachi is seeing sales increases of the device in Southeast Asia, including Singapore. In addition, growth potential is expected in the United States and Europe, particularly for access control and related applications. Hitachi recently installed a system at the Shinkin Central Bank, New York branch.

Hitachi increasingly is focusing its businesses on creating solutions to answer various market trends aiming at the achievement of a safe, comfortable, ubiquitous information society, exemplified by making finger vein technology the de facto standard for high-security biometrics.

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

Addressing the Biometrics Institute’s annual conference in Sydney, Ruddock said the Council of Australian Governments has agreed to investigate how biometric security measures could be adopted by all the state’s and territories.

This is part of the National Identity Security Strategy which aims to strengthen existing identity processes and to make sure procedures are consistent across the country.

It supports the establishment of a national A$28.3 million Document Verification Service announced in the recent federal budget. “We need to beat criminals at their own game and biometric identification can help us do this,” Ruddock said.

And while everyone has a right to privacy, Ruddock said, “There can be no greater invasion of a person’s privacy than the theft of their identity”. He said one challenge with biometric use is the lack of consistent standards.

Read more at InterGovWorld

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (financialservices.frost.com), North American Electronic Access Control Markets – Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities reveals that revenues in this market totaled $1.32 billion in 2006, and estimates this to reach $4.19 billion in 2010.

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants an overview of the latest analysis of the North American Electronic Access Control Markets – Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities, then send an email to Sara Villarruel - Corporate Communications at sara.villarruel[.]frost.com with the following information: your full name, company name, title, telephone number, email address, city, state, and country. We will send you the information via email upon receipt of the above information.

“The North American EAC market is increasingly driven by mandates and other standardization procedures undertaken across the different verticals,” notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Janani Sankaran. “Biometrics, in particular, is emerging as the fastest growing segment of the North American EAC market, benefiting tremendously from legislations such as the Aviation and Transport Security Act.”

Furthermore, in recent months the biometrics industry has achieved a number of compliance milestones. For instance, INCITS and ANSI have approved the BioAPI standard, while INCITS 358-2002 Information Technology-BioAPI Specification and the Common Biometric Exchange File Format (CBEFF) have been augmented for international harmonization. The INCITS Technical Committee M1 has also become the U.S. Technical Advisory Group for biometrics in ISO/IEC JTC 1. All of these milestones indicate a fast maturing market.

Besides biometrics, card-based and audio-video-based EAC segments will also experience growth in the next few years. While the emergence of contactless smart cards will contribute to the growth of the card-based EAC segment, the advent of IP-based surveillance systems will enhance the growth of audio-video-based EAC systems.

However, existing investments in legacy systems could deter the pace of adoption for the more recent EAC systems. Moreover, the shift from magnetic stripe cards to smart cards is progressing at a slower than anticipated pace, and this represents a major challenge for the smart-card based EAC market.

“Integration with legacy systems involves the strengthening of the distribution network, enabling it to be both software and hardware oriented,” says Sankaran. “Additionally, the adoption of a licensing policy that suits all the participants in the value chain is also a significant challenge.”

In order to advance market acceptance and growth, it is imperative to have licensing policies that not only promote end-user interests, but also ensure vendor profitability. Price reduction will also aid significantly in ensuring market growth, which will result from increased competition and consequently better quality products.

Fingerprint and iris scans were used for screening more than 3,000 passengers who volunteered to take part in the trial on Cathay Pacific and Emirates flights to and from Dubai and Hong Kong.

The miSense trial was aimed at testing the feasibility of advanced passenger screening in the UK, which would allow the traveller’s details to be checked against various intelligence and immigration databases and ‘watch lists’ before being allowed to board a flight.

Read more 

Voice biometrics technologies take advantage of the fact that each person’s voice is a unique and unobtrusive identifier, like a fingerprint. For contact centers that support banking, telecommunications and other industries, voice biometrics proves to be a cost-effective way to enhance security and improve customer convenience.

Wittel will look for opportunities to seamlessly integrate and support PerSay’s extremely reliable text-dependent VocalPassword and text-independent, transparent FreeSpeech speaker verification products into contact center solutions for Brazil’s leading financial services and telecommunications providers.

“Wittel is committed to offering our clients the most advanced technologies available to combat fraud. PerSay’s voice biometrics solutions clearly deliver cost-effective security, increase call center efficiency, and enhance the customer experience,” said Carlos Louro, President of Wittel. “The timing of this partnership is perfect; Brazil’s leading financial and telecom providers are looking for new approaches-like voice biometrics-to reduce the incidence of fraud.”

“This is a unique opportunity for PerSay to partner with a dominant player in Brazil that can help us bring value to an emerging market here,” said Ariel Freidenberg, Executive VP, PerSay Global Sales and Development. “PerSay is well positioned to deliver simple, natural, voice-based identification and verification solutions to the broad spectrum of telecom and financial services customers in Brazil-from the average consumer to high-net-worth individuals.”

The European airport security market looks set for robust growth, particularly in the wake of continued terrorist threats, new European Union (EU) airport security regulations, rising passenger traffic and the increasing need to upgrade installed security equipment, as well as integrate this with newly implemented technology.

Opportunities are particularly lucrative in the biometrics and explosive detection sub-segments, where small start-up companies offering innovative technologies can expect favourable financial backing from venture capitalist firms.

“While there are over 491 airports in Europe as of March 2006, another five to six airports are currently under construction with a plan for twenty other airports to be upgraded,” notes Frost & Sullivan Financial Analyst Rani Cleetez. “In addition, the privatisation of certain European airports will necessitate better security equipment, in order to meet the latest international security standards, as well as to ensure world class airport status.”

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The Iris Recognition Immigration System (Iris) at Gatwick Airport’s South Terminal lets registered passengers enter the UK without queuing to see an immigration officer at passport control.

Air travellers enrolled in the scheme can walk up to an automated barrier, look into a camera and, if the system recognises them, enter the UK.

The biometric technology works by photographing and storing a passenger’s iris patterns in a database, along with their passport details and immigration status in the UK.

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CellMax Systems specializes in highly accurate identification and verification of the human voice for access control. The company’s product suite includes a range of ID management and security applications for the telecom, financial and security markets with unprecedented rates of accuracy* and tailored to individual client needs.

In targeting the call center market, the partners intend to provide improved secure voice-based e-commerce transactions over telecommunications networks. In over-network transactions, voice has shown to be the least invasive, most readily available and the only technology that can be applied over phone lines. CellMax Systems’ technology enables higher levels of identification and verification, but keeps costs low by increasing process automation, raising quality of service and reducing wait time to provide a rapid return on investment (ROI).

Multitek will serve as both local integrator and regional distributor for CellMax Systems’ technology for call/contact centers, with exclusive license in the Panamanian market, and non-exclusive activity in the neighboring markets of Costa Rica and Colombia. Multitek is the official local partner to Cisco, Polaroid, HP, Hyundai, Linux, Olympus, Sharp among others, providing technology to Panama’s burgeoning contact center industry, as well as financial institutions and security agencies.

Eran Singer, VP Sales of CellMax Systems, Ltd., today said, “Multitek is a major force in intelligent solutions provision, telephony, Internet and retail in Latin America and we are honored to join forces with them. Additionally, their active involvement in the Panama Canal Free Zone empowers our partnership with the potential to access regional markets easily.”

Daniel Bettsak, Director General of Multitek Corp., stated, “Adding CellMax Systems’ voice biometrics solution to our range of intelligent solutions means added value to our customers, raising their levels of security and controlling access to sensitive customer data at the most reasonable cost. We’re looking forward to making this solution commonplace in the Latin American contact center space – the fastest growing in the world, serving both the Spanish and English language commercial and financial markets – as well as the security agencies that protect the Panama Canal region.”