FB
This has been a very active year for Bioscrypt including your appointment as CEO of the company. What areas are you most excited about as you take on your new role in the company?

RD
I am most excited about several things…one is certainly the market. We are seeing signs that the market is maturing and I think for anyone in the biometric space – people have been continuously waiting and wondering when that would occur – so we are seeing signs that that is now occurring. Secondly, our value proposition, so as we are defining the market that we are going after to serve, it seems quite compelling in terms of what buyers are looking for, and I think lastly what I am excited about is the people of Bioscrypt. We have a group of people who the DNA of this company is very much centered upon – the fingerprint reading technology, and we have a hardworking group of people who really want to see the company succeed.

FB
Convergence is a key area for the industry these days. What are your thoughts on this?

RD
My first thought is – it is early days. You would be hard pressed to find somebody who would not agree that convergence makes sense, so the future of the end game of convergence makes a lot of sense to most people. How to get there is probably the part that people are still working through, which is – how do I go from the world I am in to-day to a converged future?

FB
Bioscrypt recently acquired the leading 3D facial recognition company A4 Vision. Can you tell us about your plans for this acquisition?

RD
To accelerate its growth! We are very, very excited about this product! The market reaction that we are getting, the possibilities that exist for us to take this type of technology both into physical access control and logical access control is very exciting for us and I mean that very sincerely and I will give you a couple of examples if that would help you. The 3D facial recognition system that we purchased is for physical access allows us to have multimodal access - multiple biometric methods for people to gain physical access into buildings or into roads, and we do believe that there is a great demand and will be a future great demand for multimodal biometric type physical access. At the same time logical access is also something that we do see great value from.
Our 3D facial cam is a product that is under development at this point. It will allow you to just look at the camera and it will authenticate you and give you access to your applications on your network. The fingerprint authentication now can be part of the 3D facial. We have a very large PC manufacturer and they have approached us to find a way to miniaturize the dual cameras so we can actually put it into the face of a notebook computer so that you can authenticate by just looking at the device. That type of product could hit the market in 2009-10. So there is enormous interest – if I had endless time I could share with you example after example where there is early stage interest in taking this technology to apply to many different areas.

FB
Well we have been following A4 Vision for many years and think it is a solid acquisition and I wish you the best with that technology. You are involved in a number of vertical markets – where are you seeing the greatest growth?

RD
I think that we still, given the course we have taken to the market and the fact that we have a significant partner channel that really brings the product to the end user, we have seen through those folks that the government space is still probably the one that we address and have the most business with. Beyond that we are really looking at the financial service sector and the health care market as well. So in the terms of industry verticals those are probably the three that are first to adopt. Because biometrics isn’t really industry specific we are seeing the use of biometrics across the board, so as much as we are pleased to see that certain industries have taken a leadership position in using the technology, it is really broadly accepted.

FB
You recently launched your new VeriSoft SingleSignOn 2.0 version. Can you elaborate on this for us?

RD
Sure! As you know the VeriSoft application is software that came to us through the acquisition of Cognizance about 2 years back (Feb 2005). At that time the application was really geared for the OEM market – that is selling the product into PC manufacturers – hardware manufacturers, if you will. The vision that Bioscrypt had for the product was really more on the enterprise side – if you are looking at the idea of convergence you need the physical access control, you need the logical access control. VeriSoft provides us with the network log-on single sign-on technology that requires your logical access control. So we have really, with VeriSoft 2.0, moved up the value chain and provided an enterprise class client server application to support our vision for enterprise access control and convergence of physical and logical access.

FB
What do you see as the greatest challenges facing the industry now?

RD
The greatest challenges right now I would suggest that we have seen significant value placed on the use of verification where historically most of the biometrics business was done in the sort of identification space. We are seeing things like the MINEX test go through where they are starting to look at applying biometrics more on a one-to-one or identity verification method of use as opposed to the historical way that biometrics have been used. So I would say that historically a hurdle has been – less understanding, less of the value of verification versus identification. We are seeing that come off a little bit these days. We are still at the early stages of adoption for verification technology and therefore the adoption rate is one of the hurdles that we are seeing right now.

FB
Bioscrypt has always been considered a leader in the standards area of the industry. I know that you are heavily involved in most of the standards committees, etc. How are you seeing progress in that area?

RD
I think that the fact that we were the first organization to have an ANSI/INCITS 378 algorithm, the first organization to have a ANSI/INCITS 377 algorithm, the first organization to move forward with the GSA approvals and the MINEX testing – you know, pushing the envelope for the adoption of biometrics is something that Bioscrypt has really, really been doing, so we have new products we are bringing to market, associated with a couple of our partners. We are ahead of the curve in terms of a product that we are looking to bring to market… the PIV station. Having promoted these standards we believe has helped us to move the biometrics industry forward and helps us with the adoption rate that I said was a hurdle earlier. So for us the standards work that we are doing is paramount to our success.

FB
Not just your success but I also think the industry success and I congratulate you on your involvement in that particular area! What can we expect to see from the company in the coming year?

RD
I think what you will see from the company is a further refinement of our focus, a further refinement of our unique value propositions, and you will see an intensification of our efforts around our existing and our future partners.
Bioscrypt was also recently named the market leader for biometric physical access control readers by IMS Research. IMS Research found in its 2007 report, “The World Market For Electronic Physical Access Control Equipment”, that Bioscrypt was the largest supplier of biometric readers worldwide.

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