2006 Year In ReviewThe response to this year's YIR was outstanding with 51 companies/industry experts responding to our questionnaire. We received responses from Canada, Australia, China, UK, Ireland, Sweden, Mexico, Germany, The Netherlands, France, Korea, Japan and the USA.Hear what the industry leaders thought about 2006 and what 2007 may hold for Biometrics! Participants include:
QUESTION 1. In your view, what have been the three most significant events/announcements for the Biometric Industry this year? This year the responses to this question were quite diverse with 6 different responses receiving a large number of mentions. A total of 51% of respondents felt that worldwide standards improvement generally, was the most important area with M1, ISO SC 37 and more specifically, work on the HSPD-12/FIPS 201 PIV card, Registered Traveler standards, MINEX 04, ISO 19794 and the UK ID Card Bill. The next very important area mentioned was the increased implementation of biometrics with special reference to e-passport programs. 46% thought that this was the big news for the industry in 2006 with an additional 10% referencing the large-scale deployments that have also taken place this year. For example, “hitting the tens of millions mark in both shipment of fingerprint sensors (AuthenTec formally announced hitting 10 million and at least 2 other unnamed players claim similar numbers) and projected enrollment (India's Andhra Pradesh's state issued food ration card program with initial enrollment slated for 20 million eventually growing to 80 million). These are big numbers indicating serious market traction. The days of wondering when biometrics would be rolled out on a large-scale are officially over.” Acuity Market Intelligence 35% of respondents commented that they felt that Merger & Acquisition activity in the biometrics industry was the most significant news in 2006 with Pay by Touch, Cross Match and L1 mentioned as key players. Tied for fourth position with a 21% response rate each were:
The areas mentioned were:
In order for any technology, and certainly for biometrics, to become a truly universally-adopted technology, it is critical that a common platform be established for how the technology is deployed. For this reason, 2006 has been a year where perhaps the greatest advancements in the history of the industry have taken place. Two of the most significant announcements that serve as evidence of this technology maturity include the results of the MINEX test issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with the associated GSA list, and the International Labour Organization's qualification for the Seafarers' Identity Documents. Each of these announcements is an example of how fingerprint standards are not only viable, but will also produce the required level of performance interoperability for deployments based on ANSI/INCITS 378 (MINEX) and ISO/IEC 19794-2 (ILO). This demonstrated interoperability is a successful culmination of the standardization efforts that started back in late 2001 with the formation of the INCITS M1 committee. Colin Soutar, Chief Technology Officer, Bioscrypt Inc.
Barry Fisher, Vice President, Identification Solutions Division, NEC Corporation of America
Sapna Capoor, Industry Analyst (Global Markets), Frost and Sullivan The three most significant milestones/announcements for the Biometric Industry all revolve around market maturity.
C. Maxine Most, Principal, Acuity Market Intelligence
James L. Wayman, Ph.D. Director, Biometric Identification Research Program, San Jose State University.
Catherine J. (Cathy) Tilton, VP, Standards & Emerging Technologies, DAON
Stuart Tucker, Technical Sales and Support Manager, Datastrip
Christopher Crump, Director of Commercial Business, Cogent Systems The last year has had many major milestones for the biometric industry. From the perspective of Precise Biometrics the three most important achievements were the US Federal government deployment of PIV cards, the SAS baggage control program, and the decision by the Thai government to complete the issuance of national ID cards. The PIV cards make a huge leap in the US for the congruence of biometrics and smart cards and show the industry as it is, “ready for prime time.” The SAS baggage control program is so innovative and forward thinking it is an honor to be a partner. The program ensured the individual checking bags for a flight is also the person boarding the plane at the gate. Lastly, the Thai government determined this past year that the national ID card using our Precise Match-on-Card technology was working outstandingly and issued the order to provide these cards to the entirety of the 65 million citizens. Clearly, these programs have the widespread affect of familiarizing many people with biometrics and smart cards, as well as improving processes, as well as ensuring safety and privacy. Thomas Marschall, President and CEO, Precise Biometrics
Marcey Jordan Taylor, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Sales, Cross Match Technologies Inc.
Jim Miller, CEO, ImageWare
Jay Fry, President & CEO, identiMetrics, Inc.
Walter Hamilton, Chairman of the Board, International Biometric Industry Association-IBIA Certainly standards continue to be a major issue for biometrics worldwide and we continue to make progress in this area. In the past year we achieved three significant milestones with our core software:
Mike DePasquale, President and CEO, BIO-key International
David Johnston, VP-Worldwide Marketing, LG Electronics, Iris Technology Division
Grace Sigona, Director Marketing, OSS Nokalva, Inc. The increasing threat from highly mobile stateless terrorists requires us to "confine' them, restrict border crossing, and monitor their movements, a critical activity for all civilized countries to implement in a more coordinated way. Biometrics are one of the key technologies for accomplishing this. But along with the increasing use of biometrics comes both the challenges and the synergistic benefits of international cooperation, and the need for rigorous examination of various policies, protections and ethical questions. The leading nations are grappling with these tough issues, while implementing programs such as biometric Visas, passports and ID cards. In 2006 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security laid out a smorgasbord of these issues at their Biometrics and Ethics conference with its international participants. While technology and applications continue to evolve at a fast pace, policies and practices around the world, and multinational cooperation must evolve in parallel. In addition, in the United States the FIPS201 implementation in 2006 was and will continue to be an important test and impetus of biometric interoperability. The continued roll-out of FIPS201 is also significant as it builds public acceptance of biometrics. Finally, the use of biometrics increasingly represents convenience for consumers and smart business as a fraud reduction measure. Biometrics are becoming ubiquitous with biometric sensors in schools, recreation centers, fitness clubs and payment terminals. Clark Nelson, Vice President, Federal Business Unit, Sagem Morpho, Inc. Control Module believes that an enormous driver of enterprise-wide biometric acceptance will be the continued increase in consumer applications and adoption, as this will help alter many of the misconceptions that exist regarding this powerful technology. As a result, we believe the three most important developments that have influenced the biometrics industry in 2006 are:
Jana Moak, President, CEO, Control Module Inc.
Stewart Hefferman, COO, TSSI Systems Ltd
Young S. Moon, Director, Suprema Inc.
Kass Aiken, President, Ceelox In our opinion the three most significant milestones are:
Amy Zhang, Vice President, ZK Software Inc. The three most significant milestones/announcements that took place in the Biometric Industry this year are:
George Skaff, Vice President of Marketing, Digital Persona, Inc.
Mizan Rahman, CEO, M2SYS Inc.
Darrin Reilly, MCEI Vice President and General Manager, Biometrics Business Unit Motorola Inc. M&A activity spurred by the L1 Identity Solutions consortium certainly helped move the biometrics into a more main stream light in the eyes of the finance community -- Finance activity from Venture Capitalists all the way through to Asset Managers showed a renewed appetite for biometric technologies. Rob Allen, Research Analyst, Financial Services, Frost & Sullivan
Yona Flink, Managing Director, OptiSec ltd.
Peter Went, CEO, WCC
Kazuaki Ebara, Manager, Systems Hardware Division, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Shinil Cho, Chief Information Officer, Secure Design For our company the most important aspect of 2006 has been the overall gain in momentum of the acceptance and use of biometrics. I would say that this advanced more in 2006 than in any previous year; as the combined result of good preparation, proven technology, and value for money from suppliers of biometric solutions: our partners and their customers. If we tie to this the continuing evidence of experimentation during 2006, using biometrics in new applications areas and on platforms, then we might say that in 2006 the shape of growth not only deepened but widened. Lennart Carlson, CEO, Fingerprint Cards AB, Sweden
Pierre Root, President & CEO Labcal. Technologies Inc.
Dr. Shum Kam Hong, Group Chief Technical Officer, RC Group (Holdings) Limited
Eric Dumois, Senior Manager, Biometric Products, Hitachi America, Ltd.
Alan Cunningham, Managing Director, Yarg Biometrics. Standards and platform/data continuity are the biggest significance in the Biometrics market. Continued open data exchange will drive the Biometric device industry into the Security Convergence market that will augment the convergence of the Physical and IT security sectors. Steven O'Leary, EVP Sales and Marketing, SentryPort Technologies Government and private sector rollouts of biometrics were two of the most significant announcements this year. Around the world, biometric technology is beginning to affect citizens' daily -- as they travel, work and, in some cases, just go about their daily lives. Steve Campisi, President, Digital Defense™ Group
Greg Goelz, VP, Marketing, UPEK, Inc. The most significant milestones/announcements for the Biometric Industry this year have been the purchase of Iridian by L1, acquisitions in general by L1, and the successful completion of the Registered Traveler standards. Another extremely important event will be the announcement of the 2006 Iris Challenge Evaluation results, sponsored by NIST. As this evaluation is completely closed and unbiased, it will have a tremendous affect on the iris recognition industry. Dr. Daehoon Kim, President/CEO, IriTech, Inc.
Jeff Brown, Vice President of Sales, SecuGen Corporation
Ulrich M. Kipper, CEO, it-werke Technology GmbH
Larry Ciaccia - President, AuthenTec
Jose Luque, President /CEO, MERKATUM
Gill Slater, COO, OmniPerception Ltd. QUESTION 2. What are the most pressing issues facing the Biometric Industry as we move into 2006? By far the greatest response to this question is the need for education, successful implementations, trust, training and to address privacy concerns. An overwhelming 72% of companies indicated that these areas are the greatest challenge facing the industry in 2007. Standards adoption also ranked high on the list with 39% indicating this as the most significant area for the industry. Cathy Tilton from Daon sums it up nicely...
Catherine J. (Cathy) Tilton, VP, Standards & Emerging Technologies, DAON
James L. Wayman, Ph.D. Director, Biometric Identification Research Program, San Jose State University.
Marcey Jordan Taylor, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Sales, Cross Match Technologies Inc.
Walter Hamilton, Chairman of the Board, International Biometric Industry Association-IBIA In 2006, there have been significant progresses made in standardization, interoperability, product testing and certification. GSA PIV testing and ILO SID product testing are very good examples of this progress. In our opinion, the most pressing issue is the funding for these large- scale government initiatives. The Biometric Community has spent the last 20 months developing products and solutions to meet these government standards. Christopher Crump, Director of Commercial Business, Cogent Systems While 2006 certainly demonstrated advancement in the areas of standardization and interoperability and the associated testing and certification, the implementation of the approved technology did not take place in significant scale. For 2007, the work that has gone in to developing and qualifying biometric technology should result in progress in terms of adoption and procurement. While the technology will certainly continue to evolve and mature, vendors in the industry are also looking forward to large-scale deployment of biometric technology. Colin Soutar, Chief Technology Officer, Bioscrypt Inc. The transition from two-fingerprint capture to ten-fingerprint capture within the US-VISIT program and other large-scale biometric applications owned by the US government The necessary move towards the creation of biometric systems in which interoperability and replaceability of software components and hardware devices are ensured through conformance to standards such as BioAPI, as opposed to vertical solutions which are often very expensive to modify when the need arises Grace Sigona, Director Marketing, OSS Nokalva, Inc. Large scale, widespread commercial and government deployments continue to be the biggest challenge for this industry. Since standards, testing and certifications now have traction, the biggest obstacle we see today that is holding us back is the adoption of this no longer “new technology” into existing infrastructures and applications. The US and other governments have made major progress in this area, but we still are only seeing 'the tip of the iceberg' in deployments. Unfortunately, US based private concerns have the capability to implement biometrics to replace or augment tokens and passwords, but they are taking a back seat to more innovative, more customer responsive organizations globally. Mike DePasquale, President and CEO, BIO-key International Human factors and privacy. The most important thing about biometrics is that it bridges the human-machine identity gap. The technology must be developed and deployed in a way that respects the humans and controls the machine. Human factors engineering is not a nice to have. It is essential to building biometrically enabled systems that people are comfortable with and can easily use. Addressing privacy appropriately is not merely a requirement (commercial and consumer users will insist upon) or a responsibility (to build secure systems) but a moral obligation of everyone involved on the industry -- vendors, integrators, analysts, politicians, civil servants, lobbyists, etc. Lest we provide the very tools that become the means of thwarting free society as we know it. C. Maxine Most, Principal, Acuity Market Intelligence Standardization and interoperability will continue to be relevant. i.e. PIV. The stability of these standards will help drive the industry as vendors are required to deliver viable large-scale card solutions to meet changing specs. Although, software vendors like ImageWare will continue to balance this issue given their open-architected, software infrastructure. Better methods for implementation of solutions that incorporate certified components, which mean system level functionality still suffers, as the entire system is not tested. Jim Miller, CEO ImageWare Two main pressing issues are facing the Biometric Industry. First is harmonization of the differences between the international ISO versions used worldwide and the INCITS M1 versions used primarily in the USA. The international standards from ISO SC37 are not the same as the ANSI M1 from INCITS M1. For fingerprints, the specs for minutiae templates differ significantly from each other. In this area, Motorola is leading these efforts in the working groups with proposals for harmonization. The second pressing issue is that of certification of biometric devices. The certification of biometric equipment such as scanners, readers and the establishment of common quality levels of biometric processes continue to be major challenges. This is especially true in Europe where there are no certified labs or authorities in place. This can impact customer confidence regarding the quality of hardware devices available. Darrin Reilly, MCEI Vice President and General Manager, Biometrics Business Unit Motorola Inc. Integration and convergence. Integration of logical and physical security is just a beginning of this trend. Biometric products will expand its role from a single device to a piece of a system to be networked and integrated together with other part of the system. Young S. Moon, Director, Suprema Inc. Standardization and interoperability issues continue to present the biggest technical obstacle to large-scale deployment. The ubiquitous deployment of biometrics will require more education about the nature of the technology and the benefits it offers. It is probably beyond the capability of the individual members of the biometrics community to do this -- even if they work in concert. Perhaps with HSPD-12/PIV, The Real ID Act, forthcoming debate on guest worker/immigration etc. there is a case for government-funded education on the effort. After all, government funding does get allocated for educational efforts like forest fire prevention awareness, small business administration funds availability, new currency design etc. Other government investment is made to build perceptions of the value of work experience in the US military. As dependent as this industry is and will continue to be on behavioral and perceptual change regarding our technology, why not explore potential for government aid in a pro-biometrics education effort. Given the adoption of biometrics embedded identity credentials by the US' largest employer, (US Government) shouldn't the government also be interested in explaining the value of biometric technology in fighting identity theft, or in ensuring that the popular view on biometrics isn't -- “fingerprints in US-Visit -- oh that is for foreigners, but not for me.” David Johnston, VP-Worldwide Marketing, LG Electronics, Iris Technology Division Continued interoperability and data standardization is the critical factor in making use of the tremendous amounts of disparate data the needs to be managed. Maintaining standards and structured data will help the Biometric market grow into the Security Convergence market. Steven O'Leary, EVP Sales and Marketing, SentryPort Technologies The biometrics industry is a nascent industry; that we can even segment this industry is an event. At identiMetrics, we believe that the biometrics industry now has to segment itself into specific areas. Certainly, the issues facing companies focused in the government sector, the financial sector and the consumer sector all have different challenges and issues. In the consumer sector, we have to be patient, educate, and be ready for the mainstream market. Jay Fry, President & CEO, identiMetrics, Inc. DigitalPersona still sees interoperability as the pressing issue for 2007. While there are plenty of peripherals in the market that will authenticate users on a personal level for notebook or desktop access, it is the cross communication between the different platforms and the server back-end that matter the most for enterprise companies. We believe companies will continue to look for interoperable solutions that allow for secure, reliable and simple access to network applications. George Skaff, Vice President of Marketing, Digital Persona, Inc. As we move into 2007, in view of the keen competitions in the industry, we believe that the most pressing issues facing the Biometric industry include:
Dr. Shum Kam Hong, Group Chief Technical Officer, RC Group (Holdings) Limited The biometrics industry needs to continue to deliver high quality solutions to the market. 2006 represented a significant step forward in the delivery of credible and high volume biometric solutions. It is important that 2007 and beyond continue to deliver innovative, cost effective and high quality biometric solutions so that consumers, businesses and governments can deploy strong authentication solutions based upon fingerprint biometrics. The Open Authentication Organization (OATH) is enabling standards based interoperability for integration into security solutions. Greg Goelz, VP, Marketing, UPEK, Inc. As an industry, we need to find ways to accelerate the adoption of biometrics for commercial applications. We need to facilitate the transition of traditional authentication methods to stronger biometric authentication through the development of products (hardware and software) that are aimed at mass deployment. Pierre Root, President & CEO Labcal. Technologies Inc.
Sapna Capoor, Industry Analyst (Global Markets), Frost and Sullivan Last year's pressing issues still hold true for 2007. The industry needs to continue standardization and focus on how to create good, truly interoperable, biometric citizens as this is essential to market expansion. A real test will be the implementation of large scale biometric IDs around the world, creating functional, user-friendly and interoperable systems that win public acceptance. Clark Nelson, Vice President, Federal Business Unit, Sagem Morpho, Inc. The song remains the same: standardization and interoperability remain high on the list. While from a consumer's standpoint, education and implementation of biometric products is paramount. Consumers want to trust and use biometric product, what they lack is the knowledge and training. The promise of a higher level of security along with ease of use is alluring, not only at the consumer level but also at the enterprise level as well. Kass Aiken, President, Ceelox Standardization and interoperability are still the most pressing issue facing the biometrics industry. As this effort progresses, the rate of adoption will continue to increase which will allow for continued improvements, enhancements, and cost reduction, which will benefit customers and suppliers alike. Michael Glynn, Marketing Director, Accu-Time Systems
Barry Fisher, Vice President, Identification Solutions Division, NEC Corporation of America Some major steps in standardization being made in 2005 and 2006, the biometric industry is still facing the challenge to deploy standardized products. An intensive discussion is still ongoing and needed between the industry and government users, in order to turn ePassports into a world-wide biometric application. Interoperability, certification, and related issues remain on the agenda. Juergen Pampus, VP Sales & Marketing, Cognitec Systems
Jeff Brown, Vice President of Sales, SecuGen Corporation The most pressing issues facing the Biometric Industry in 2007 again include continued work on standardization and interoperability among biometric vendors, as well as testing, certification, and implementation. In addition to this, however, and specific to the iris recognition industry, the cost of iris cameras will be a big issue in 2007. The current cost of iris cameras is too high for widespread use, but as technology progresses, we could see this cost go down significantly. Also, the iris industry must make strides in becoming camera independent -- meaning any iris vendor's matching algorithm can be used with any capture device. Once camera price is lowered, and iris vendor algorithms and cameras become fully interoperable, iris recognition has the potential to compete in market share with finger and face biometrics. Dr. Daehoon Kim, President/CEO, IriTech, Inc. This industry is evolutionary by nature; i.e. what took the computer industry 20 years to accomplish in standards will take the security industry only 5 years with high technology companies driving the effort. As both the public and private sectors asks that trusted access and trusted identity management be both reasonable in costs and deployment, better -- faster -- cheaper will be major talking points. What also needs to be realized by both sectors is the identity management/credentialing industry does not need to be wholly relied upon biometric database-centric solutions. That by stepping away from database-centric solutions actually relieves them of the huge liability to maintain and protect that database. I see Identity Database Breaches as the next mass tort litigation area, and I think it will be larger than tobacco lawsuits. Every department of the US Government has reported the loss of personal identity databases. Going forward, our industry needs be responsible partners in trusted identity management, because you cannot revoke a biometric. Steve Campisi, President, Digital Defense™ Group
Gill Slater, COO, OmniPerception Ltd. In 2007 we need to see larger scale government contracts come to fruition. Continual delays, redefined RFP's and a feeling of “too many cooks in the kitchen” are hindering the market. Rob Allen, Research Analyst, Financial Services, Frost & Sullivan The issues with the most direct impact on the industry for 2007 are similar to those of the past. As an industry we still struggle with true interoperability, though the standards breakthroughs over the last few years have greatly improved the situation there are still major impediments. Testing for real world success in applications continues to be an unachievable goal. No matter what has been done the testing procedures for the industry still revolve around FRR/FAR and the like, but they don't necessarily show the likelihood of success for a biometric deployed in the field. A program for testing must be able to compare like application models, not just test for 1:N capabilities. Lastly, we continue to see the growth prospects for the industry predominately in the government space. As such, it is essential that governments get correct and thorough information to allow them to take actions in determining biometric programs that will best benefit the citizenry. All government programs must balance their goals -- typically for increased security -- against the need for privacy protection. Government agencies show therefore look outside of the normal database model and examine technologies like Match-on- Card for real innovative solutions to meet protection and privacy goals. Thomas Marschall, President and CEO, Precise Biometrics I believe that testing, certification and implementation of biometrics in accordance with standards remain the most pressing areas in 2007. Alan Cunningham, Managing Director, Yarg Biometrics. The industry has been talking about standardization and interoperability since it first realized that it had the potential to join the mainstream in the world of Identity Management. Testing and certification really only make sense in particular scenarios or implementations of the technology and the need for these will always be reviewed with an eye to particular deployments and products. If we look at the push/pull way that issues such as standardization have been resolved, in co-operative efforts between large user groups (e.g. governments or ICAO) and industry, then it's clear that we are living in a dynamic world where we have to respond with clear actions. Further illustration of this is likely to emerge in 2007 with an increasing requirement to support the safety and privacy of (increasingly distributed) biometric data. Until now this has been for the most part an 'academic' issue, but in 2007 concerns about personal data will become focused on biometric data in real-life applications and this might begin to show some commercial impact in the way the market develops. Our view is that personal, embedded biometric systems offer one -- though not the only -- strong means of protecting and handling biometric data. We also believe that these advantages will be clearly understood and appreciated by the end-users whose biometrics we have, let's face it, to respect and protect. I think we all welcome more debate on this issue as to the variety of solutions and approaches so that the communal advantages of public confidence can be achieved in the way they have been for standardization. Lennart Carlson, CEO, Fingerprint Cards AB, Sweden QUESTION 3. Was 2006 a good year for your company and what were some of the highlights? What will 2007 hold for your company? The answers to these two questions were much more positive than last year with many companies reporting successful deployments and sales growth. Most also referenced significant new product launches and existing product refinements. Some of the highlights include (detailed quotes follow below):
Yes! Some highlights include:
DAON Meaningful milestones include:
LG Electronics 2006 was a great year for IBIA. We grew our membership and gained significant recognition and respect for our efforts to defend the collective interest of our member companies through the media and through our direct advocacy with policy makers and members of Congress. The highlight of the year was our intervention with Congress that resulted in the repeal of legislation that was intended to stifle open competition for the important Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. IBIA will continue to focus on key public policy positions related to large-scale government biometric initiatives. For example, we intend to help drive needed enhancements to the FIPS 201 standard for Personal Identity Verification of Federal employees and contractors and we have also been invited to help the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) develop a biometric reader specification for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. We will also energize our working groups to provide more public awareness and education by developing industry positions on such matters as the continuing debate on the privacy and security of biometric data and the growing use of biometrics by consumers. IBIA 2006 was a banner year for ATS, which saw the launch of Optimus, the next generation enterprise solution for workforce management. The Optimus has allowed our customers the ability to customize a self-service solution that meets the needs of today's HR concerns such as: allowing for broadcast messages, individualized communications to employees, electronic time card approval, e-audit trails for SOX compliance, and e-requests from employees. Another significant development in 2006 was the emergence of finger-geometry as a highly sought after biometric technology in workforce management. Some environments are not conducive to fingerscan biometrics due to the user's fingerprint being obscured by paint, cement, dirt or other substance. Finger geometry measures the length, width, and girth of the fingers to create a biometric template that is not affected by dirt, paint, or other obscuring elements that might be present on a fingerprint. Additionally, strong workplace unions who object to utilizing fingerscan technology tend to find the finger geometry a more acceptable form of biometrics. Demand for the finger geometry is not limited to the United States, Latin America and Europe have been regions of impressive sales growth for this technology. Accu-Time Systems This year was a good year for OSS Nokalva, Inc. We are pleased to see an increased interest from domestic as well as international biometrics community in our BioAPI 2.0 related offerings. Specifically, the OSS BioFoundry SDK which allows rapid application development using popular object oriented programming languages including C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, VBScript, and JavaScript. We fully expect that interest to continue to grow in 2007. We are expanding into new application areas -- remote authentication and mobile applications are of particular interest. We will also continue to further develop our suite of standards-based biometric solution development tools. Our forthcoming BioAPI Java product will enable Java applications to utilize biometric components conforming to BioAPI 2.0, thus expanding the set of supported programming languages. OSS Nokalva This has been a very prosperous year for ZK. We released weatherproof access control with metallic casing and camera, door phone, and were awarded the top 10-security brand in China. We will soon release 8” TFT and Iris, face identification products, and will have 300 products in our offering by the end of this year. We will establish 4 overseas branch offices in Thailand, Brazil, South Africa and USA. ZK Software It was a good year, we saw tremendous growth in the industry, mostly in the Middle East, and African regions, The US, Far East and European markets were slower than we expected due mostly to the stop and wait attitude while standards were negotiated. Datastrip 2006 was a very good year for Control Module. Our Biometric solutions together with the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), featured in our Genus® line of programmable terminals opened significant new customer opportunities for us. CMI also introduced our low-cost BioTime terminal through a significant consumer VAR channel partner, landing our products in electronics and office products stores and a variety of catalogs and web sites. We have seen increasing and significant traction selling our products with biometric readers, as we believe the technology is seeing increased acceptance and greater understanding of its significant benefits. Control Module 2006 was another very good year for Cognitec. We have seen more deliveries of passport issuance systems using photo quality assessment tools. We have also extended our business in the area of photo database search, with orders from several European Police organizations as well as US driver license agencies and some South-East Asian governments. We are seeing a huge demand for face recognition in surveillance systems. We have invested a lot of research into that technology and performed several successful trials. 2007 will be the year of deployments in this promising application field. Cognitec In 2006, Cogent strengthened its market position within the law enforcement AFIS markets with many new contract awards both in the U.S. and abroad. We also gained a significant increase in market share within the civilian biometric market. Our algorithm was the first to be approved by the G.S.A., we won several large scale projects such as Tennessee Applicant Fingerprint Services, Texas Lone Star Image System, additional follow on award for Venezuela and the UK Visas program. The availability of the BlueCheck®, the industries first portable Bluetooth enabled fingerprint scanner. Cogent's BlueCheck® was recently chosen by San Jose Police Department for the electronic citation project. In the commercial market, Cogent expanded its network of VARs and distributors for our access control products in Europe and in the US. Several fingerprint sensor manufacturers have also licensed our patented image stitching algorithm to be bundled as part of their offering. Cogent As a global leading supplier of standalone fingerprint modules, we increased our market share by entering into new regional markets like BRIC's. The number of countries that purchased our products in 2006 exceeded 80 countries. To lead the trend of biometric application products as well, we launched world's first fingerprint access control device with color display and wireless network capability. On the project side, we won the first phase of Brazilian school project that can evolve into one of the largest biometric installations. Finally, we proved again that a biometric vendor can really make profits from the non-AFIS market only, by showing net profits for seven consecutive years. Suprema 2006 was an excellent year for NEC. Our law enforcement customer base continues to expand. We are aggressively pursuing the civil and commercial biometrics market based on the speed and accuracy of NEC's matching algorithm. In 2007...
NEC 2006 was another busy year for Acuity. Once again the business savvy and overall level of sophistication of Acuity's clients increased dramatically. The company was regularly contacted by organizations interested in investing in the industry and worked with a number of well- funded early stage clients. 2007 will bring a new level of challenge to Acuity as clients focus on delivering complete solutions and endeavor to break-through to new more mainstream markets. Acuity It was an outstanding year for M2SYS. We released several new products that are building on our original concept of rapid integration and deployment, and have continued to improve our current technology. Some of our highlights include forming partnerships with Kodak Dental Systems and Silex Technology, gaining FDA approval on our fingerprint system, and seeing other leading fingerprint technology providers begin to realize the market revolutionizing impact of our rapid integration technology. M2SYS 2006 was a great year for TSSI we experienced steady growth across our product range. We have continued to expand our products and now include passport/ document readers document readers to our portfolio to compliment access control and biometrics. We have been busy developing key relationships with partner companies and have some exciting new developments for 2007. TSSI 2006 was a very good year for BIO-key. We have launched multiple biometric based identity solutions into public safety offerings that serve both our Law Enforcement and Fire/EMS customer bases. Feedback from our existing customers as well as the rest of the “first responder community' has been great. It's interesting to note that we no longer need to educate them on the benefits of biometrics- they understand the value biometrics offer, not just in security, but in convenience- making them more efficient in responding to the communities they serve. Additionally, we launched our True User ID Rapid Deployment Program in November. This is an innovative program destined to revolutionize the user identification market. We are providing our client application software and software development tools at no charge in this program. All the elements needed to quickly integrate secure, convenient biometric user authentication into virtually any application including sample code, industry specific sample applications, and a startup matcher ID key are part of this easy to implement, easy to use authentication solution. It integrates into virtually any environment to deliver a secure, convenient user authentication alternative to replace or augment passwords and tokens. BIO-key Bioscrypt has experienced an exceptional year in 2006. From being one of the original 6 vendors to be certified as both a template generator and matcher in the MINEX test, to the qualification on the GSA for use in FIPS 201 Personal Identity Verification Program (PIV) and the further qualification for the Seafarers' Identity Documents (SID) program upon meeting the requirements of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Company has certainly demonstrated its technology leadership status in the industry. We are also supplementing our position as a leading supplier of biometric products for physical access control with a new role as a leading supplier of identity management components for logical and physical access control. Bioscrypt 2006 has been a great year for our company. In our first fiscal quarter that ended in September 30, 2006, our revenues doubled all of our last fiscal year. At identiMetrics, we are mirroring the Authentec experience. We believe that our fiscal 2007 will be a defining year for our company. We believe that the groundwork has been laid and our markets are ready to explode. identiMetrics 2006 has been a significant year for Cross Match. We entered 2006 having acquired Smiths Heimann Biometrics, positioning Cross Match as the largest worldwide provider of fingerprint equipment and biometric identity management solutions. 2006 also marks the introduction of Cross Match's LSCAN Guardian with FAST Auto Capture, the smallest, lightest, fastest, and most rugged 10-print fingerprint scanner and interface software solution in the industry. Another 2006 highlight was our acquisition of Computer Vision und Automation GmbH (C- VIS) of Bochum, Germany, which added facial recognition and processing technologies to our biometrics solutions offerings portfolio. Northrop Grumman Information Technology selected Cross Match as a subcontractor for the more than 200 Live Scan booking systems for the UK IDENT1 program. We also introduced our Verifier 310 LC (V310 LC), the only optical auto- capture fingerprint scanner currently available that meets the HSPD-12 requirements. We also added two key members to our senior management team. Elaine Dezenski, formerly Acting Assistant Secretary for Policy Development at DHS, joined us as Senior Vice President of Global Government Affairs; Elaine will also be the head of our Washington, D.C. office. Gerhart Ernst, who has significant multinational executive management experience, joined as Managing Director of Cross Match Technologies GmbH (formerly Smiths Heimann Biometrics) in Jena, Germany from which he will also oversee and grow our international business operations, including global initiatives in Europe, Asia Pacific and other key geographies. Cross Match Absolutely. Within the identity management industry, ImageWare focused our sales and marketing efforts to partner with major system integrators on large-scale opportunities. We've announced a relationship with General Electric whereby its subsidiary, GE Security is utilizing our identity management suite to support multi- biometric enrollment and identity proofing in its Picture Perfect solution. This enables GE Security to meet the requirements of HSPD-12 and TSA's TWIC program.
ImageWare The year 2007 will be a pivotal year of growth for Ceelox. We are experiencing a substantial increase in interest for our biometric solutions. We foresee expanded growth in the number of current and future applications that will benefit from biometric authentication. Regardless of where strong authentication needs to take place, either over the web, LAN or for access to a custom application. Ceelox is able to deliver a biometric solution that can easily be integrated, without requiring extensive programming. We believe there are hundreds if not thousands of applications that can directly benefit by our imbedded solutions. The strong audit trail and ease of use of our biometric products/solutions offer are long over due. At Ceelox we are eagerly, embracing ASP's along with systems integrators as partners for imbedding biometric authentication into existing and new applications. With biometric authentication, we will begin to see significant cannibalization of token security systems. Users and IT management both have shown a dislike for tokens and the deployment of them. With increased availability of high quality fingerprint readers being imbedded into the PC market, along with lower costs, we believe 2007 will be the first year of substantial penetration into the token market. Ceelox 2006 was an exciting year for both Sagem Morpho and Sagem Defense Securite. Sagem Morpho saw many of its products added to the GSA FIPS201 Evaluation Program Approved Product list including fingerprint algorithms, middleware and the MSO 350 PIV combined fingerprint and smart card reader. Our dual interface smart card as well as two physical access control units will also be added to the list next month. In law enforcement, Sagem Morpho is providing the states of Kansas and New Mexico with new statewide automated fingerprint and palm print identification systems and the Columbus Ohio Police Dept. started bulk implementation of the RapID mobile biometric ID unit. In Europe, Sagem Defense Securite renewed the Finnish Police biometric system and set about digitizing biometric data for the Dutch Police. This large-scale digitization at 1,000 dpi involves 1.65 million ten print sheets and 550,000 palm print sheets. In the ID systems market, Sagem Defense Securite started work on a new biometric visa processing system for France and biometric visa registration for Denmark. Sagem Defense Securite also began deployment of the world's largest multi-biometric program in Mexico as well as the national biometric ID cards in Colombia and highly secure match-on-card biometric software for Spain's new ID card. Sagem Morpho DigitalPersona continued with solid growth in 2006 and launched several new products and initiatives, including DigitalPersona Pro 4.0, that give enterprises a complete, accurate and trusted fingerprint Enterprise Single Sign-On (ESSO) solution with more secure authentication, improved manageability and the broadest support available for leading biometrically-enabled notebooks from Lenovo, HP, Dell, Toshiba and others. DigitalPersona also launched its Online Developer Forum to facilitate the sharing of information and ideas between developer and integrator customers around the different uses of fingerprint authentication technology in various markets and held its first annual Developer Summit where developers and business managers from a variety of different industries attended to discuss the new advances in DigitalPersona software, algorithms and readers. Digital Persona We experienced tremendous success in the Banking, Healthcare, and manufacturing verticals and integrated several of the 7 algorithms we evaluated and integrated over 10 new biometric devices into our security software suite. At ASIS 2006 we introduced our SXT CONVERGENCE software solution to the marketplace. The SXT Convergence solution won a very prestigious innovation award the very same weekend that it was introduced. SigTec 2006 was an excellent year for UPEK and we are delighted to have so many industry leaders as our customers. UPEK customers comprise 8 of the top 10 PC OEM manufacturers and leaders in the portable storage market, and we continue to see penetration across their product lines. UPEK also achieved the first ever FIPS 201 certification from the FBI for a silicon fingerprint sensor, reinforcing the fact that silicon technology is proving itself to be best suited for the widest array of functions, ranging from consumer and industrial products to government and military applications. Pay By Touch recognized the advantages of UPEK's unique security architecture for strong authentication for web and other online applications requiring a trusted endpoint. Finally, UPEK was recognized by the World Economic Forum (based in Davos Switzerland) as a 2006 Technology Pioneer, recognizing the company's potential for technology that could positively impact the lives of millions worldwide. UPEK 2006 was another very good year for our organization with record orders and very high levels of customer satisfaction as measured by our comprehensive annual customer survey. Motorola's advanced Biometric Identification Solution is a full life-cycle managed software product encompassing true internet IT advances such as multi-tier service oriented architecture, web- services, security layers, seamless mobility and open standard OS and HW agnostic solutions. By several market measures our Motorola Printrak Biometric Identification Solution is the best selling product in the market for large scale BIO ID systems (National, State-wide, and County- wide solutions). Motorola 2006 was a solid year for SentryPort. SentryPort was formed by combining BioSecurIT Inc. and Thoughtware Development; in addition we completed the acquisition of Aproviso Inc. The combination of the 3 companies solidified our deal with a major Global Life Sciences company and continued business with our government practice globally. Our product offerings now span Biometrics, Security Convergence, Security Resource Management™ (SRM), Compliancy and data protection. SentryPort is poised to be the leader in the Security Convergence market with our patent pending technology as the core to our SENTINEL product. Building relationships with product vendors and working towards educating the market on Security Resource Management™ will help companies understand how they can better manage their infrastructure and mitigate risk. SentryPort 2006 has been a defining year for Precise Biometrics. We have had the good fortune and success of the Thailand national ID program expanding, our work with SAS on a cutting-edge project, and we have made tremendous gains in the US PIV card market. With all of these successes Precise Biometrics has also been in transition -- growing from a traditional device and technology company to a mature market leader. Part of that new maturity is the change of leadership to myself as new CEO. In each organization new management often marks time for change, and I am excited about continuing to grow Precise Biometrics. Precise Merkatum's milestone project of the year was having been awarded and successfully implementing the largest facial recognition system in the world at Florida's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (dynamic identification and adjudication of 52 million images) in accordance to REAL ID guidelines. Merkatum Our long term work on the Asian markets has begun to show results. Our distributors in countries like South Korea, Taiwan, China, Singapore and Japan led our business generation during the year. The majority of the technology shipped was systems based on our area sensor. Of particular interest for us to note during the year was that our fingerprint technology now seems to be in demand from the banking sector and from Chinese banks in particular. Fingerprint Cards Applications of biometric products have been extended to a diversity of industries across borders, RCG has managed to win in a few high-profile projects in exciting sectors: In mid November 2006, RCG has been appointed as the authorized security solution provider for A1 Team Malaysia at the A1 Grand Prix (“A1GP”) in Malaysia. RCG will help A1 team to set up a sophisticated security system at the entrance gate of the team's garage in front of the pit stop area that integrates its facial recognition software, FxAlert, and RFID solutions to create an intelligent surveillance system combined with access control. Commence on October 2006, RCG jointly works with Indonesia partner PT. Samgar Perkasa, a contractor of Garuda Airline and two Indonesia Airports, to deploy the Airline VIP check-in solutions for Garuda Airline as well as a security solution for the Indonesia Airports. Such solution integrates both biometric and RFID technologies in order to streamline the passenger check-in process, enhancing security levels and provide value-added customized services for VIP travelers. This application can also be easily modified for use in train stations, ports and any other form of mass transportation. RCG In summary, I would like to quote Maxine Most, Principal, Acuity Market Intelligence who states,
Sincerely, Peter O'Neill President, findBIOMETRICS.com poneill@findbiometrics.com |
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