PARIS - Early this year Sagem Défense Sécurité started deployment of a large-scale multi-biometric program in Mexico for the Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE). Comprising a turnkey system to check the identities of voters in electoral lists, this program features the largest multi-biometric identification system in the world.
The multi-biometric identification system integrates both digital fingerprints and facial recognition to ensure that each citizen is registered only once in the national voter rolls. It will eventually process some 72 million voters, with a capacity of 100,000 registrations and ID searches per day.
The two-year program will be deployed in two phases.
The first involves reworking the existing electoral databases to set up the multi-biometric system. Operated by the Mexican government, this system will search the 66 million digital fingerprints already recorded to detect any duplicates in the current voter rolls. During the second quarter of 2006, the 70 million ID photos will be digitized to create a biometric portrait base.
The second phase will kick off in the second half of 2006. The multi-biometric system, integrating an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) and facial recognition, will start operation, handling the real-time processing of new requests. Using the multi-biometric data, the IFE will check newly registered voters, to make sure that they only appear once on the rolls. By December 2007, the database will be expanded to include some 72 million people.
Digital fingerprint data for the multi-biometric system is provided by more than 2,500 MorphoTouch(TM) terminals located around the country. The IFE purchased these from Sagem Défense Sécurité in previous contracts.
Through this program, Mexico will have reliable voter rolls, eliminating the risk of registering the same person more than once.
This contract bolsters Sagem Défense Sécurité's world leadership in this critical market, confirming its unrivalled expertise in multi-biometric ID system, and ability to provide solutions covering large populations. Biometric ID systems by Sagem Défense Sécurité are already operational in 55 countries.
Sagem Défense Securité is a high-technology company in the SAFRAN Group. As a leading European defense and security electronics company in Europe, its business covers three main fields: navigation and aeronautics systems, where it is the world leader in helicopter flight control; optronics and air-land systems, where it is the European leader in surveillance and fire-control optronics; and the field of security, where it is the world leader in fingerprint-based biometrics.
Its equipment and integrated systems are used worldwide, helping to ensure air transport safety, secure data transmission, personal security and governmental defense capabilities at the highest level. Through the SAFRAN Group, Sagem Défense Sécurité is present on all continents.
For further information: www.sagem-ds.com.
