TORONTO, Sept. 18 -- Bioscrypt Inc. (TSX: BYT), a leading provider of identity verification technology, announced today that ImageWare(R) Systems Inc. (AMEX:IW) , a leading developer and provider of identity management solutions, has integrated Bioscrypt's General Service Administration (GSA) approved, Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS 201) qualified, ANSI 378 minutiae algorithm, into its IWS Biometric Engine. The IWS Biometric Engine is a biometric identity management platform for multi-biometric searching and matching that is scalable and allows organizations to manage population databases of unlimited sizes.
"By integrating the Bioscrypt ANSI 378 algorithm, ImageWare continues to strengthen its position in offering the most extensive open architected biometric enrollment, management and authentication platform for multi-biometric identity management," said Jim Miller, ImageWare's chairman and CEO. "ImageWare has already seen value in the work that we have done with Bioscrypt and look forward to further including their algorithm across large-scale markets."
By offering Bioscrypt's ANSI 378 algorithm as an off-the-shelf component of the IWS Biometric Engine, ImageWare can deliver an enrollment and management application with the capability of issuing credentials with government certified fingerprint matching technology to current and prospective customers.
"ImageWare has industry-recognized strength when it comes to enrollment and management of biometric information," said Robert L. Williams, President and CEO, Bioscrypt Inc. "Having our ANSI 378 minutiae algorithm as part of the ImageWare offering provides an opportunity to use our technology for credential issuance. As the rollout of the PIV program continues, we are confident that we can further capitalize on opportunities to sell our Veri-Series(TM) readers for physical access control and our VeriSoft(TM) application for logical access control.
"While applicable across a broad range of environments including airports and sea ports, one example where this solution may be applied is in the US government's Personal Identity Verification (PIV) program. The PIV program has mandated that a credential (card) be created that contains two fingerprint templates that are compliant with the ANSI/INCITS 378 fingerprint minutiae data interchange format standard. These two standards-based fingerprint templates are to be stored on the PIV card and made available for use by agencies for physical and/or logical access control.
All federal employees and contractors are subject to this program and will be enrolled at certified enrollment stations. Upon enrollment, the information gathered will be processed and managed by an information system.
The ImageWare PIV solution provides a complete and interoperable solution with features and functions required throughout the PIV life-cycle, enabling users the flexibility to make use of any desired options, such as identity proofing and enrollment, card issuance, maintenance and access control. This complete software solution offers the significant benefit that one vendor's solution is used throughout the various stages, from establishing an applicant's verified identity, to issuance of smart card based credentials, to the usage and integration to physical and logical access control systems.
