Identix Lands Follow-Up for Biometrics-Based Border Security at Middle Eastern Country

Nov. 4, 2005
$880,000 follow-up order to upgrade and expand country's border identity management system

MINNETONKA, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 3, 2005-- Successful Initial Deployment of BioEngine(R) Leads Customer to Upgrade to ABIS for Additional Scalability and Throughput

Identix Incorporated (Nasdaq:IDNX) announced today that it has received a follow-up order valued at approximately $800,000 for the implementation and deployment of Identix' fingerprint ABIS biometric matching platform by an unnamed country in the Middle East to upgrade and expand the country's existing border security identity management system.

Approximately 12 months ago, this country began deployment of a biometric-based entry/exit program with Identix' BioEngine(TM) fingerprint template creation and matching software. The program has proven so successful that the country now requires additional scalability and throughput in order to support enrollment and search of its rapidly growing databases of biometric information for this mission critical component of its ID management system. With the addition of Identix finger ABIS, the country is able to easily and quickly upgrade its biometric template creation and matching platform to provide additional scalability, including the ability to greatly expand the size of the various databases to be searched, while increasing the breadth and speed of each search. The country is also significantly expanding the deployment of its entry/exit program, expanding from a few ports of entry to approximately 100. Identix has already received an initial payment under the order, which was recognized as revenue in its fiscal 2006 first quarter ended September 30, 2005. Identix expects to receive the balance of the payments under the order over the course of its fiscal 2006 year ending June 30, 2006.

"This deployment is an excellent validation of Identix' go-to-market strategy of providing interoperable, standards-based biometric components, subsystems and solutions that are designed to be a part of overall identity management systems," said Identix President & CEO Dr. Joseph J. Atick. "It is also a good example of the type of follow-on orders we can expect as domestic and international databases continue to grow.

"This country originally started out with a very small deployment of biometric enrollment and searching capabilities for its entry/exit system," Atick said. "The program proved very successful and the country quickly realized the power that biometric data-mining provided in monitoring and regulating individuals passing through entry/exit ports. Consequently, the customer decided to move to a full-scale production identity management system. ABIS is uniquely architected to provide simple and intuitive path for deployment. Upgrading to Identix' ABIS is an easy process, and provides significantly enhanced scalability in a very robust and fast biometric matching platform. The country is able to benefit from all the increased functionality ABIS offers by plugging ABIS directly into their existing border security ID management program without starting over from scratch. Additionally," Atick said, "ABIS provides the important benefit of offering the ability to add facial recognition-based database creation and search, as well as other biometrics. This may provide an incentive for end users to capture multiple biometrics upon enrollment for later use in expanded programs."

ABIS will be used to assist in creating and rapidly searching fingerprint-based biometric databases for tracking visitors into and out of the country. Biometric enrollment, search, verification and identification stations have been set up at entry/exit locations throughout the nation. Visitors into the Country are asked to provide demographic information and to enroll two fingers into the entry/exit program upon entry. At the time of enrollment, the country's border officials perform a one-to-many (1:N) search of various watchlists and other fingerprint-based databases for matches against the prospective visitor's biometric fingerprint images. The fingerprint images are converted into biometric templates, which are stored, along with the individual's demographic information, in a database maintained by the country's relevant agencies. Information regarding the anticipated length of stay of each individual is also stored in the database. Upon exiting the country, the visitors are asked to verify their identity one-to-one (1:1) against their template stored in the database.