Iris ID Systems announces interoperability between IrisAccess platform and NFC-Enabled BlackBerry smartphones equipped with HID Global’s iCLASS digital keys

CRANBURY, NJ. and IRVINE, Calif. – ISC West 2012 – March 26, 2012 – Iris ID Systems Inc., formerly LG Electronics, Iris Technology Division, a leading provider of iris biometric technology, and HID Global, trusted leader in solutions for the delivery of secure identity, announced that the IrisAccess platform iCAM7000 can be used with select NFC (Near Field Communications) -enabled BlackBerry 7 smartphones. The BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 smartphones activated with HID Global's iCLASS digital credentials will be compatible with the installed base of iCLASS readers that are embedded in the iCAM 7000 series for applications ranging from physical access systems in buildings to applications that track time and attendance, and other identity dependent applications.

Using a NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone, the iris templates of a user are securely stored to an iCLASS digital credential on the phone. That credential can then be presented for authentication by simply holding the NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone in front of an iCAM7000 series iris camera, just like users do today with a physical iCLASS smart card.

Iris ID will demonstrate iCLASS credentials using the NFC capabilities of the BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone at the ISC West conference, March 28-30, in booth #4043 at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas.

Charles Koo, President and CEO of Iris ID Systems Inc. said, "As a long time HID Connect Premier Partner, we are excited to be part of this new implementation which allows iris technology to be coupled with a NFC-enabled smartphone. This is a key milestone for our identification technology; iris recognition is a perfect solution for providing strong authentication for enterprise security. As we did with iCLASS credentials some years ago, we are pleased to be first in bringing iris recognition biometrics to a host of secure identity dependent access control applications with NFC-enabled smartphones."

"This is an important milestone in the deployment of mobile access and identity solutions using NFC technology on smartphones," said Dr. Tam Hulusi, Senior Vice President of Strategic Innovation with HID Global. "NFC-enabled smartphones represent a complementary new platform that we believe will expand the access control market and our card services business while improving user security and convenience."

Andrew Bocking, VP Handheld Software Product Management, at RIM, said, "Having added NFC capabilities to a range of our BlackBerry 7 smartphones, we're excited to be able to support the secure storage of an Iris ID biometric template to an iCLASS credential. NFC enables smartphones to become even smarter mobile computing platforms, and this is another great example that demonstrates the potential that NFC on mobile devices brings to the physical access control space."

Pilot programs using BlackBerry smartphones activated with iCLASS digital credentials and iris identification are planned for later this year. HID Global expects that its embedded iCLASS technology will be generally available for the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 and BlackBerry Curve 9350/9360 smartphones later this year.