CrossMatch: Practical multi-modal biometrics
With products installed in more than eighty countries, and a client-base of approximately 10,000 customers worldwide, the company’s products now serve national and local governments, law enforcement, transportation, critical infrastructure, financial services, education, healthcare, and other commercial enterprises; the product featured at the BCC was the SEEK II, a culmination of some of Cross Match’s core technologies; the device combines forensic-quality fingerprint capture, rapid dual iris scan capability, and facial capture capability
With products installed in more than eighty countries, and a client-base of approximately 10,000 customers worldwide, the company’s products now serve national and local governments, law enforcement, transportation, critical infrastructure, financial services, education, healthcare, and other commercial enterprises; the product featured at the BCC was the SEEK II, a culmination of some of Cross Match’s core technologies; the device combines forensic-quality fingerprint capture, rapid dual iris scan capability, and facial capture capability.
Founded in 1996 in West Palm Beach Florida, Cross Match Technologies, Inc., is a provider of interoperable biometric identity management systems, applications, and services. The company introduced its first product, the Verifier — a single finger scanner — in 1998. The company has since developed a range of multimodal biometric solutions.
The company saw quick progress with the implementation of its Cross Match ID 1000, the first 10-print scanner to receive the FBI’s “Appendix F,” the highest quality level certification by the bureau.
The FBI used the ID 1000 device to capture, catalog, and check the fingerprints and photographs of suspected al Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo in 2002. Their live scan fingerprinting system was deployed to Iraq with military police elements of the U.S. Army to begin an identification process of Iraqi prisoners of war in 2003.
Their current product-line includes fingerprint and palm scanners, facial recognition solutions, iris capture devices, multimodal jump kits, and document readers. The L SCAN 1000PX, arapid, high resolution, and compact 1000 ppi 10-print and palm-print live-scan system is capable of XD (X-treme definition) imaging. The patented FlexFlat windowing technology allows for a flexible scan in which the orientation of the prints no longer restricts the scanning procedure.
Another product is the Be.U e-Passport, a mobile identity verification and credential validation device. It has been applied toward border checkpoints, immigration offices, law enforcement agencies, military bases, and ships.The similarly named Be.U Mobile is a rugged handheld reader for identity verification which plays a role in schools, universities, and financial institutions.
The product featured at the Biometrics Consortium Conference in Tampa was the SEEK II, a culmination of Cross Match’s core technologies. The device combines forensic-quality fingerprint capture, rapid dual iris scan capability, and facial capture capability with a ruggedness rating of IP 65. The design agrees favorably with trends in the industry, as James Grau, president and CEO discussed with Homeland Security NewsWire:“Biometric capture devices will continue to become smaller, lighter and faster mobile systems. One such example is our tether-free SEEK II multimodal biometric solution.”
These ratings helped Cross Match receive the ASIS 10 accolades awards for the SEEK II with MOBS and matching product, a comprehensive biometric identity management solution. Mike Oehler, vice president of product management, mobile biometrics, commented in an interview with Homeland Security NewsWire on the significance of winning the award: “This award really acknowledges that biometrics has a front and center role in security. It’s no longer just car keys and passwords — biometrics is really becoming a veritable pantheon of technology.”
According to Jim Bell, Director, Sales in the Central and Latin American (CALA) region, the company provided the hardware for Venezuela, the first country to register its voters using biometrics as well as for the government agency in Mexico, RENAPO (Registro Nacional de Población) to record 120 million Mexican citizens last year. RENAPO is part of SEGOB (Secretaría de Gobernación).
On 13 August 2009, Corte Nacional Electoral (CNE) at Bolivia, through congressional mandates, utilized 2,400 L SCAN Guardian devices to register their voters. Among other large-scale efforts, the Indian government wants to include 100 million people in this fiscal year and enroll around 600 million Indian citizens by 2014. In an August 2010 press release, Cross Match announced that it would work in conjunction with Smart IDand the Indian government to help register rural residents, such as those in Bihar, for a national guaranteed employment program (NREGA).
NREGA provides an opportunity for adult members of rural households to obtain 100 days of public work-based employment annually. Dr. Dinesh K. Tyagi, CEO (CSC), IL&FS spoke enthusiastically of the effort’s progress: “Guardian systems are so easy to use that operators were trained in 3 working days and are able to enroll 10,000 citizens per day. To date, the government has collected 1.35 million records in the Patna District.
