[ISN] Biometrics Standards in Works (Biometric Consortium)

From: mea culpa (jerichot_private)
Date: Tue Apr 28 1998 - 13:13:46 PDT

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       http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/11937.html
    
       Biometrics Standards in Works
       by Joe Nickell 
       
       5:01am  28.Apr.98.PDT
       A group of high-tech heavyweights, including Microsoft Corp., Novell
       Inc., IBM, and Compaq Computer Corp., are teaming up to develop
       standards for hardware and software that will recognize everything
       from your face to your fingertips -- and allow you to forget all those
       passwords.
       
       Dubbed the BioAPI Consortium, the group announced itself on Monday
       with hopes of setting the stage for the mainstream deployment of
       fingerprint scanners, face recognition software, and other biometric
       security technologies.
       
       "People forget passwords, or they write them down, which is obviously
       a potential breach of security," explained Scott Chase, director of
       business development at Identicator Technologies, a small San
       Francisco-based company that specializes in fingerprint identification
       hardware and software. "The idea here is to replace passwords with
       biometrics."
       
       Identicator has developed proprietary products for such clients as the
       Georgia's drivers license bureau, the US Treasury, and the US
       Department of Defense. But, like others in the emerging industry,
       Identicator has had trouble bringing its technology to a large market
       because of the lack of agreement among software, hardware, and
       operating system developers on how biometrics technologies should be
       designed.
       
       "We find that it's pretty critical to have an industry standard for
       this new technology," said Brant Jones, manager of product marketing
       at Compaq. "Users want to be able to buy products from various
       vendors and have those products be compatible."
       
       While none of the Consortium's members are spouting specifics about
       their plans for future deployment of biometric technologies, all agree
       that the field represents the future of workplace and perhaps
       homespace user identification.
       
       "The major implication by us participating is that we're trying to
       bring the technologies to the mainstream," said Compaq's Jones. "The
       market has some potential for major growth."
       
    
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