SA-based biometrics expert, Ideco, used this year’s connectID 2016 conference in Washington, D.C., as a platform to unveil a mobile biometrics console said to be the first of its kind in the world. The unit, dubbed BIMS – Biometric Identity Management System – and its supporting system were designed and built in South Africa at a cost of over R20 million in R&D, and two and a half years of man hours, by a team of skilled software and firmware developers and engineers.
Encapsulated in a device the size of a ruggedised laptop, BIMS is capable of six biometric modalities and delivers a full range of connectivity options including Bluetooth, WiFi, GSM, GPS, LAN and cloud. Multifunctional and uniquely configurable, the unit has been designed to the world’s most stringent hardware and software security standards, and harnesses intelligent power management for prolonged battery life of up to 12 hours.
BIMS enables biometric identification across a range of modalities – from fingerprint through to iris scanning – as well as being highly mobile and readily configurable. It can be rolled out rapidly in any environment requiring agile identification and processing of crowds.
Ideco CEO, Marius Coetzee, says the company selected this event for the launch because BIMS is a solution of international significance: “It is unlike any other solution currently on the market for biometric user identification and access control. It enables agile, rapid rollout of advanced biometrics-based solutions, and has relevance for both the public and private sector across any number of verticals.
“The need for secure and authentic identity management has reached crisis proportions globally, with demand for advanced biometrics surging. The biometrics systems market is predicted to be worth anything from $15 billion to $24 billion,” he explains.
However, most of the systems currently on the market offer single factor authentication. Before the advent of BIMS, none could deliver six modalities in a single portable device, which can be used in any configuration for multiple levels of identification, as well as integrating into existing enterprise systems quickly and easily.
With the intelligent use of APIs, the solution can be integrated with any backend system. This is a world first multi-modal, multi-functional, uniquely configurable mobile identity management solution. BIMS’ abilities facilitate both identity enrolment and identity validation efficiently, securely and authentically at any place, any time.
Ideco sees use cases for BIMS in all sectors where identification is relevant, including government departments such as Home Affairs, SAPS, Metro Police, licensing, customs and border control, health services delivery and education. It also appeals to private sector verticals such as financial, banking, medical and mining. BIMS offers significant advantages for tempor-ary installations such as election administration, surges in cross border traffic and criminal identification, due to its compact form factor and ease of installation.
Coetzee says, as a local biometrics pioneer, Ideco has moved over the past decade from biometrics systems distribution to in-house development and design at its headquarters in Centurion. “Working in collaboration for nearly three years, Ideco’s executive staff and software developers, TUB’s (Thata uBeke Manufacturing) electronic engineers and firmware developers, academics from the University of Stellenbosch Engineering faculty and experts from UV Tooling and Steinhobel Design, developed BIMS to fill a gap in the global market.
“Due to the huge potential for mass adoption of BIMS solutions around the world, Ideco is currently in talks with international technology companies on distribution partnerships,” Coetzee says.
For more information contact Ideco, 086 104 3326 (IDECO), contact@ideco.co.za, www.ideco.co.za
| Tel: | +27 12 749 2300 |
| Email: | contact@ideco.co.za |
| www: | www.ideco.co.za |
| Articles: | More information and articles about Ideco Biometrics |
© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd | All Rights Reserved
printer friendly version