At a bank in the near future, a customer is about to withdraw cash from an ATM. An "Authorizer" on the machine verifies the customer's fingerprint.

But the machine also picks up something else: a change in blood flows, indicating the customer is anxious. The machine notifies police, who foil a would-be robber holding the victim at gunpoint.

It seems like the stuff of science fiction movies, but the concept may be approaching reality in a corporate park in Palm Beach Gardens.

Cross Match Technologies has become known internationally for devices that can identify forensic-quality fingerprints and handprints, which are useful for the FBI, Department of Defense and Homeland Security. The biometric industry has accelerated with heightened worldwide security concerns. Now fingerprinting and other biometrics are reaching a broader marketplace. The challenge for Cross Match: What are the best commercial applications of the technology it has developed over the past eight years?

About 80 percent of Cross Match's business is government-related, from providing fingerprinting devices to airports and seaports to making devices for international border security to building a database of al-Qaida operatives. Cross Match's fingerprinting devices are used in 56 countries.

As Cross Match seeks to leverage its technology and diversify its client base, Chief Executive Ted Johnson said there is a wide choice in new markets including financial, health care and automotive.

Cross Match already is selling pre-employment background checking and other services based on its fingerprinting technology. In the future, the technology could be used in a credit card or cell phone for positive identification of the owner, thwarting identification theft.

One analyst who follows the biometrics industry said he's impressed with Cross Match's technology and vision. "If you look at the management team, Cross has the infrastructure to be a much bigger company than they are," said Joel Fishbein, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott.The company had its start in a garage in 1996 by workers who had experience in designing medical equipment and projection TV optics. Guy Scott, Ellis Betensky and James Davis came up with a prototype for a fingerprinting device. Three years later that translated into the ID 1000, which was much smaller than fingerprinting devices being used and offers an image quality that exceeds the FBI's standard.

Cross Match now employs 175 workers. The company grew rapidly, landing on the Inc. 500 list with $24.5 million in 2002 revenues. Revenue growth in 2003 was flat, Johnson said, as the company waited for Congress to pass the federal budget and government agencies to pay their bills.

A former Paine Webber executive, Johnson was tapped by investors to be chief executive in 1999. He is a main investor himself and also has raised $50 million from angel investors, wealthy individuals who can afford risky investments.

On the engineering end, Cross Match was able to tap talent from Pratt & Whitney and Motorola, two South Florida companies that have had layoffs in the past decade.

For government and international connections that are critical in securing contracts, Johnson hired former FBI Chief of Staff Robert Bucknam to head Cross Match's office in Washington, D.C. Two former congressmen, Charles Wilson and Bob Davis, are lobbyists for the company. William Sessions, former head of the FBI, is a company director.

Landing a big contract

Even before Sept. 11, 2001, Johnson saw a huge market potential for Cross Match's technology. "I knew security was a topic of concern." Still, after 9-11, "everything came to the forefront," Johnson said.

Cross Match got a $2 million contract to provide its fingerprinting equipment at airports and seaports under U.S. Visit, a Homeland Security program designed to collect biometric identification and other information on foreign nationals who travel to the United States.

Cross Match's fingerprinting equipment has since been used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Even the fingerprints of Saddam Hussein reportedly were taken with a Cross Match device.

Cross Match's machines were attractive because they were rugged and lightweight enough to be carried in the field. And the devices have the ability to fingerprint no matter the ethnic background or whether the finger carries a tattoo or stain.

The company's latest scanner takes a full rolling handprint, which gives police more information at crime scenes where palm prints often can be lifted.

Johnson also sees uses of biometrics by the auto industry: Fingerprints of a car owner can be encoded into the automobile so that only that person can open a locked door or start the vehicle. The technology one day is likely to be part of cell phones, which will be used to make point-of-sale purchases and positively identify a credit-card owner.

Privacy issues

As new applications of biometrics roll out, there are likely to be questions about privacy. "It depends on the application," said Ari Schwartz of the Center for Democracy and Technology. He has concerns about biometrics being used in a national I.D. card, or on a driver's license and passport, for example. "You can't go back and fix the privacy problems if you've collected the information," he said.

Johnson sees the issue as a concern about companies and the government keeping biometric and other collected information under wraps. "It's not so much you're invading my privacy, [it's] you better protect it."

Cross Match has a 38 percent market share in the fingerprint device industry, according to International Biometric Group, an industry association in New York City. It is No. 2 in the marketplace, with public company Minnetonka, Minn.-based Identix, the industry leader. The industry is small with consolidation expected in the near future, said Joseph Kim, a senior consultant at International Biometric Group.

Biometrics technology has finally reached the point where it is viable for commercial development. "Supplying law enforcement agencies is already a developed market. It's not going to grow as much compared with other biometric technology," Kim said. "Other application is where the promise is."

Fishbein said there is still a large demand for fingerprinting devices at airports and seaports under U.S. Visit. The challenge will be getting government funding, he said.Johnson sees growth for Cross Match's devices on the international front. Japan is planning a homeland security program similar to U.S. Visit, which involves the fingerprinting and photographing of foreign visitors. Cross Match recently teamed with Itochu Management Consulting Co., to form a consortium to distribute products in Asia. Moreover, "Europe is going to open up in the next couple of years," he said.

Cross Match plans more partnering and will look at potential acquisitions, Johnson said. The company has no immediate plans to go public, though that is one option. Being acquired by a larger competitor could be another.

Johnson's mission is to give his engineers the latitude to create new applications while matching the technology with the marketplace. Newly developed products don't always function exactly as planned and an investment can be lost. "You can go down the wrong road," he said.

But as biometrics use expands, Johnson also knows that picking the right direction could pay off big.

Marcia Heroux Pounds can be reached at mpounds@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6650.