Washington Technology

State Dept. taps Identix for biometrics work

September 29, 2004

By William Welsh

Identix Inc. has won a one-year, $2.2 million contract from the State Department to provide a biometric solution to support the department's visa processing services, the company announced today. The contract has four one-year options.

Identix of Minnetonka, Minn., will supply and integrate a biometric system to detect fraud through the use of facial recognition technologies to screen for duplicates, aliases and faces on a watch list before issuing visas.

The company's team on the Facial Recognition System and Integration Support Contract includes Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego and the International Biometric Group Inc. of New York.

The company will integrate a facial recognition solution into the department's visa application process that will include the enrollment of about 35 million legacy images, 8 million new visa images each year, and the enrollment of at least 10 million e-Diversity applicants each year.

e-Diversity applicants are a class of immigrants from countries with a low rate of immigration who are allowed to obtain permanent residence visas. The contract would let them obtain their visas electronically.

The solution also will be capable of matching against variable galleries and databases provided by the department and of processing upwards of 2,000 matches per hour.

Identix, a provider of biometric fingerprint technologies and systems, has about 480 employees and annual sales of $55.2 million, according to Hoover's Online of Austin, Texas.