Associated Press

Biometric Industry Interest Surges 

By LINDA A. JOHNSON AP Business Writer 
10/05/2001 18:18 

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Biometric technology, which verifies a person's identity by recording unique body features such as fingerprints, patterns in the eye's iris and facial features, is a growing segment in the $100 billion-a-year security industry 
``On average, what I've heard from the biometrics companies is a three- to fivefold increase in inquiries, and in some instances, a 10- to 20-fold increase,'' said Brian Ruttenbur, a biometric analyst at Memphis investment bank Morgan Keegan. 

International Biometric Group, a New York consulting firm, estimates last year's $400 million in biometrics company revenues will mushroom in the next few years. 

Largely due to security concerns after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Ruttenbur said he expects sales of biometric products to jump 60 percent in the next year. 

Visionics Corp., a maker of fingerprint and facial recognition technology based in Jersey City, is fielding calls from public and private security organizations interested in its products, said chief executive officer Joseph Atick. 

Iris-recognition system maker Iridian Technologies Corp. of Moorestown likewise is getting a ``very dramatic'' increase in inquiries from airports and airlines interested in its technology, and from potential partners wanting to license it, said chief operating officer Frank Fitzsimmons.  Airports in Charlotte, N.C., and London use the system to clear employees accessing secure areas and speed up checks of frequent fliers arriving from overseas, respectively. 

Calls are up about threefold at Pyramid Vision Technologies, a tiny maker of computer hardware for video surveillance systems. It alerts human monitors to people trying to avoid metal detectors or otherwise acting suspiciously, and enhances blurry images from live video. 

The West Windsor company is a subsidiary of the prolific Sarnoff Corp. research lab that earlier spun off Iridian. Sarnoff says it is now hurrying development of a system for the government that could scan the iris of someone walking 10 feet from a camera, rather than standing nearby, as current systems require. 

Most of the 150 or so biometrics companies are small and privately held, but investors clearly expect a boom at publicly traded ones. Since the stock market's close Sept. 10, share prices for several companies have tripled; daily volume soared from about 50,000 shares to several million. 

Visionics shares jumped from $4.27 Sept. 10 to $12.37 on the Nasdaq market Thursday, while Viisage Technology Inc., another big facial-recognition system maker, soared from $1.94 to $8.70.