From findBIOMETRICS.com
Interview with Jim Miller, CEO of
ImageWare Systems
By Michelle Bowles
January 2005
findBIOMETRICS
Deloitte and Touche has named ImageWare as one of the fastest growing companies in southern California for the past three years. Can you please provide our readers with a brief background of the company and what has led to its great success?
Jim Miller
ImageWare is a global leader in identity management solutions, providing biometric, secure credential, law enforcement and digital imaging technologies. The company was founded in 1987 with the initial focus around digital imaging and the automated processing of digital photographs. As a pioneer in digital imaging, our original products involved the creation of imaging software for kiosks. It was a product for the entertainment industry and one of the very early uses of digital imaging for consumers.
In 1995, the company changed its focus by using its patented core imaging technology and entering the Law Enforcement market, where we provided software programs for digital booking, composite sketching and image editing solutions to state and local police.
The idea was to take a photographic record and merge it with the text that is created at the time someone enters the justice system. That digital information can be moved with a stroke of a key from my office to yours, replacing a paper intensive system; but there are still jurisdictions in this country that move information principally by US mail.
Along the way we became very interested in the science of biometrics. In 1997, we put the first working facial recognition system in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to enhance the investigative process by enabling officers to search mug shots using facial recognition technology.
We went public in 2000. As we looked at adjacent markets, the creation of a booking record was really one large identification document. In fact, most ID cards and documents contain far less information than your normal police record. So it wasn’t a stretch for us to move into the realm of ID cards, secure credentials and documents.
In that regard, our secure credential solutions enable our customers to produce very simple identification cards, such as the YMCA ID card, all the way to very complex and secure credentials such as passports, driver licenses, biometrically-enabled smart cards and other secure documents for government, airports and corporate organizations. The US House and Senate, Bureau of Printing and Engraving, FEMA and United Nations General Assembly, UPS and international airports including Ronald Reagan, Washington Dulles and Seattle-Tacoma are a few of our ID software customers.
findBIOMETRICS
You mention some of your biometrics expertise, can you give us a brief outline of the scope of your biometric product line-up?
Jim Miller
We started out principally in facial recognition, but over time we realised that as wonderful a science as facial recognition is, it does not work in all situations for all purposes. There are a number of our customers who have very specific requirements, or have a very specific fondness for a specific biometric. From ImageWare’s perspective, we need to satisfy our customers, providing the identity management solution that can be tailored to meet their needs. We branched out and looked at how we can incorporate biometrics across our product lines.
For example, our latest development is the IWS™ Biometric Engine®, a biometric identity management solution that is scalable, agnostic and allows organizations to manage population databases of all sizes. Our recent contract with the Government of Mexico employs this product to use and manage four biometrics including face, finger, signature and DNA, along with the management of several million records. Our secure credential and biometric product lines are used to produce ID cards, driver licenses, passports, national IDs and other secure documents. Our law enforcement products can also incorporate biometric technology to provide the public safety market with facial recognition and fingerprint Livescan capabilities for booking, investigative and identification purposes. We recently announced our first Livescan contract with the Broken Arrow Police Department, Oklahoma.
In addition to face and fingerprint, we have also been very conversant with the biometrics of iris, signature and voice. We believe our contract with the government of Mexico makes us one of the first to begin integrating DNA biometrics into an application so that people can search and match DNA of an individual.
findBIOMETRICS
You are talking about your biometric engine and it is hardware and algorithm independent – is that correct?
Jim Miller
That’s right. IWS™ Biometric Engine® is hardware and algorithm agnostic. This means it can easily integrate with existing applications or enable users to create a wide range of biometrically enabled applications beyond government such as criminal booking, and civil or criminal background checks (AFIS) and into more consumer-oriented markets including entertainment.
The biometric engine supports all types of biometrics including, but not limited to, face, finger, iris, hand geometry, signature, voice and DNA. It enables organizations to conduct multi-modal, comparative biometric searches including exhaustive (1:n), specific (1:1) or investigative (x:n). What’s also really unique is after individuals are enrolled, the original biometric images are saved and can quickly be converted to support additional or alternate biometric algorithms and capture devices to meet shifting market demands - all without jeopardizing critical data, images and infrastructure.
findBIOMETRICS
You have been recognised as a leader in the government, law enforcement space for quite some time as you were talking about the history of the company. I notice that you are now starting to expand more into the commercial consumer space. Can you tell us a little bit about this focus?
Jim Miller
It was not a far stretch for us to move into the consumer space. It is gratifying to see the private sector becoming more aware of the benefits of biometrics and wanting to provide more secure documents, credentials and physical access. For example, gaining access in and out of a building or granting logical access the computer network using strong authentication methods such as smart cards, and biometrics to confirm an identity. Identity management has come a long way. In fact, ImageWare, along with IBM and GE, ActivCard and VeriSign, partnered to provide an integrated secure identity management solution that combines physical and logical access in a single card that uses biometrics to improve security and cut costs. It’s a scalable and cost-effective approach to enterprise-wide secure identity management.
findBIOMETRICS
That was just a recent announcement wasn’t it?
Jim Miller
Yes. We announced that in October and IBM and GE are taking the lead in selling that solution worldwide and that is a very exciting development for us!
In addition, Carnival Cruise Lines, the world’s largest cruise operator, uses our biometric engine as part of a biometric photo finding kiosk pilot project, which is currently aboard two Carnival ‘Fun Ships’. These photo finding kiosks is powered by the IWS™ Biometric Engine® and enables guests to search and retrieve all keepsake photos taken of them while vacationing aboard the ‘Fun Ship’. This Carnival application is very scalable and can be tailored to be a security application as well.
findBIOMETRICS
Well you recently also announced that Unisys has selected ImageWare and your IWS EPI builder platform to support their projects worldwide. Can you tell us a little bit more about that one?
Jim Miller
The IWS EPI Builder is a secure credential platform, which was used initially as an internal tool for rapid development of our own credentialing projects. IWS EPI Builder is a full-featured application that enables organizations to develop custom identification solutions or incorporate sophisticated identification capabilities into existing applications, as well as supply the hooks for use of biometrics including face, finger, iris, voice, signature, and DNA. It allows an integrator like Unisys to rapidly commence and complete development of large-scale identity management and secure credentialing projects worldwide.
findBIOMETRICS
You also touched base briefly earlier with some of your comments about your announcement just this week about the incorporation of fully integrated fingerprint live scan capabilities into your law enforcement product. Can you elaborate?
Jim Miller
That was a natural for us. We added Livescan to our IWS Law Enforcement product to provide a single, integrated mug shot, fingerprint Livescan and investigative solution. It is more efficient to have one vendor handle both fingerprint and mug photos. IWS Law Enforcement users can digitally capture, search, store and retrieve images and demographic data including mug shots, scars, marks and tattoos (SMTs)—and now fingerprints.
findBIOMETRICS
Well congratulations on that news – it certainly does seem to be a perfect fit for your focus.
Jim Miller
Thank you. We are really excited. A number of our large city customers have struggled with the fact that there are two different vendors, two different systems, two different groups of engineers, and separate support desks. A number of these folks are going to be out with bids for new systems or they are going to be looking to upgrading existing systems so we are excited about going forward and our possibilities.
findBIOMETRICS
Thank you, and just in summary Jim, is there anything else you would like to add in about the company and where do you see the greatest growth going forward?
Jim Miller
I think very clearly that the biometric business will be the primary catalyst for growth at ImageWare. Having been in the business for the last 7 years, since biometrics was really in its infancy, 2004 was the year that ImageWare and the industry saw some real live traction. I think 2005 is going to be spectacular for the industry and the company. Governments around the world are facing mandates to upgrade the security of their identity documents and the companies that are in the biometric space are well positioned to participate in that movement. We believe 2005 is going to be a big year for ImageWare and we are looking forward to the next 12 months.
findBIOMETRICS
Jim, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us!
Jim Miller
You are most welcome!
