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SecuGen's FDA02 fingerprint recognition sensors now meet ANSI INCITS 378-2004 standard required by Homeland Security programs using biometrics

Support for the ANSI INCITS 378-2004 standard for "Finger Minutiae Format for Data Exchange" opens the door for SecuGen's biometric partners to participate in federal and international projects

Santa Clara, CA (July 28, 2005) - SecuGen announces the release of new FDA02® fingerprint sensors that support the standardized fingerprint minutiae data format developed by the American National Standards Institute and the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards. Standards such as the ANSI INCITS 378-2004 are being required more and more in federal initiatives that are driving excellence in the use of biometrics, including the Transportation Security Authority's (TSA) Transportation Workers Identification Credential (TWIC) program.

SecuGen's FDA02 fingerprint sensor for embedded systems now supports the ANSI INCITS 378-2004 standard, which specifies the way fingerprint minutiae, such as the end-points and splits of fingerprint ridges, are formatted for a wide range of applications where automated fingerprint recognition is used. This ANSI INCITS standard plays a very important role in potentially large systems where there may be different kinds of fingerprint hardware that must work together and use interchangeable fingerprint biometric data.

"Nearly every biometric technology provider has developed proprietary data formats that, without the use of standards, have made it practically impossible to mix and match different fingerprint hardware without encountering problems of interoperability. The development of the ANSI INCITS 378-2004 standard, and the driving force of the U.S. government to adopt this standard, represents a great step for fingerprint biometrics from a standards point of view," says Dan Riley, SecuGen's vice president of software development.

A perfect example of how this standard works well is its use in the TWIC program, in which all transportation personnel would be required to use a common credential that includes biometrics across all transportation modes for physical access and/or logical access to secure areas of the transportation system in the United States. In such a far-reaching program as this, where certain facilities may require rugged access control units such as those based on SecuGen sensors while other areas of the system may use other brands of sensors, the smooth interchange of commonly formatted fingerprint data is a must.

SAFLINK Corp. (NASDAQ: SFLK), a biometric solutions subcontractor to the TWIC program, has purchased over 400 units of SecuGen's FDA02 fingerprint sensors. Walter Hamilton, vice president and general manager at SAFLINK says, "We were excited to propose the FDA02s in the TWIC program's prototype phase because we have a good deal of experience with SecuGen's rugged sensors, which we've found to be cost effective, reliable and function well in both indoor and outdoor environments. The SecuGen engineering team quickly responded to our request for a product that was compliant with the ANSI INCITS 378 standard and interoperable with other vendors' sensors already in use."

SecuGen's vice president of sales, Jeff Brown, adds, "We place great importance on fully supporting our customers to achieve their goals whether it requires innovation, evolution or adoption of rapidly changing requirements. We believe that our support for important standards such as ANSI INCITS 378 will help our customers qualify to enter into government bids or international projects and ultimately win substantial contracts in the government sector."

A number of biometric standards established by ANSI/INCITS were also largely used in the formulation of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards for biometrics. These ISO biometric standards are specified by the International Civil Aviation Administration (ICAO) requirements for passports and other Machine Readable Travel Documents and by the International Labor Office of the United Nations' requirements for a Seafarer's ID Card.

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About SecuGen
SecuGen is the world's leading provider of advanced, optical fingerprint recognition technology, products, tools and platforms for physical and information security. SecuGen designs and develops its own proprietary and patented fingerprint sensors and algorithms and markets OEM components, developer kits, application software and fingerprint peripherals worldwide for a wide range of applications.

SecuGen and FDA02 are registered trademarks of SecuGen Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

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