Precise Biometrics receives order for a European smart ID card program

Precise Biometrics has received order in conjunction with the Defense Multipurpose Card project in Italy. The order is part of a contract for smart ID cards awarded to the companys partner Siemens. Precise Biometrics will deliver combined fingerprint and smart card readers together with licenses for the companys technology for fingerprint matching on smart cards, Precise Match-on-Card(TM), for a smart ID card program. The smart ID cards, using the CardOS operating system and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) developed by Siemens ICN EN SEC, will e.g. be used for securing desktop application with the Siemens Informatica developed product SecureAccess, in order to simplify access to the organizations networks. The choice of a system that both stores and matches a fingerprint directly on the smart card increases the security and protects the privacy in a wide deployment. The ID card program aims at total deployment of several hundred thousand smart ID cards, with fingerprint as the selected authentication method of the cardholder. The deployment of the first smart cards with Precise Match-on-Card technology has started during the first quarter of 2004. The order value for this delivery of Precise 100 MC fingerprint readers is about MSEK 1 for Precise Biometrics. The Precise Match-on-Card technology can also be used in the deployment of other large scale biometric programs like travel documents and national ID card projects. This area of use is considered to be one of the major drivers for both the smart card and biometrics industry. Local distributor for Precise Biometrics is the companys Italian partner, Partner Data srl.