AOptix unveils biometric capture hardware peripheral for iPhone

AOptix has just unveiled the AOPtix Stratus, a mobile identity solution designed for the iPhone. Featuring fingerprint, iris, voice and face recognition, the Stratus is a hardware peripheral that houses an iPhone 4 or 4S and contains a fingerprint sensor and an AOPtix iris imaging system.

“Until now, biometric identity verification has been delivered with by fixed location solutions or difficult to use mobile products with limited functionality,” Alan Goode, Managing Director, Goode Intelligence said. “By leveraging the capabilities of the iPhone, and its own deep experience in identity solutions, AOptix is providing an ideal mobile identity platform which will greatly expand the use of biometrics to many new applications and markets.”

According to the company, this is the “first mobile biometric product built with an open architecture,” offering flexibility in terms of applications. Using the iPhone camera to capture faces and voice signatures, there’s an extra camera for iris scanning and a small embedded fingerprint sensor.

The AOptix Stratus app will cost $199 and an SDK is available. The peripheral, the Stratus MX, is priced separately and according to the company, that figure will be determined by AOptix’s channel partners.

According to a report in Mashable, the app launches after the Stratus is connected, and is designed to help determine the correct distance at which to stand in front of your capture subject. When in the right position, the app automatically snaps a picture. The first shipments for the Stratus will be at the end of April.

“Our objective in developing AOptix Stratus was to create a product family that would deliver the benefits of biometric identification to a host of new users,” Chuck Yort, Vice President and General Manager of Identity Solutions at AOptix said. “We’ve received a great deal interest from law enforcement and border control, national and civil ID programs, and defense. We anticipate AOptix Stratus will be embraced by healthcare, disaster relief, humanitarian aid and other areas where identity verification is essential but previous biometric techniques have been impossible or unacceptable. We’ve received strong encouragement from our partners and end users throughout our development and beta process and are delighted that the product is now available for purchase.”

Reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, AOptix, along with CACI International was recently awarded a research contract form the U.S. Defense Department to examine its Smart Mobile Identity biometrics identification package and to eventually provide the department with a smartphone solution for biometric capture.

Article Topics

AOptix  |  facial recognition  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  fingerprint scanner  |  iPhone  |  iris  |  mobile  |  smartphone