BIO-key, IDEX enter into licensing agreement for mobile biometric authentication

BIO-key International and IDEX ASA have entered into a licensing agreement and will collaborate to deliver a sensor-to-sensor infrastructure solution for in-device and online authentication for consumer applications.

In particular, says the company, this new solution will be used in smartphone, tablet and PC markets.

“This is a significant validation of BIO-key’s commitment to mobile and the consumer market as a core component of our overall strategy. The out-of-the-box combination of IDEX’s outstanding sensor technology with BIO-key highly regarded algorithm technology promises to be disruptive in the marketplace. Our combined strengths solve for technological, architectural and economic weaknesses in contemporary fingerprint deployments and will provide higher fingerprint accuracy rates, at faster matching speeds, in more operating system environments, with more efficient yields and costs,” Mike DePasquale, BIO-key Chairman and CEO said. “With market estimates approaching billions of biometrically enabled mobile devices over the coming years, we believe this alliance will command a significant market share, and change the dialog about what biometrics can do for mobile identity trust and security.”

Reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, BIO-key recently completed a significant private direct placement, raising $3.7M in equity capital. 

“The mobile market is rapidly adopting fingerprint sensors for convenient user authentication, leading to secure payment solutions and opening up opportunities for new identity-based applications,” Hemant Mardia, CEO of IDEX said. IDEX and BIO-key offer a combined solution for secure user identification, leveraging IDEX’ best in class fingerprint sensors, a new generation of powerful recognition algorithms, together with proven BIO-key secure multifactor authentication software. The combined solution and IP creates the potential for significant value-added services to be developed with market-leading customers.”

In October 2013, IDEX announced that it had joined the FIDO Alliance as a Sponsor member and had also opened a new office in Silicon Valley. 

“The consumer market for mobile biometric authentication is emerging quickly,” Jim Sullivan, BIO-key Vice President of Strategy and Business Development said. “That market will rely on flexible solutions that can securely connect the endpoint fingerprint scanner devices into the existing Identity and Access Management (IAM) infrastructures that enterprises, mobile carriers and online service providers already operate. BIO-key has longstanding partnerships with the leading IAM platforms such as CA Siteminder, IBM ISAM/ESSO, Oracle Access Manager, major EHR platforms from EPIC and AllScripts, and patient ID solutions from Healthcare-ID. As a result, the combined IDEX/BIO-key solution will be quickly deployable for enterprises who want trustworthy and simple authentication options for their users’ devices. We will give our mutual customers the best of all worlds – for example, in-device FIDO (Fast Identity Online) authentication, but with the confidence and usability of BIO-key’s NIST-tested matching inside, as well as ‘FIDO plus Trust’ with a trusted service performing biometric identity proofing before activating a user via FIDO. The combined solution will also work seamlessly with our recently announced OpenID Multi-Factor Authentication Solution (MFAS), developed in collaboration with InterDigital.”

Article Topics

BIO-key  |  consumer  |  Idex Biometrics  |  mobile