Aware and Iris ID partner to bring FBI iris biometrics to state and local agencies

Aware and Iris ID have partnered to expand the biometric identification capabilities of state and local agencies across the U.S. for criminal justice use cases.

The partnership provides access to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Next Generation Identification (NGI) Iris Service through the integration of leading iris recognition hardware from Iris ID with Aware’s biometric software portfolio. AwareABIS and Nexa|Iris will each be enhanced for use with Iris ID biometric capture devices. AwareABIS supports fingerprint, face and iris recognition for large-scale identification, while Nexa|Iris provides reliable and configurable iris recognition software, including algorithms for identification and authentication.

The companies say the result is fast, accurate and easy iris recognition capabilities for agencies.

“Partnering with Iris ID is a natural fit for our company,” says Rob Mungovan, chief commercial officer of Aware. “Iris ID has long been a leading provider of iris capture hardware, and we are excited to offer their capture hardware to our AwareABIS and Nexa|Iris customers looking for a best-in-class capture device system performance. The combination of our software with Iris ID’s hardware will improve accessibility of the FBI’s next generation iris service at the state and local level.”

The NGI Iris Service expands the FBI’s biometric matching services beyond fingerprints, allowing organizations to adopt a faster, highly accurate and touchless biometric modality to their criminal justice applications. Bringing the service to state and local agencies can also improve biometric data sharing across agencies for faster apprehension of suspects and more accurate records, according to the announcement.

“We are excited that Aware has selected Iris ID’s industry-leading hardware to help local agencies take advantage of the FBI’s NGI program,” remarks Mohammed Murad, vice president, global sales and development of Iris ID Systems. “Aware has a strong track record of biometric expertise, and when coupled with our state-of-the-art iris recognition solution, criminal justice agencies at any level can experience highly accurate, fast and touchless iris recognition capabilities. We are excited to be working with Aware to assist in the expansion of the NGI program and bring this exciting and useful technology to state and local customers.”

Both biometrics providers have been making headway in the access control application segment of the market lately.

Article Topics

ABIS  |  Aware  |  biometric data  |  biometric identification  |  biometric matching  |  biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  data sharing  |  FBI  |  iris biometrics  |  Iris ID  |  iris recognition  |  police