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Sales Of Fingerprint ID Systems Are Growing

Sales of automated fingerprint-identification systems are gaining traction and are expected to reach $160 million annually by 2010, according to government market researcher Input. Almost on cue Tuesday, Motorola said it has been awarded a contract by Norwegian governmental agencies to provide 800 stations for biometric screening.

Input said U.S. governmental agencies will increasingly move from manually processing fingerprint cards to using digital automated fingerprint-identification processes.

"This transition marks the beginning of a true lifecycle-oriented approach to justice and public-safety AFIS [automated fingerprint-identification systems] that will involve fewer long-term overhauls and more technology upgrades and refreshes every three to five years," said Chris Dixon, Input senior industry analyst, in a statement.

Dixon added that agencies will increasingly avoid getting locked into proprietary AFIS systems by adopting vendor-neutral and standards-based architectures.

The Norwegian system, awarded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Police Computing and Material Service, features the capability of identifying people through a range of biometric data, including the iris and face characteristics as well as through AFIS.

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