Press Release
Synergis Invests into Next Generation Fingerprint Recognition Technology
7 April 2008
Synergis Technologies Ltd. has today announced that it has led a venture capital syndicate investing into Warwick Warp Ltd.
Warwick Warp has developed a novel fingerprint recognition technology that significantly improves the level of accuracy of identifying individuals over current competitor systems. At the moment, fingerprint recognition technologies are based on scanning the finger and creating a 2D template based on various minutiae derived from ridges in the fingerprint pattern. However, these approaches do not take into account the fact that different pressures give rise to different fingerprint images and the finger is not a rigid object.
A spin-out company from the University of Warwick, Warwick Warp has developed a range of novel algorithms that improve both the matching accuracy and speed of the fingerprint recognition process. The design of the company’s software algorithms is based on the shortcomings of current systems such as their inability to deal with poor quality fingerprints.
Warwick Warp’s algorithms overcome these shortcomings by allowing for both linear and non-linear deformation in the measurement as well as allowing for variations in background contrast. Furthermore, the technology can robustly detect and incorprate what are known as third level features into the measurement such as sweat pores which have the potential to further increase accuracy in the match.
Fingerprint recognition is at the forefront of biometrics technologies. Biometrics involves automatic recognition of people based on their specific anatomical features and is becoming increasingly used in identification applications as they cannot be shared and contain very specific information relating to a person’s identity.
Rapid growth of the biometrics sector can be attributed to several factors such as increased threats posed by terrorism, increasing movement of population around the world, the increase in user acceptance of the technology and the fact that biometric systems are becoming more accurate and more cost effective. The overall growth of the security market is another factor influencing the growth of the biometrics market as well as the demand for improved buildings access solutions and criminal identification. The global biometrics market is expected to reach $6bn by 2010.
Terry Swainbank, Investment Director, Synergis Technologies stated, "This is an exciting investment and we look forward to being a part of the development of this next generation in biometrics technology. The use of finerprint recognition technology looks set to achieve rapid growth both in the UK and globally and there is a strong need for a system that can detect fingerprint images reliably and accurately."
"Although current fingerprint recognition technologies can satisfactorily process good quality images, the problem with these systems lies with their inability to process poor quality prints”, said Bill Joss, Chairman, Warwick Warp. "This is where we believe Warwick Warp has a unique advantage - the ability of its algorithms to extract meaningful data from poor quality images. This is particularly important for a large proportion of the population who are unable to give good quality fingerprints as a result of damage to their fingers."
Li Wang, CTO, Warwick Warp added "The technology is also highly scalable.
It, therefore, has the potential to operate on very large scale databases
without compromising on speed and accuracy."
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For further information on Synergis Technologies Ltd, please contact:
Sheryl Young, CEO
Tel: +44 (0) 207 932 0727