Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

Biokey brings biometrics to the fingers fighting fire

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

BIO-key International has been awarded a contract at Green Bay, Wisconsin Fire Department to interface BIO-key’s FireRMS(TM) records management system with PDSI’s TeleStaff(TM) automated scheduling system. Green Bay will join a growing number of fire departments nationwide that enjoy the benefit of having BIO-key’s FireRMS solution seamlessly integrated with the TeleStaff automated scheduling module. Today, Battalion Chiefs must manually create their daily rosters. This time consuming task is hampered by additional constraints including the need to minimize overtime, ensure personnel are assigned with the proper credentials, and that all guidelines are followed.


With the completed implementation of the interface, Green Bay’s command staff will not only save time building their rosters each day, but will also benefit from streamlining their incident report process. The automated system will help to minimize overtime costs, improve productivity and ensure that the right skills are available on every shift.

“Managing days off, overtime, sick days and finding firefighters with the right credentials is a time-consuming task,” says Fire Chief Jeff Stauber. “With the new telephone and rules-based system interfaced to BIO-key’s FireRMS, we will minimize that problem. Chief Stauber goes on to say that since the rollout in 2002, the BIO-key FireRMS system has provided unprecedented access to records for managing all aspects of the department.

“PDSI’s ‘best of breed’ partner solution is important to our success and serves to improve the operational efficiencies of our customers, which enables them to better serve their communities!” exclaims Mike Layman, BIO-key Director of Marketing. “PDSI’s market-leading software is a natural extension to our enterprise-class fire records management system.” [end] 

Oracle has released a new version of Oracle Retail Point-of-Service that aims to increase security, operational efficiency and functionality in part by integrating biometrics.

Oracle partnered with DigitalPersonal to add integrated biometrics to the POS package. Users of the software will login using their fingerprint, which will replace the need for PINs or passwords. This feature intends to reduce fraud by eliminating the possibility of unauthorized employees using a manager ID or swipe card to access the POS and approve overrides.

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Retail operations are finding biometric point-of-sale systems that are used for both tracking employee actions as well as for time and attendance are a great tool in fighting inventory shrink and labor fraud, according to a Point of Sale News article.

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The European Association for Biometrics (EAB) is focusing on a goal of driving the research and development of biometrics and building the future of the industry around a concern for end-user privacy protection.

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Integrated Biometrics has announced its fingerprint sensor, called Watson, has been named the first non-optical scanner to receive FBI IAFIS Appendix F Certification.

In addition to being the first-non optical sensor to receive the certification, Watson is also the lightest, weighing in at less than a quarter pound, and can utilize single or multiple finger applications.

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ValidSoft partnered with Opus Research and released a report titled “Voice Biometrics Authentication Best Practices: Overcoming Obstacles to Adoption” that predicts the technology will be deployed in payment authentication assuming the best practices it lays out are followed.

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The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) has placed an order with Hitachi Asia Ltd. to supply passive RFID technology that will enable the Singapore Government to track various emergency equipment at all sixteen fire stations island wide.

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