Cogent Systems scores with U.K. Visa biometrics deal

The Beach Boys had a hit with “The Little Old Lady From Pasadena.” The city of South Pasadena has a hit with Cogent Systems (NASDAQ: COGT), a provider of Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) and a rising star in the biometrics sector. After losing the first round of bidding to provide the hardware solutions for the United Kingdom’s U.K. Visa Biometrics program (Steria was the winner of the £10 million contract), the company has won the second round to provide the software. Cogent’s technology will be used at 250 embassy and visa application centers worldwide to help capture fingerprint and facial recognition biometric data. According to Cogent’s Theresa Wu, the company’s hardware agnostic approach won the day. The initial roll out is expected by February 2007, and Cogent will also provide software consulting, help desk, and incident management services.

Cogent is no stranger to the field. We reported last month that the company’s fingerprint alghorithm technology was the first to receive U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) approval for use in intimate combination with the PIV smart card issuance and operation infrastructures. Cogent was also recently named the prime contractor for a new AFIS system for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Real Time Identification (RTID) initiative; was selected to support the US-VISIT prigram; provided the core matching platform for EURODAC, the European Union system used to verify political asylum applications; and is embedded in Hong Kong’s National Smart Identity Card System (SMARTICS).

-read more in this news release