A State Of Nothingness
So how many of you watched Obama’s State Of The Union address last nite? I saw bits and pieces of it, but honestly, it was pretty boring. In my view, its all the same talk and spiel, but by the time his term is up, nothing will have changed. The economy will still be the same or even worse, and middle class Americans just like you and me will still be struggling and trying to save for our futures.
Congress will still go on and on bickering with the President on policies and legislation, and nothing will ever get passed to help improve this nation’s economy and mounting debt. Worst yet, wait until Obamacare takes a hold next year. Premiums will escalate not just for everyday working class citizens, but it is the small business which will suffer the most, because of the increased costs. And of course, this will lead to decreased hiring. Nothing new here.
And in the world of Biometrics, nothing will change here either. The federal government will still be the biggest customer. I bring this to you today, and while it is good news for the vendor, it is still more of the same. Today, the Biometrics vendor known as “AOptix” has just announced it has received a pretty sizable order with a pretty big chunk of change from the Department of Defense.
The details: “ AOptix has just landed a research contract from the U.S Defence Department (DoD) to examine its Smart Mobile Identity biometrics identification package and to eventually provide the department with a smartphone solution for scanning someone’s eyes, face, thumbs and voice . . . The hardware AOptix has developed wraps around the phone itself — presumably to attach physical scanners — and is said to weigh under one pound.” (SOURCE: http://www.biometricupdate.com/201302/aoptix-and-caci-land-3-million-research-contract-from-dod/).
My Take
Now, $3 million dollars is a nice contract, don’t get me wrong. And, my hats off and hearty congratulations to this vendor for winning it. I know that it is really difficult to get a good contract like this from the federal government. I saw the stuff that AOptix is capable of, as I visited their booth on numerous occasions at BCC 2012 (and yes, I am planning to again this fall in September).
A bulk of their product relies on iris recognition, and they have some pretty slick stuff out there, as I viewed their products and solutions first hand, and even saw some demonstrations. In fact, a lot of literature I collected from them will be used in my next article on iris recognition. From what I can gather, it seems like that the basic objective is to provide a mobile solution for the armed forces, so that they can confirm the identities of people on the battlefield.
But it just won’t be the iris that will be scanned, but also the face and the voice. The idea is not just for mobility, but to keep the solution lightweight as well (I mean heck, these soldiers have to carry enough poundage of equipment on their backs). But, despite this good news for our industry, I am still disappointed in one thing. And that is, when will the private sector step up and spur some spending in Biometrics??? Why does it always have to the be federal government???
As it is, the government has its hand in everything else, I for sure DO WANT to see their hands wrapped around the Biometrics industry. It seems like that all the time I read about a contract being awarded, it is from the government. When will companies like the Fortune 500 (and whom by the way, have a boat load of cash on their balance sheet) step up to the plate and award some its own lucrative contracts to our industry?
I am sure, that they need to beef up both their physical and network security, so why not use Biometrics??? Or are we going to see the nationalization of the Biometrics industry from our own government? Gads, I hope not.
Hello, I was wondering if I could quote a portion of your site for a paper. Please Email me confirming this so I can use your site as a source. Thanks
Posted by: magento development uk | February 14, 2013 at 06:55 AM