TAMPA, Fla.—After some recent wins and with key opportunities ahead, the U.S.-based division of Japan’s NEC Corp. in May opened an identity solutions office in Washington, D.C., to better serve its federal customers and position itself for winning new business, the head of the office tells HSR.
The main reason for opening the new office is the recent wins, which include a large one with a customer in the intelligence community for NEC’s facial recognition technology, Benji Hutchinson, says in an interview at AFCEA’s annual Global Identity Summit. In addition, NEC’s facial recognition technology has been, or is, being used in pilot programs sponsored by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for pedestrian crossings between Mexico and the U.S. at the Otay Mesa, Calif., port of entry, and at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to help verify a traveler entering the U.S. matches the passport presented.
NEC’s vision is to integrate all the different identity solutions components “into a seamless travel experience that’s more convenient and safer,” Hutchinson says. “From curb to gate to destination…we want to be able to match someone when they get out of their automobile or their mode of transportation and drop their bag off all the way to when the arrive to wherever they’re going and there’s points within the airport or the travel infrastructure where we can implement this technology.”
In addition to having strong credentials in facial recognition technology, NEC has a mobile fingerprint scanning system that has been acquired by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a live scan fingerprint contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs, software and algorithms for fingerprint and palm print matching, Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems, mobile multimodal biometric capture technology, and other identity solutions products and services.
The upcoming competitions that NEC and its competitors are eyeing include a new multimodal biometric storage, matching and sharing database that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is preparing to open for competition to replace its current IDENT fingerprint-based system. Companies like NEC will likely compete to supply the biometric matching algorithms for the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) system, with larger integrators likely to bid on the prime contract.
HART will initially include fingerprint, face and iris capabilities. NEC will compete for all of these modalities, Hutchinson says. 3M Corp.’s [MMM] Cogent business provides the fingerprint matching technology for the current IDENT system. France’s Safran Group’s Morpho business is also expected to be in the hunt to provide biometric matching software for HART.
CBP is also readying a competition to deploy a capability for biometric checks of foreign nationals departing from U.S. airports for overseas destinations. The agency earlier this year indicated it is favoring facial recognition technology for air exit checks at high-throughout airports but industry officials tell HSR that CBP isn’t set on that technology.
CBP is also looking at eventually implementing biometric exit at land sea ports of entry and reengineering biometric entry checks for arriving international travelers.
The Defense Department this year is expected to release a Request for Proposal for a contract to maintain and upgrade its existing biometric database, the DoD ABIS system, bringing the technology up to date and extending its service life until a new system is developed and deployed.
The Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs next year is also expected to recompete a facial recognition program that is currently performed by Safran Group’s MorphoTrust business, which was formerly L-1 Identity Solutions. Hutchinson worked for MorphoTrust before joining NEC.
The new office is giving NEC “more exposure” with a broader swath of potential customers than are currently familiar with the company and its technology, Hutchinson says. The company’s U.S. business is headquartered in Texas and it also has an office in California where it does software development and engineering, and work related to its state and local customers.
The new Washington, D.C. office does sales and related support, marketing, government affairs, program management and program support, which will give the company “sustained intimacy” with its customers, Hutchinson says.