A license agreement signed in July 2006 between Precise Biometrics AB and the Japanese electronics group Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd has resulted in the development of an electronic circuit with an embedded biometric solution (ML67Q5250). The circuit was introduced by OKI on the world market in November, and there are great expectations that the solution will open up for completely new applications for fingerprint recognition. In terms of volume, OKI has planned for a production of about 200,000 circuits a month as of April 2008.

The unique feature of the circuit is that it integrates Precise Biometrics´ core technology for identification, which means significant advantages for companies developing end products and solutions, such as payment terminals, door locks, satellite boxes, and PC peripherals such as keyboard. This means accessto an inexpensive one-chip solution for fingerprint recognition, which can be adapted to different applications. These companies thereby avoid expensive and time-consuming development work and can reach out to the market more quickly with new product generations where personal identification via fingerprint technology is becoming an important sales argument.

Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd, with some 21,000 employees and annual sales of close to SEK 60 billion, is one of Japan´s largest companies. The new electronic circuit has been developed in the subsidiary Silicon Solutions Company, whose president, Masahiko Morioka, also is very positive towards the market potential.

"The fact that we have succeeded in developing a circuit with a long series of advantages, also being very attractive in terms of costs, means that we have very great expectations for the future. The cooperation with Precise Biometrics also means that we can offer a complete solution which integrates the market´s leading biometric technology for fingerprint identification, and I believe this will be of great importance when it comes to speeding up the development of new product generations in, for example, the consumer sector", concludes Masahiko Morioka.

Precise Biometrics´ CEO, Thomas Marshall, is impressed by the advantages of the electronic circuit.

"It´s fantastic that they have succeeded in integrating not only our core technology in to this small circuit, but also create a long series of advantages for end users", he said.