IDEX acquires technology and staff from PicoField
IDEX ASA, a leading fingerprint biometrics company, has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets and intellectual property rights from PicoField Technologies, Inc. PicoField is a US company engaged in touch fingerprint sensor design and development tailored for consumer devices. At the same time PicoField’s founders will be employed by IDEX’s US subsidiary, IDEX America Inc.
“This acquisition consolidates IDEX’s presence in the biometric market, and adds strong patents and additional intellectual property enhancing our portfolio in the field of low cost touch fingerprint sensors for mass market applications,” said Dr. Hemant Mardia, CEO of IDEX. “PicoField holds significant patents and technology which are expected to accelerate IDEX’s programme for industry disruptive touch sensors for the mobile communication market, in addition to our award-winning swipe sensor technology,” he continued.
“I am extremely pleased and privileged to welcome Picofield’s executive team on board at IDEX,” Mr. Mardia added. “We are establishing a strong presence in the US market and are delighted to welcome Thar Casey, currently PicoField’s CEO, as President of our IDEX America business. With Fred Benkley as CTO and David Geoffroy, Director of Engineering, we bring some of the world’s most experienced fingerprint sensor technology experts to IDEX America.” Fred Benkley and David Geoffroy were also co-founders of the US fingerprint sensor company Validity Sensors, Inc., where they held senior technical positions.
There is a strongly increasing demand for fingerprint biometrics in the consumer market, and especially for low-cost touch sensors for mobile handsets. This has lately been highlighted through Apple’s successful introduction of its Touch ID technology in its new iPhone 5S. IDEX holds several unique intellectual property and technology blocks relevant for touch sensors, including a unique cross-licence with Apple relating to fingerprint sensors.
IDEX is now consolidating its position to fulfill the company’s business ambitions for the biometric mobile communication market. By the purchase of PicoField’s assets and intellectual property rights, IDEX’s technology base is substantially expanded and strengthened, and the company anticipates that a highly competitive and disruptive touch sensor product will be established by joining features and technologies from the IDEX and PicoField portfolios.
“We at PicoField are very excited to join forces with IDEX, a company with a long-term vision. I believe that our partnership will be ground-breaking in producing superior solutions to what exists in the market today,” said Thar Casey, CEO of PicoField.
“We are excited to merge our touch sensor patent portfolio with IDEX’s broad intellectual property base and its long history of firsts in the industry. I believe that the combined intellectual property and extensive joint domain experience will allow us together to create a next generation of highly integrated fingerprint sensors,” added Fred Benkley, CTO of PicoField.
23 September 2013
IDEX ASA
Web: www.idexbiometrics.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/idexasa
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/idex-asa
Contacts
Hemant Mardia, CEO, +44 7788 922 171, hm(at)idexbiometrics.com
Kristian Wiermyhr, VP strategy and sales, +47 41273360, kw(at)idexbiometrics.com
About IDEX
IDEX ASA specialises in fingerprint imaging and recognition technology. IDEX’s vision is to ensure individuals a safe, secure, and user-friendly use of personal ID. IDEX has developed the award-winning SmartFinger® technology platform based on the company’s core intellectual property, including the patented fingerprint imaging principle, sensing scheme and chip design. Combined with core software solutions for imaging and authentication, the SmartFinger technology enables on-device enrollment, template storage and verification within the very same module. SmartFinger solutions can be seamlessly integrated into a variety of embedded applications such as mobile phones, one-time password devices, Smartcards, payment and ID cards, payment terminals, access control devices and biometric security and login tokens.
IDEX ASA (ticker IDEX) is a Norwegian public company listed at the Oslo Axess marketplace on the Oslo Børs (Oslo stock exchange). For more information, please visit www.idexbiometrics.com or contact IDEX at mailbox@idexbiometrics.com
About PicoField
PicoField Technologies, Inc. was founded with a vision to create the next generation of fingerprint sensors for mobile applications. PicoField’s founding team has been working in the biometrics industry for over a decade and have created several industry firsts. Two of PicoField’s founders were also co-founders of the US fingerprint sensor company Validity Sensors, Inc., where they held senior technical positions.
PicoField has been developing a biometric authentication solution for the mobile commerce ecosystem that secures transactions by transparently identifying the user. The fingerprint sensor is tailored for mobile devices that will provide automatic individual user recognition each time the home button is touched. The technology is uniquely effective and easy to use.
www.picofield.com info@picofield.com
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