Warwick Warp

Warwick Warp was started in 2006 as a spin-off company from the University of Warwick. The three founding members, Professor Roland Wilson, Dr Li Wang and Dr Abhir Bhalerao, belong to the Signal and Image Processing Research Group in the Department of Computer Science. Begun by Professor Wilson in the 1980s, this research group is widely known as one of the best of its kind in the UK and has also earned international recognition.

Warwick Warp was born out of an interest in three dimensional distortion or "warping" of fingerprints. Distortion can occur when a print is collected either intentionally, such as at a port of entry, or forensically from the scene of a crime. This problem and others such as low image contrast, scars and cuts can make fingerprint matching a very difficult process. By taking a new, inventive approach, the three researchers have created a mathematical modelling technology that can neutralise these effects and substantially improve the success rate of fingerprint matching. This approach can be applied to a range of biometric techniques including facial recognition.

The company was formed with support from private and government investment to develop and commercialise their innovation. The global biometrics market is expected to reach $6 billion by 2010 and Warwick Warp is poised to make a significant technological contribution to the industry with its unique, innovative products and intellectual property for licence. The company has released its first commercial product for the automated fingerprint identification market and has a development roadmap that will deliver new solutions to support the performance requirements of the rapidly growing biometrics market.