Interview with John Cassise, CEO, Innometriks Inc.

Company referenced in this item: Lumidigm

FB

You described Innometriks as being born out of a desire to change the current way the biometric industry is doing business today. Can you elaborate on this statement?

Innometriks

The products that are available on the market today are built on an architecture that was developed from a manufacturer standpoint. The products cannot be changed or tweaked in any regard. So if the product is exactly what you want — great, but if it isn’t, you must figure out a way to make your requirements work around the reader. So what we’ve done instead is we’ve built an architecture that allows the customer a great deal of flexibility. This approach is very different from that of the industry in general, which is built on proprietary structures whether those are the software/firmware that they develop for their products or the actual templates that they create from the fingerprints they capture.

FB

What has been the reaction to your approach?

Innometriks

It has been even better received than I anticipated. It’s been very rewarding to have the customer say, "Everything’s great but we want this additional function," and be able to actually do it for them as simply as they think it should be done. We have been able to walk into some very large opportunities this way!

FB

Can you outline your current product portfolio?

Innometriks

Currently our core product is the Rhino terminal line. One ruggedized form factor has different sensor and smartcard options. We have six different readers that give you the ability to use iCLASS, MIFARE or DESfire as well as the ability to use a sensor technology such as multispectral imaging from Lumidigm. You also have options for other sensors if the situation requires it.

FB

Which vertical markets are you focusing on?

Innometriks

We’ve had good traction in the government space…for example, sea ports and airports and markets that are somehow connected to TWIC requirements. Also trucking facilities and power facilities, where they are on the fringe of TWIC regulations and have harsh environments that they need to deal with. The Lumidigm sensor has been a tremendous plus in this market since their product works where no other biometric can. Our solutions have also been very well received in the government space in Latin America — the Federal police, the State police and even in higher levels of government.

FB

You mentioned the Lumidigm sensor that’s used in some of your product, is that because of the ruggedized requirement you mentioned?

Innometriks

The Lumidigm sensor gives us a lot of flexibility in addressing difficult applications, especially those with a rugged environment requirement because the unit can mount directly outdoors. Lumidigm has the first fingerprint sensor technology that will just work no matter what you’re dealing with. Whether it’s outside, whether it’s damaged fingers, whether it’s a wide range of users, we’ve had tremendous success in being able to just walk in and set the product on the table and say, "give us the worst case scenario."

FB

You speak a lot about industry standards. Where do you think we are as an industry in this regard?

Innometriks

I think as an industry we need to change. The message we at Innometriks are promoting in the industry is that we should not see open standards as a bad thing. Biometrics has been stifled in its growth because companies are forcing customers into proprietary solutions and once they choose it, they’re locked. This makes adoption a bigger risk because if they choose wrong or if their needs change they’ve potentially made a career ending decision. With the adoption of open standards, applications we never even dreamed of will come forward. That is just good business for everyone.

FB

What can we expect to see from Innometriks next?

Innometriks

Next you will see an esthetically pleasing family of products focused on the indoor corporate environment. We are also working with several folks in the industry on new communications called OSDP (Open Supervised Device Protocol). This is an open standard that will provide a bidirectional communication that is secure and will provide much more capability than the widely used Wiegand Protocol. Once implemented by the access control manufacturer, any biometric supporting the protocol can be plugged into the system without a new integration effort.

I think that as an industry, our market expansion is dependent on opening up the architecture for biometrics adoption. This might entail giving someone a terminal to write their own software just like they would with a PC or providing those services. Another key is standardizing the templates so that we can offer truly interoperable and therefore competitive products. That’s where you will see Innometriks heading in the near future and that’s where I think we can lead the charge that creates the sort of the disruption that’s necessary to prompt other biometric vendors to go in the same direction. In real-estate they say it is location, location, location. At Innometriks our credo is, make it Open, Flexible and Secure. It’s a shame that the concept of being "Open" is truly innovative, but it is true for our industry right now. We look forward to the day when "Open" is the standard.