Local software maker wins US recognition
Tiger IT Bangladesh Ltd has been ranked second by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for developing an automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) with high accuracy.
To clinch the recognition from the US organisation, Tiger IT, a local software maker, competed with a host of renowned software makers from around the world in terms of accuracy and perfection. NIST is a non-regulatory federal agency within the US Department of Commerce.
AFIS is the process of automatically matching one or many unknown fingerprints against a database of known and unknown prints. As a biometric technology, AFIS can provide absolute identification of an individual by processing the image of a fingerprint.
Tiger AFIS' accuracy for a "two-finger match" was in the top three across all participants.
In the smaller less relevant dataset (DHS), imaged over 12 years ago, Tiger AFIS was in the top four in accuracy for a two-finger match scoring 98.9 percent true match rate at a false match rate of 0.01 percent.
The other top-ranked companies were NEC of Japan, US-based Cogent, France's Sagem and another US-based L1.
"I am very proud of our team's ability to develop an algorithm in less than two years time that rivals the accuracy of very large AFIS vendors that have invested tens of millions of dollars over several decades to achieve similar results," Ziaur Rahman, chairman and chief executive officer of Tiger IT Bangladesh, told reporters at the National Press Club yesterday.
Inspired by the success of the biometric voter registration project in Bangladesh and encouraged by the Bangladesh army, Tiger IT began developing AFIS in early 2008.
Tiger IT's AFIS software had been used for adding fingerprints of more than 80 million voters to the voter identity (ID) card and national ID card as well.
Tiger IT has also sold its AFIS solution to Nigerian and Colombian governments. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and some other countries are evaluating the solution, Rahman said.
Tiger IT biometric ID solution is being used in Canada for child's ID and in Afghanistan for biometric ID for banking.
"We expect the government to promote local software makers and strengthen the IT industry in Bangladesh," said Rahman.
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