Warp speed recognition

A West Midlands company which has developed a new fingerprint recognition technique has attracted £500,000 worth of venture capital.

Warwick Warp, based at the University of Warwick Science Park's Venture Centre in Coventry, has devised a system using patented processes to dramatically improve the accuracy and speed of recognition of fingerprints and is working to apply it to face recognition also.

The company, originally a spin-out from Warwick University has gained £500,000 of investment from London-based Synergis Technologies and Mathematical Capital along with a sizeable chunk through Minerva's Business Angel Network at the Science Park.

Warwick Warp's technology can identify fingerprints even from damaged or poor quality images by using the patented algorithms the company engineers have developed. The technology can be applied as an upgrade to existing scanners and readers.

'Although current fingerprint recognition technologies can satisfactorily process good quality images, the problem with these systems lies with their inability to process poor quality or partial prints, which represent a high proportion of those presented,' said Warwick Warp's Chairman Bill Joss.

The Warwick Warp technique may also find uses in areas such as e-commerce, workforce and attendance tracking, access control, National ID card and e-border control as well as forensic applications.