Aware and Iris ID Join Forces to Expand Access to FBI’s Next Generation Iris Service at State and Local Agencies

BEDFORD, Mass., June 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --  Aware, Inc., (NASDAQ: AWRE), a leading global provider of biometrics software products, solutions and services, announces a new partnership with Iris ID Systems Inc., a world leader in iris recognition and identity authentication technology, to empower state and local agencies to take advantage of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Next Generation Identification (NGI) Iris Service. Through this partnership, both companies are poised to drive adoption of fast, accurate, iris-based identification for a variety of criminal justice use cases at any level.

Aware and Iris ID understand the vital importance of utilizing biometric technology to accurately identify individuals for criminal justice and law enforcement use cases at the federal, state and local levels. Through this partnership, Aware will enhance its existing biometric software offerings such as AwareABIS™, a large-scale automated biometric identification system, Nexa|Iris™, a high-performance iris recognition software solution and advanced algorithm, with leading iris recognition hardware from Iris ID. By joining forces, Aware and Iris ID will provide state and local criminal justice agencies with fast, accurate and easy to use iris recognition capabilities.

“Partnering with Iris ID is a natural fit for our company,” said Rob Mungovan, chief commercial officer of Aware. “Iris ID has long been a leading provider of iris capture hardware, and we are excited to offer their capture hardware to our AwareABIS and Nexa|Iris customers looking for a best-in-class capture device system perfomance. The combination of our software with Iris ID’s hardware will improve accessibility of the FBI’s next generation iris service at the state and local level.”

The NGI Iris Service represents an expansion of the FBI’s biometric services beyond fingerprints, using iris recognition to capture, store, and compare iris images with a high degree of accuracy. The inclusion of iris recognition provides authorities with a faster, touchless and highly accurate identification method that can be used in circumstances where fingerprints are not available. Access to the NGI iris services beyond the federal level will not only extend these benefits to state and local agencies, but also allow for the sharing of biometric data across agencies rapidly, resulting in quicker apprehension of wanted individuals, and more accurate criminal records overall.

“We are excited that Aware has selected Iris ID’s industry-leading hardware to help local agencies take advantage of the FBI’s NGI program,” remarked Mohammed Murad, vice president, global sales and development of Iris ID Systems. “Aware has a strong track record of biometric expertise, and when coupled with our state-of-the-art iris recognition solution, criminal justice agencies at any level can experience highly accurate, fast and touchless iris recognition capabilities. We are excited to be working with Aware to assist in the expansion of the NGI program and bring this exciting and useful technology to state and local customers.”

AwareABIS is an Automated Biometric Identification Systems that supports fingerprint, face and iris recognition for large-scale identification. Nexa|Iris is a high-performance iris recognition and authentication algorithm and software product that is reliable, configurable, and easy to use for any given application, database, computing platform and operational environment.

To learn more about Aware’s industry-leading biometric identification and authentication offerings, visit Aware’s website.

About Aware
Aware, a global leader in productized biometrics software products, solutions and services, provides critical biometric functionality to collect, manage, process, and match biometric images and data for identification and authentication. With their decades-long experience, Aware leads the market in liveness detection and multi-modal fusion to protect client and business processes through fingerprint, face, iris, and voice matching algorithms, mobile biometric capture and authentication software, a biometric workflow and middleware platform, and a fully-scalable ABIS. Their device-agnostic, integration-ready, and customer-managed products enable ease-of-use for enterprises to empower individuals to own their identities. Aware serves customers across a multitude of industries, including financial services, enterprise security, healthcare, human resources, citizen ID, border management, law enforcement, defense, and intelligence. Aware is a publicly held company (Nasdaq: AWRE) based in Bedford, Massachusetts. To learn more, visit https://www.aware.com or follow Aware on Twitter @AwareBiometrics.

About Iris ID Systems
Iris ID Systems Inc. has been active in iris recognition research, development and production since 1997. Today U.S.-based Iris ID Systems is a global provider of iris recognition solutions. IrisAccess® is the world's leading deployed iris recognition platform and is used in thousands of locations, authenticating millions of people's identities daily. More people look to IrisAccess for iris-based authentication than to all other iris recognition products combined. For more information, visit www.irisid.com or follow Iris ID on Twitter @IrisID or on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/iris-id-systems-inc-/.

Safe Harbor Warning
Portions of this release contain forward-looking statements regarding future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties, such as our expectations regarding our new product. Aware wishes to caution you that there are factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results indicated by such statements, including the risks that (i) current and prospective customers do not purchase our new product in the quantities that we expect and (ii) our new product does not perform as well as we expect because of errors, defects or bugs. We refer you to the documents Aware files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the section titled Risk Factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 and other reports and filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Aware is a registered trademark of Aware, Inc.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5a4d52bb-9c9d-497f-a99b-91f387f7f245

CONTACT
Company Contact                
Gina Rodrigues                                                        
Aware, Inc.                                                        
781-276-4000                                                                
grodrigues@aware.com