It sounds like the stuff of science fiction or spy movies. Biometrics has long been featured in James Bond and other spy and action movies as a far-off technology of the future. Veltek is one of two Central Massachusetts companies working in biometrics. Late last year, eTrue created a biometrics system for NASA to protect its secure Web server at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. To operate the system, a database was created of pictures of employees' faces and recordings of their voices.
Software compares the information to what is stored on the database, and decides whether it matches.
If so, the employee can then access the computer. Veltek's systems work much in the same way. The company, which is a subsidiary of Korean electronics manufacturer Chun Shin Electronics Inc., sells the cameras, fiber-optic lines, servers and other backbone equipment used in biometric systems. Tampa police supplied the companies with photos of known criminals, largely pickpockets and thieves, Renshaw said. The images were put into a database.