The ClearID2000 system was sold and installed in Lee County in Leesburg, Ga., to process background checks. Judge John Wheaton, along with three members of his staff, and a photographer from the local newspaper were present when the system was installed. Judge Wheaton said, "This system will eliminate the mess associated with old-fashioned ink and paper fingerprinting. It will also save us time in the fingerprinting process and will help cut down the number of applications rejected by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) for poor fingerprint quality. I am very pleased to have the system in place."

The product was formally announced at the National Sheriff's Association conference and show held this week in Louisville, Kentucky. A short video of the ClearID2000 system may be seen on the Web at http://www.itsactive.com/linkpage/H8UOCNAVAUST.htm .

ClearID2000 has been under development by BSI2000 for almost a year. It is designed to inexpensively capture "rolled" fingerprints electronically to eliminate manual inking procedures now commonly used and to dramatically increase the accuracy and reliability of print collection by providing immediate scan quality feedback to the operator. Rolled fingerprints are taken "nail-to-nail" and are far more accurate than non-rolled flat prints. More information and a photograph of the ClearID2000 device may be seen at http://www.bsi2000.com/clearid2000.pdf .

The system electronically prints the standard FBI fingerprint FD258 "blue" and FD249 "red" hardcopy cards that are used across the nation for background checks and scans by law enforcement agencies, school districts, numerous government agencies, contractors and many others. BSI2000 has submitted sample electronic copies of scanned prints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for certification to enable electronic transmission by ClearID2000 into the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) in a paperless manner.

BSI2000 CEO Jack Harper said, "We have developed sophisticated and proprietary fingerprint technology that has resulted in the ClearID2000 product. This technology is a direct result of extensive research that we have conducted in biometrics for advanced card entry/exit access control systems over the past several years. We see large and exciting markets for ClearID2000 in the areas of law enforcement, background checks for teachers and for gun permits and many others where the expensive products previously in place for rolled prints have precluded widespread use of electronic fingerprint scanning systems. I anticipate our customers will include government agencies at the federal, state and county levels as well as school districts and airports across the country as they comply with mandated employee background checks, along with corporate buyers such as financial and petrochemical groups and many others. Our competitive advantages include high portability (pick up and go), extreme ease of use through a well-thought-out graphical user interface with a touch screen, very low learning curve, high durability and, of course, lower cost."

Harper continued, "We began to pre-market ClearID2000 about 45 days ago or so and are pleased with the market reaction that we are seeing. BSI2000 has already submitted just over $700,000 in requested quotations even with our limited marketing to date. We plan to kick off a large-scale marketing push for ClearID2000 in the United States and in Europe through our partner Epple Multimedia/BSI2000 Europe."