Aware, a leading global provider of biometrics software products, solutions and services, announces a new partnership with Iris ID Systems., 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 AwareABISTM, a large-scale automated biometric identification system, Nexa|IrisTM, 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.