L-1 gets Air Marshal Service R&D work

L-1 Identity Solutions has won a contract from the Homeland Security Department to develop facial recognition technology for the Transportation Security Administration's Federal Air Marshal Service.

Under the contract, L-1 of Stamford, Conn., will conduct research and development for a database system used by the air marshal service that stores information from suspicious activity, incident and arrest reports, as well as other sources for retrieval and analysis.

DHS' Science and Technology Directorate awarded the $1.7 million contract.

The Tactical Information Sharing System, as the database is known, became fully operational in 2002. The R&D work on the new contract involves developing facial recognition software that works in conjunction with the system's existing image analysis capability.

As part of its work, L-1 will develop a way for the system to analyze images of persons involved in suspicious activities from cameras built into personal digital assistants.

The research program, which began in December, is expected to take 17 months.

In related news, L-1 announced that it has received several large purchase orders, with a total value of more than $4 million, for its fingerprint capture devices from various international customers and the federal government. Two-thirds of the orders were delivered in the company's fourth quarter, and the remainder will ship this month, the company said.

L-1 is a provider of biometric products and solutions to the public and private sector, including law enforcement and border management agencies.