Viisage to make digital licenses for Rhode Island drivers

Viisage Technology Inc., Littleton, Mass., has won a five-year, $3.2 million contract to provide the Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles with a digital driver's license system incorporating new security features, the company announced June 19.

Under the contract, Viisage will provide technology for workstations in eight issuing offices throughout the state. The technology will enable the DMV to acquire digital images, signatures and demographic data and store them in a relational database.

The driver's licenses and ID cards will have an advanced look with a multicolored format, the company said. The cards will feature some of the industry's most advanced security features, including a two-dimensional bar code and a digital reproduction of the citizen's signature.

As part of the solution, Viisage will provide proprietary architecture known as the Fault-Tolerant Distributed Production System, which provides continual uptime by incorporating redundant data and printing capability.

The contract also will provide Rhode Island with Viisage's imaging workstations. Atlantek Inc. of Wakefield, R.I., will provide the printers for the new digital driver's licenses.