The company behind the technology, Bedford, N.H.-based Imaging Automation, is also trying to persuade the federal Transportation Security Administration to buy the toaster-sized scanners to perform the same checks on air passengers' ID cards.
But Imaging Automation faces questions about how well its system can work, as well as competition from the slew of high-tech startups that covet government dollars earmarked for homeland security.
"They're obviously salivating at the prospect of a TSA contract," said Chris King, a technology analyst with META Group Inc.
Imaging Automation considers itself unique because its ID-verification system can have biometrics capabilities, such as checking photographs and fingerprints embedded on IDs against those on government watch lists for terrorists and criminals.
But experts are skeptical of such claims, particularly the facial-recognition technology. They say it would be difficult to match the carefully posed pictures on IDs against the government's often-clandestine photographs of terrorists.
"Terrorists don't pose for really good pictures," said security technology expert Bruce Schneier.
Thus far, none of Imaging Automation's clients uses the biometric features.
Imaging Automation's document checker, in use at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Boston's Logan Airport, compares driver's licenses, passports and other IDs against a database that indicates what the document should look like.
It also checks a document's invisible seals and scans magnetic strips and bar codes on driver's licenses to ensure that the information is in the correct format, a common stumbling block for counterfeiters, said the company's vice president of engineering, Dennis Kallelis. Information gleaned from IDs is also compared against public records such as voter registration rolls, driver licenses and vehicle registrations.
Imaging Automation said it has sold thousands of the devices to the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, the Swedish National Police, the Hungarian Border Police and the Finland Frontier Guards.
For proof that the scanners work, the company points to Hungary's six-fold increase in border violation arrests since deploying the technology.
At Logan airport, spokesman Phil Orlandella said the scanner caught several forgeries during a five-month trial on 225,000 international passengers in 2002. He declined to provide details, but said the people were turned over to U.S. Customs.
It has yet to catch any workers using fake IDs.
Orlandella said Logan plans to buy another of the machines, which cost $6,000 to $10,000.
DFW Airport has been using two of the devices since October to screen airport workers. But the devices would not have prevented an embarrassing incident for the airport in November, when federal authorities arrested 63 workers accused of using false Social Security numbers on applications.
Before their arrests, the workers had received special badges that allowed them in secure areas.
The workers were employed by contractors -- not the airport itself. Because of that, DFW lacked the authority to verify the Social Security numbers, Social Security Administration spokesman Mark Hinkle said.
Imaging Automation is targeting the TSA's proposed "trusted traveler" program, which would allow passengers who have passed background checks to skip security measures such as random searches, said Rick Carter, Imaging Automation's security director.
The TSA declined to comment on talks with specific companies.
Imaging Automation is also marketing its devices to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, in hopes that they'll be used to verify border-crossers' IDs.
Though Schneier said the company's scanning device may prove useful, he warned against considering the device foolproof. He said exceptional forgeries might beat any machines, noting that two of the Sept. 11 terrorists used authentic Virginia ID cards.
Others warn that public-records databases on which the technology relies might contain outdated or incorrect information that could wrongly flag someone. Other critics say the data gathered by devices like Imaging Automation's scanners could wind up being used without authorization for other purposes, perhaps by the government or marketing firms.
Those worries should be directed at the users of the technology, not the manufacturers, Carter said.
"Our technology allows you to get the data and pass it along," he said. "How and what that data is used for is really in the hands of the customers."
Copyright 2002. Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
