South Bend Police Select Athena Aegis™ Cloud ABIS with Dual Latent-Print Matching Engines

ROC and Neurotechnology engines support a vendor-agnostic approach to biometric identification.

Fairmont, WV — Athena Sciences Corporation announced that the City of South Bend in Indiana has awarded the company a contract to provide Aegis™, its cloud-based automated biometric identification system (ABIS) service, following a competitive procurement.

The South Bend Aegis will provide fingerprint, palm-print, and latent crime-scene print matching. South Bend selected the Aegis Multi-Matcher configuration incorporating latent-print matching engines from ROC (USA) and Neurotechnology (Lithuania) within the Aegis vendor-agnostic architecture.

“Agencies should have the flexibility to choose matching technology based on their operational needs, performance requirements, and budget,” said Dan McCaugherty, CEO of Athena Sciences Corporation. “Aegis brings that choice into a common future-proof platform, with the ability to select today’s top-rated algorithms and consider new options as technology advances.”

The Multi-Matcher configuration is intended to reduce missed matches, helping examiners explore complementary search results rather than relying on a single matching engine approach. ROC and Neurotechnology offer top-rated algorithms per the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Evaluation of Latent Friction Ridge Technology.

Athena has a patent application pending relating to the innovative technology developed for Aegis.

“Our goal is to give law-enforcement agencies a platform that can evolve with their needs,” McCaugherty said. “We want to provide agencies the flexibility to incorporate new matching technologies in the future without changing operational procedures and training, preserving the value of their broader biometric system investment.”

According to the City of South Bend source selection statement, “Although Athena Sciences was the lowest bid … they were selected because of their unique approach to a customizable ABIS solution and the first ever Multi-Matcher option which includes the highest NIST rated algorithm(s) available.”

Law-enforcement agencies seeking information about Aegis ABIS, supported matching-engine configurations, or technical demonstrations should email contact@athenasciences.com.

Image: https://southbendin.gov/