MARCH 31--Viisage Technology Inc. (Littleton, MA; www.viisage.com), a provider of identity verification, has agreed to acquire all of the capital stock of privately held ZN Vision Technologies AG (Bochum, Germany) in exchange for 6,360,000 newly issued shares of Viisage common stock. The acquisition strengthens Viisage's market position and its ability to deliver identity-verification solutions on a global scale. The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of Viisage. Completion is subject to approval by the shareholders of Viisage at a special meeting of shareholders, as well as other customary conditions. Viisage expects to close the transaction by the end of July 2003.
ZN is a provider of facial-recognition solutions in ID documents, access control, criminal ID databases, intelligent video surveillance, and privacy-enhancing technologies. It was founded by researchers in the field of artificial vision as a spin-off of the Bochum Ruhr University, Germany, and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
ZN technology is based on the patented Graph Matching methodology, a procedure derived from human vision. To characterize a face, approximately 1700 features are used providing ZN's systems with a better performance and a greater robustness with regard to environmental conditions, facial expression, and changes to outward appearances such as aging, beards, wigs, or eyeglasses. The technology is suited for both 2- and 3-D face recognition.
