Litronic Adds to Security Offerings; Conexant’s Busy, Too
A Santa Ana company is hoping a recently signed law that gives legal weight to so-called digital signatures will translate into a viable business.
WildID LLC plans to provide digital signatures for free, making it one of the first no-cost services of its kind. Digital signatures verify the identity of subscribers who send e-mail or conduct business online and make those transactions tamper-proof using an encryption scheme.
While the concept isn’t new, a law signed June 30 by President Clinton stands to give digital signatures legal weight, making it possible to sign contracts or write checks online.
Though most companies in the field,most of them considerably larger than WildID,charge about $15 to maintain digital signatures for a year, the Santa Ana company plans to offer the same service for free. It plans to gain revenue by selling advertising on its site and requiring customers to renew their signatures every 30 days.
According to Ron Evans, the company’s chief technology officer, the concept could boom once consumers understand the benefits.
“People don’t know they need this type of security until the boss sees that resume, the wife sees that e-mail to ‘Natasha,’ or a co-worker reads what people really feel about him,” Evans said.
Not exactly a management-oriented pitch, but Evans said most workers should see the value.
For more: www.wildid.com.
More IDs
And in a similar vein, Irvine network security system maker Litronic Inc. has added handwriting- and voice-recognition capabilities to its identification system, which already can scan users’ retinas to unlock Web pages or files.
The new features are designed to complement Litronic’s security systems, which use digital signatures and computerized smartcards to keep prying eyes away from sensitive material.
The Litronic system stores a unique biometric feature,say, a user’s voice pattern or writing style,on the smart card. When someone uses the smartcard, the user’s voice, handwriting or retinal pattern is matched to the card. That guards against someone stealing the card or ferreting out a password.
According to industry research group International Biometrics Group, sales of biometric devices could reach $594 million in 2003 from $58 million last year.
Litronic is licensing the retina scanner, handwriting unit and voice recognition units from other companies. For more: www.litronic.com.
Don’t Forget Conexant
Irvine communications chipmaker Broadcom Corp. has been attracting most of the headlines in recent weeks, but its Newport Beach rival Conexant Systems Inc. has pulled a few things out of its sleeve, too. Recent announcements include:
n The introduction of what officials there say is the first single-chip video encoder capable of handling high-definition and international television signals. In addition to super-crisp TV pictures, the chip allows devices to display sharper images on PC and video game screens.
n The first public demonstration of what’s known as 10-gigabit-per-second, very-short-reach interconnects. The devices, which consume the same amount of power and take up the same amount of space as slower 2.5-gigabit-per-second interconnects, are designed to speed up data transfer among networked devices within 300 meters of one another.
n The unveiling of AccessRunner 9009, a $20 chipset for digital subscriber lines that integrates each port’s analog front end and line-driver into a single device. The chipset is used for high-density situations in which a single DSL line is shared.
n An agreement that will put Conexant’s dial-up modems into Nintendo Co.’s new Gamecube video game units, which are expected to hit U.S. stores next year. Conexant is working with Nintendo on higher-speed modems for later versions of the system.
For more: www.conexant.com.
Last Chance
Organizers of Orange County’s first-ever eWards event, designed to highlight superior design on the Internet, have extended the deadline for nominations to Sept. 22. The event will take place Oct. 19 at the Orange County Museum of Art at Newport Center.
For nomination instructions, visit www.webevents.org/ewards.
Each nomination requires a $75 entry fee, with proceeds going to Goodwill Industries of Orange County and AnotheR BytE, a nonprofit group that refurbishes old computers and donates them to schools and other groups.
Bits:
Presenting Solutions, San Clemente, signed an agreement that will allow it to sell ViewSonic Corp.’s most popular line of computer projectors Viking Components, Rancho Santa Margarita, received certification from Rambus Inc.’s test labs for its 64-megabyte high-speed Rambus memory modules. Company officials say Viking is the first in the industry to be certified for the 800-megahertz, 64-megabyte units The Aguila Consulting Group Inc., Lake Forest, has created an application service provider division specializing in hosting software applications online. The company’s first offering will be a package of services that help manage human-resource tasks.
Ken Spencer Brown can be reached at kbrown@ocbj.com or (949) 833-8373, Ext. 239.
