World's First Use of Fraud Resistant Fingerprint Sensing Pen May Halt Identity Theft

West Lafayette, IN May 11, 2004--Pen-One, Inc. announced today the first commercial transaction using its new fingerprint-scanning pen. The pen includes a built-in electronic sensor capable of recognizing the identity of a signer as an aid to eliminate identity theft and financial fraud. The sensor reads the signer's fingerprint while signing a check, credit card receipt, or other document.

Purdue University's Technology Transfer Initiative (TTI) and Innovation Realization Lab (IRL) played a key role in identifying new markets and strategies for commercializing the new biometric pen technology for Pen-One, Inc. The world's first use was to sign copyright assignment agreements for a white paper written by two graduate students. The paper, "Developing the World's First Biometric Writing Instrument" is published on the Pen-One company web site (http://pen-one.com).

"The IRL team helped Pen-One in an actual consultant and client relationship," remarked program manager, Ronald Steuterman. "The biometric pen was among several projects accepted by student teams. We appreciate the opportunity to work with Pen-One. Real world experience for our student teams is a crucial element of our program." The National Science Foundation funded IRL teams graduate students from agriculture, engineering, and science with MBA students as they learn the principles of effectively commercializing new inventions and technology. The IRL is led by Professor of Economics Stephen Martin.

During a brief presentation and signing ceremony, Pen-One representative Scott Bechtel stated, "This afternoon we enter the age of electronically authenticated signatures. We hope our demonstration marks the beginning of the end of identity theft." He went on to explain, "When world leaders meet to sign a treaty, they easily recognize each other. Yet, for many transactions, the parties do not know one another. This is where we find the value of a smart biometric pen."

Bechtel closed his presentation with an announcement that the company is considering the West Lafayette area as a first choice for its corporate offices. "The teamwork with Purdue University was instrumental in securing additional funding commitments for Pen-One and the company has an interest in hiring Purdue graduates to become future company leaders," he stated.

Bechtel also added that support from the Indiana Congressional delegation; including Congressman Steve Buyer and Congressman Dan Burton has been very encouraging to the company. Pen-One is soliciting interest from Defense Department and related government agencies that will benefit from the ultra-high security and signature record offered by the new technology.

The actual signature process was directed by Mr. Christopher Hernandez, a graduate student in the University's Biometrics Standards Assurance and Performance Laboratory. The facility is a world leader in biometric device testing and host to this week's M-1 biometrics industry standards committee meetings. The Laboratory will be assisting Pen-One, Inc. with additional product testing, standards compliance, and ergonomic design factors. Signers presented themselves to Hernandez, who verified their identities using the fingerprint sensor built into the pen. Their signatures formed a binding agreement and Hernandez then released payment to the authenticated signers.

"Biometrics applications like this have great value in areas ranging from simple check cashing to new ways to stop terrorism," Hernandez said. "We hope the new pen technology will be used in government and commercial applications to increase security in everything from weapons shipments to patient medical records." Read the details.





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