Access Control
& Security Systems

Nearly 50 companies showcased new product ideas, technology and research at the Small Business Homeland Security Expo last week on Capitol Hill. Co-sponsored by Senators Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), participating companies were nominated by members of Congress.

"Small firms and entrepreneurs have an unprecedented opportunity to put their unique qualities to work for the national good," said Bond, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Many of the exhibiting companies showcased technology ideas with Homeland Security in mind. One company, RVSI Acuity CiMatrix, Canton, Mass., promoted a system that reduces facial and fingerprint information into a barcode that is inexpensive to produce.

Another company, Fast Talk Inc., Atlanta, promoted a system that can determine threats to reservoirs, dams and power plants.

Funding for such technologies is in wide supply thanks to initiatives by President Bush. The Federal government is expected to spend more than $57 billion on technology for Homeland defense next year alone.

"There is a gold rush," Lee Hamilton, former chair of the House Intelligence Committee told USA Today. "There is a tremendous market out there for security devices that has exploded in the past few months."

Read the coming August issue of ACCESS CONTROL & SECURITY SYSTEMS for more on the Small Business Homeland Security Expo, and be sure to check out the July issue of our spin-off magazine, GOVERNMENT SECURITY. Visit the GOVERNMENT SECURITY Web site at www.govtsecurity.com

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• The Framework For Open Systems
• On A Higher Plane
• More from April's issue