This is the second year Congress has funded the project, enabling the Army to move into the prototype phase. Known as the "Smart Data Project: Real-Time Geospatial Video Sensor Intelligence for Night Vision Electronic Sensor Directorate (NVESD)," the second-phase contract award will be shared among three companies - Digimarc, GCS Research, and S and K Electronics Inc. - providing technologies for the project.
"We are pleased that the Department of Defense and Army Night Vision Labs are continuing their support for this important project to demonstrate the value of digital watermarking in enhancing national security," said Bob Eckel, president, government programs, Digimarc Corporation. "Digital watermarking provides a highly effective means to persistently identify and manage key intelligence assets such as video feeds from the battlefield, giving our armed forces a broader, better view of mission-critical data and providing a significant competitive advantage over enemies."
Today, military and intelligence analysts across the agencies of the Department of Defense have to analyze and manage millions of video feeds coming from the field in various technology formats and from various environments. Digital watermarking creates a simple way of tagging this information with critical date, time and location information that gives users instant intelligence - regardless of format, interoperability or infrastructure. As a result, digital watermarking provides a low-cost way to enhance the value and management of video feeds of intelligence information without requiring a significant re-tooling of the Department's existing IT infrastructure.
"The goal of this project is to build upon our military's competitive advantage by speeding up the identification of key geointelligence assets such as enemy targets and providing smarter, more valuable data using digital watermarking," said Dr. Alex Philp, president of GCS Research. "We look forward to continuing our work with Digimarc to provide the Army a working prototype of this capability."
About Digimarc
Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC), based in Beaverton, Oregon, is a leading supplier of secure identity and media management solutions. Digimarc provides products and services that enable the annual production of more than 60 million personal identification documents, including two-thirds of U.S. driver licenses and IDs for more than 20 countries. Digimarc's digital watermarking technology provides a persistent digital identity for various media content and is used to enhance the security of financial documents, identity documents and digital images, and support other media rights management applications.
Digimarc has an extensive intellectual property portfolio, with more than 275 issued U.S. patents with more than 5,000 claims, and more than 500 pending patent applications in digital watermarking, personal identification and related technologies. The Company is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, with other U.S. offices in Burlington, Massachusetts; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and the Washington DC area; and international offices in London and Mexico. Please go to www.digimarc.com for more company information.
Securities Safe Harbor
With the exception of historical information contained in this release, the matters described herein contain certain "forward-looking statements" that are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include statements regarding the expected benefits of digital watermarking in connection with the Army's identification and management of intelligence assets, such as video feeds from the battlefield, and the Department of Defense's continued interest in digital watermarking, as well as other statements containing the words "believes," "expects," "estimates," "anticipates," "will" or words of similar import or statements of management's opinion. These statements are subject to certain assumptions, risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied from the statements herein or from historical results, due to changes in economic, business, competitive, technological and/or regulatory factors. More detailed information about risk factors that may affect actual results is set forth in filings by Digimarc with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K, including but not limited to those described in the Company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, in Part I, Item 2 thereof ("Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations") under the captions "Liquidity and Capital Resources" and "Factors Affecting Forward Looking Statements" and in Part I, Item 4 thereof ("Controls and Procedures"). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management's opinions only as of the date of this release. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements.
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