"The numerous contacts we've made abroad have allowed us to turn to Thai expertise in the final development phase for EZ-Face," said chief operating officer Serge Carrier, adding that a small team of graphic designers was working on completing the facial-elements phase of the project.

California-based FGS is in the final development of its EZ-Face software, which is being developed in Montreal, Canada, by a team of award-winning developers. "Now, with Thailand involved, EZ-Face is turning into an international collaboration," said Carrier.

EZ-Face allows users to generate and codify faces directly from a single picture or a database of facial elements. It is also the world's first Internet-accessible law-enforcement-dedicated software for composite pictures.

With the core of the technology completed in Canada, the Bangkok-based team is now working on the meticulous task of creating 3D add-on facial elements that will go into the massive EZ-Face database.

"Our goal is to have a database of between 1,500 and 2,000 3D images," said Carrier. "We will have male and female hairstyles, beards, moustaches, moles, scars, hats, piercings and glasses." Thai participation was suggested by president Pierre Cote, who said the Asian market would be vital for FGS. In April, the Tourist Police in Ubon Ratchathani were shown a beta version of EZ-Face by FGS's Montreal team.

FGS develops technology solutions to address critical needs in facial recognition in regard to identity verification, crime prevention and worldwide efforts against terrorism.

It is also developing a new methodology and industry standard, called the e-DNA Bioprint Coding System, for the transmission of data related to individual faces.