INCREASING demand for fingerprint recognition systems has led security specialist UK Biometrics to open a regional franchise in Bournemouth.

UK Biometrics will create five new jobs locally over the first 12 months.

The Westbourne firm has identified the South Coast as a key market for fingerprint door access security, venue membership and time/attendance systems.

Regional directors Sally Glover and Michel Parks will focus on the commercial, industrial, leisure and health sectors.

Sally Glover has almost 20 years of experience in IT and technology publishing with a global publishing organisation.

Michel Parks is a graduate in cybernetics & control engineering, computer science & mathematics. He has spent 20 years in aviation.

UK Biometrics won a National Innovation award for a children's nursery fingerprint entry system and has installed the UK's first biometric nightclub membership system.

Its locks have also been installed in properties built by Persimmon Homes, the first housebuilder to offer UK Biometrics devices.

UK Biometrics firm has also developed a biometric access turnstile, the BioPod, for use at sports venues, construction sites, warehouses and factories.

Ms Glover said: "Biometrics is moving from science fiction to a fact of everyday life and we will be a part of it. We are at the beginning of a long and exciting journey here in Bournemouth."

Among all the biometric techniques, fingerprint-based identification is the method which has been successfully used in numerous applications.

The uniqueness of a fingerprint can be determined by the pattern of ridges and furrows as well as the minutiae points.

But since the fingerprint is not stored in its entirety, concerns over personal data can be easily overcome.

"Nobody can reconstruct a fingerprint from the data held on a UK Biometrics system."

UK Biometrics has offices in Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgow.