An East European company specializing in biometric identification and object-recognition technologies reports that it has upgraded its product line.

And in a separate development, a Ukrainian-Russian joint venture is pursuing a new contract to provide heavy-lift cargo services to NATO.

Neurotechnology of Lithuania said the upgraded versions of its Software Development Kits are for biometric fingerprint, face, iris and voice identification and object recognition.

The line encompasses VeriFinger 6.5, VeriLook 5.2, VeriLook Surveillance 2.1, VeriEye 2.5, VeriSpeak 1.1 and MegaMatcher 4.3, which are all for biometrics.

Also upgraded is SentiSight 3.1 for object recognition and robotic vision applications.

Also included are new embedded versions of VeriFinger, VeriLook and MegaMatcher as well as the introduction of VeriEye Embedded for iris, VeriSpeak Embedded for voice and SentiSight Embedded object recognition technologies for use in smartphones and other mobile devices.

"Our new product line includes updates to all of our main SDKs, allowing customers to develop faster and more reliable applications," said Neurotechnology Chief Executive Officer Algimantas Malickas.

"The new versions of our embedded SDKs can be used on Android devices for development of a full-range of single or multi-modal biometrics applications and object recognition systems, from simple smartphone applications to large governmental projects."

Updates to Neurotechnology's biometric and object recognition algorithms provide a number of enhancements over previous versions.

Enhancements to VeriFinger 6.5 SDK for fingerprint identification provides a 20 percent decrease in the false rejection rate of the device when set at the same false acceptance rate, while the new VeriFinger Embedded 1.1 SDK uses the new VeriFinger 6.5 algorithm.

VeriLook 5.2 SDK for facial identification also includes improvements in recognition reliability with particular enhancements for recognition of faces that are rotated out-of-plane. Both VeriLook Embedded 1.1 SDK and the new VeriLook Surveillance 2.1 SDK use a new algorithm.

A faster algorithm was added to VeriEye 2.5 SDK for iris identification as well as a new template extraction option; and the new VeriEye Embedded 1.0 SDK, based on the VeriEye 2.5 algorithm, allows for iris recognition through its embedded applications.

Neurotechnology noted that MegaMatcher 4.3 SDK for large-scale biometric solutions is capable for development of multiple biometric solutions using any combination of identification technologies.

In other industry developments in Eastern Europe, Ukraine's Antanov Company and Russia's Volga-Dnepr Group have submitted a joint proposal for a NATO contract for strategic air transportation and have formed a joint venture company to serve it.

The joint venture company for NATO's Strategic Airlift Interim Solution program is called Ruslan SALIS and has headquarters in Leipzig, Germany.

In the contract bid, AN-124-100 heavy-lift aircraft is offered as the candidate for the airlift work.

The companies said that under a 2006 award, it has provided a heavy lift service for 18 countries utilizing the SALIS program.