Forensic Pathways in strategic alliance targeting £162m EU market

TAMWORTH-based criminal and business intelligence company Forensic Pathways has signed an EU distribution, technology licensing and product collaboration deal with Canadian ballistics specialist Pyramidal Technologies.

The Canadian company – the creator of ALIAS, which has been described as the next generation in forensic ballistics – signed the deal with the Midland firm at the British High Commission in Ottawa.

The agreement – aided by UK Trade & Investment – will presage on-going collaboration between the firms to advance state of the art crime scene innovations that should help solve gun crimes on both a national and international scale.

The companies estimate that the market size within EU countries for this technology is $250m (£162m).

ALIAS builds visually rich 3D cartridge case and bullet images and then provides powerful tools to analyse them using topographically sensitive colorisation, adjustable light source illumination and axis orientation.

Its product roadmap will now include proprietary image processing technology from Forensic Pathways, created by that company’s multi-disciplinary team of computer science, optics,mathematics and photonics experts.

Forensic Pathways’ client base includes top-level security agencies such as EUROPOL and New Scotland Yard.

Forensic Pathways managing director Richard Leary, MBE, said: “When we saw ALIAS in action, we immediately noted the synergies between our technologies and were thoroughly impressed by ALIAS’s capabilities.

“After further due diligence, we then quickly undertook to secure distribution rights to introduce ALIAS to security organisations thoughout the EU.

“We will also be integrating our advanced image search technology to further improve ALIAS and have identified several future possibilities to bolster ALIAS with newer technologies we are currently commercialising.”

Ardavan Tajbakhsh, chief technology officer of Pyramidal Technologies, said: “I have long admired Forensic Pathways’ software expertise as well as its long history as a trusted partner to European security organisations and we see many opportunities to incorporate its software to establish unambiguous and unequivocal gun crimes evidence for prosecutors.

“I can’t think of a better partner to advance the cause of ALIAS in the European market for forensic ballistics systems.”