HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — One of this summer’s most anticipated movies will showcase some incredible technology that was developed, designed, and manufactured in Alabama. The latest Bourne action film will feature the biotechnology of Huntsville-based Advanced Optical Systems (AOS), a company that has designed gadgets for real life soldiers and spies.
The Bourne films are a series of action spy thriller film based on the character Jason Bourne, a CIA assassin suffering from extreme memory loss who must figure out who he is. With Matt Damon returning to the series for the first time since 2007, Jason Bourne is set to be another massive hit for Universal when it is released on July 29.
“It’s kind of cool that Huntsville’s sort of a hub of technology with secretive technologies people don’t talk about much and we were able to get one in a movie,” AOS Product Development Manager Keith Savas told al.com.
AOS opened its doors in 1988 and currently employs 20 Alabamians. While the firm’s original work met standard military contracting needs, it began to focus on non-contact fingerprint technology about seven years ago.
The primary AOS item featured in the movie is the brand-new ANDI OTG: a touch-free fingerprint scanning device. Noted for grounding their story lines and effects in realism, the producers of the movie contacted AOS to let them know that the ANDI OTG would make an appearance.
Now used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and in airports in Amsterdam and Germany, the product has been an overwhelming success. It can serve up to 100,000 individuals touch-free, but can handle millions of people when connected to larger databases.
In a time when officials are trying to figure out a way to balance security and efficiency, the creators of the ANDI OTG think that they have found the answer.
“With our border problems all over the world, I think we’re in the right place at the right time,” Savas said in an interview. “Nobody wants to stand in line, nobody wants to wait, and we’ve got the technology that allows everybody to get what they want.”
Although the company’s latest and greatest only gets a cameo, AOS is optimistic the exposure will be helpful.
“We’ve got some real opportunities that are coming up for providing security for very important parts of the country’s infrastructure,” Director of Business Development Chris Centamore said. “If people view this as a ‘high tech, gee whiz, wow’ kind of technology that’s OK for Matt Damon to use in a movie, I think they’ll probably be more accepting of it in the kinds of environments where we’re selling.”
You can watch the trailer for Jason Bourne below.
