Veins in the palm of the hand could be a much more reliable and cost-effective method of biometric identification than faces, irises or most of the other technologies currently on the market.
Tim Wright, technical director of Fujitsu Europe, demonstrated such a system at the recent DSEi show, saying that it detects the pattern of veins in the palm, which are 3mm below the skin.
He explained: “Veins contain deoxygenated haemoglobin: this absorbs infrared light, which will appear as a dark pattern.”
The false acceptance rate is one in eight to ten billion, he says, while the false reject rate is one in ten thousand.
“This is on a par with Iris systems,” he said.
The technology exists in the form of a black sensor cube, 35 x 35 x 27mm deep, which is already commercially developed. In use, the hand is placed on a pair of supports on each side of the sensor so that it is read from a fixed distance.
“The largest deployment is in the financial sector in Japan,” said Wright.
It is also apparently being used for access control, recognition at electronic point of sale, and in schools.
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