Biometrics in Public

Contactless Biometrics – the most viable option

Imagine yourself standing in a queue, waiting for your turn to put your
finger or hand on the biometric sensor to verify yourself in a Govt. Aided
Program or at the Airport. Suddenly, the person in front of you sneezes and
simply wipes hand and uses the sensor. Would you like to touch it again ?

"During the trial some users had problems registering their fingerprints.
Some others were concerned over public hygiene when everyone has to put
their fingers on the sensor, bearing in mind the lessons learnt from the SARS
outbreak a couple of years ago. On a psychological level, some users also
hesitated in using the fingerprint system or hand geometry system or face
recognition ID methods as these reminded them to be associated with the
police. Some also wondered whether their biometric IDs would be protected
as personal data under the privacy ordinance." Recalls a senior person of an
ITES company, when they initiated to implement the biometric system in
their offices.

Vascular Pattern Based Contactless Biometrics is an answer !

The above statement is a vivid biometric ID to the individual.

example of the inhibitions attached
to implementing Biometrics for
public. Four issues are highlighted
here – Enrolment problems, Public
Hygiene, Psychological Resistance
and Privacy Concerns.
Currently, such IDs are provided
using Palm Veins, Finger Veins and
Back Hand Veins. Of these, the Palm
Vein Technology from Fujitsu, called

The technological innovations in

biometrics have gone beneath your
surface to introduce DNA
verification, Retina Scan and
Vascular Patterns. Of these,
Vascular Patterns has proved to be
the most cost effective and widely
accepted biometric solutions PalmSecure™, is the most promising
answering to a wide variety of and scores very high on ease of use
challenges faced by many of the as it takes advantage of the natural
current biometric technologies position of hand and is purely
available today. contactless as it detects the
structure of the pattern of veins on
Vascular pattern, as the name the palm of the human hand with
suggest, records the blood vein the utmost precision at a distance of
patterns from a 4-6 cms.
designated area and
assigns the unique
Technology behind Vascular
Pattern
Near Infrared rays are emitted from
the sensor to obtain the vein
pattern image using either the
reflection technology (Fujitsu) or the
permeation method (Hitachi).
Fujitsu’s PalmSecure™ scanner
makes use of a special characteristic
of the reduced hemoglobin coursing
through the palm veins — it absorbs
near-infrared light. This makes it
possible to take a snapshot of
what's beneath the outer skin,
something very hard to read or
steal. This pattern is recorded by
the sensor and is stored in
encrypted form in a database, on a
token or on a smart card.
Every person has a unique structure
and position of veins in the palm of
the hand and this does not change
throughout the person's life; even
twins have a unique vein pattern.
Indeed each hand has a unique
pattern.
The Near-Infrared rays have no
effect on body and these sensors
are certified Class 1 Laser products.
Superiority of Vein Pattern
Biometrics
Enrollment Issues : Since the
Vascular Pattern technology
uses the complex blood vein
pattern inside the palm to
provide a unique biometric
key, the presence of wrinkles,
little dirt or grease on the surface
becomes irrelevant. Therefore,
vascular pattern technology has an
edge to facilitate 100% enrollment
compared to other technologies like
fingerprint or facial recognition, that
uses surface scanning and fail to
provide 100% enrollment.
Moreover, the vein patterns inside
an open palm are far more complex
than those present in finger or back
hand where bones occupy 30-50%
area. Therefore, Fujitsu
PalmSecure™ appears to be superior
within the vascular pattern
technologies.
Public Hygiene: The Palm Vein
Technology from Fujitsu, called
PalmSecure™, is purely contactless
as it detects the structure of the
pattern of veins on the palm at a
distance of 4-6 cms. This pure
contactless nature of the Palm Vein
technology addresses the issue to
public hygiene and is widely
accepted for public use.
Psychological Resistance : Being a
new technology, the users feel very
comfortable and understand the
unprecedented advantages of the
technological sophistication
available to them.
Privacy Concerns : As the palm vein
based biometric data is encrypted
and can be made available on the
smartcard, the users can have
control over the uses of their
personal information.
Security Concerns : Since the
biometric characteristics required to
be authenticated resides inside
the body, it is extremely
difficult to duplicate or
transfer. The palm vein pattern
from PalmSecure™ is so unique
that even the left hand vein pattern
is different from that of right hand.
All these advantages are present in
PalmSecure™ thus making it an
ideal choice for mass deployment,
yet maintaining high accuracy and
cost effectiveness.
Fujitsu PalmSecure™
Fujitsu has recently introduced the
latest biometric product,
PalmSecure™ - Contactless
Biometric Authentication Technology
in India, which has generated a lot
of interest and enthusiasm in the
market. Besides Banking Industry,
Healthcare and e-Government
projects, the product will also
interest users looking for hygienic
identity management and the most
secure biometric device for their
applications.
PalmSecure™ is a step forward in
Biometric devices, which goes
beyond the surface and
authenticates users on the basis of
blood vein pattern recognition
rather than iris scans or fingerprint
readers.
The PalmSecure technology
designed in such a way that it can
only detect the vein pattern of living
people. As a prerequisite,
PalmSecure™ requires active blood
flow, thus ensuring that a cut-off
hand or dead person cannot be
authenticated. The scanning process
is extremely fast and does not
Key Application Areas of
Contactless Biometrics
Government : Biometric ID card,
Passport, Ration Cards, etc and
control its misuse; Land Records,
Wages Distribution, Pension
Distribution and other social
benefits; thus ensuring protection
against forgery of various Govt.
Documents, etc.
Banking : Secured ATM
Transactions and customer
verification for local transactions.
Medical Environment :
PalmSecure™ helps maintaining
the Hygiene factor in these areas;
allow access of patients’ personal
data only to the authorized
person; helps in verifying during
Medical Insurance.
Airport / Airline Check-in : Helps
ensuring passenger identity
during boarding from check-in
involve any contact meaning that
PalmSecure meets the stringent
hygienic requirements that are
normally necessary for use in public
environments.
"Fingerprint scans and face
recognition ID methods are
associated with the police by some
people on a psychological level,"
says Shigeru Sasaki, director of
Fujitsu's Media Solutions Laboratory.
is
"In public areas, others don't like
the thought of touching what
everyone else has touched for
sanitary reasons. This is why we
created a contactless palm vein
scanner."
Conclusion
 Fujitsu’s PalmSecure™ takes on the
challenges faced by many of the current
biometric technologies available today.
The USP of being purely contactless
makes PalmSecure™ an ideal choice for
deployment in various public programs
and services and addresses the concerns
of public hygiene and convenience at a
mass scale and providing lower cost of
operations and maintenance cost.

Biometric System Challenges Ease of Use /

Authentication / Cost
Voice Affected by Noise, Health Conditions, etc. High / Low / Low
(Contactless)
Fingerprint Affected by Dirt, Wet or Coated fingers especially workers in Tea High / High / Low
(Contact) Garden, Tobacco Plantations, Automotive Plants, Field workers,
etc.; Concerns over public hygienic
Face Sensitive to Lighting / Posture; Affected by Eyeglasses, Facial hair, Medium / Low / Low
(Contactless) Cosmetics; Chances of Unauthorized access to Twins

IRIS Located behind a curved, wet, reflecting surface; Obscured by High / Very High / High
(Contactless) eyelashes, contact lenses, reflections; Deforms non-elastically as
pupil changes size; Psychological resistance of offering the eye to the
Internal Organ of the Eye sensor
Palm Vein Sensitive to Direct Sunlight / other direct fluorescent lightings Very High / Very High /
(Pure Contactless) Low