Swedish company has developed plastic cards with integrated fingerprint recognition and a swipeable magnetic stripe which can be "switched on and off" under the control of a computer integrated in the card.
Fingerprint Cards' swipe sensor technology has been chosen for the development of a new biometric secure payment card. The biometric card will have the same size and thickness as the standardized plastic cards in circulation today, and can be read by the magnetic stripe card readers used in existing payment systems. A complete biometric system will be embedded in the card powered by wafer-thin batteries also inside in the card. Once the cardholder has verified his or her identity to the cardīs biometric system then the card can be used for a transaction. Without this biometric verification, information cannot be read from the cardīs magnetic stripe and a biometric verification must take place for every new transaction being made. The biometric information of the cardholder never leaves the card.
Technology developed by a company called CardLab is central to the project. This technology is used to program and control the information contained in the cardīs magnetic stripe. Fingerprint Cards' power efficient system for fingerprint verification is the other essential enabler to produce this secure card solution. The company's newly developed processor ASIC has reduced embedded power consumption to a level necessary to match the cardīs battery capacity, and allow normal use of the card for a period of approximately two years. Along with its new processor ASIC, Fingerprint Cards will deliver its swipe sensor, its algorithm, and provision of technical support to integration.
The product now being developed is unique. Other salient features are that it concerns the standardized magnetic stripe card that is by far the most used card in payment systems in major parts of the world, such as in North America. That already existing card readers can be used means no changes will need to be made in the already built up infrastructures, and this may be a decisive factor for product market introduction in these markets.
Related links: (Open in a new window.)
www.fingerprints.com
www.cardlab.com
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