SmartMetric has developed live finger detection into an in-the-card fingerprint scanner that is used to detect chip credit and debit card users’ fingerprints and turn on the card.
The cardholder simply touches the card’s surface mounted square sensor that sends a detailed image of the card holder’s fingerprint to the card’s internal processor. A comparison is made with the person’s pre-stored fingerprint and if a 100% match occurs then the card’s smart card chip and/or RFID transmission is turned on. If a match doesn’t take place then the card remains inactive, its transaction or smart card chip will not work. Scanning, matching and card activation are done in less than a second.
As added security, the card has additional sensing functions that are used to validate the liveness of the finger being used on the sensor. Thereby protecting the card against “dead finger” fingerprint replication.
Based on embedded electronics the SmartMetric biometric cards are able to detect whether or not the person attempting to use the card is, in fact, a live person or not. “This is an important feature that foils attempts to use a recreated fake finger in order to get around the strong biometric security embedded inside our cards,” said SmartMetric’s President and CEO, Chaya Hendrick.
Biometrics, and in particular fingerprint biometrics, provide very strong authentication and security, unlike alpha numeric passwords that can be hacked using the power of a computer found in most of today’s smartphones. High resolution and total fingerprint scan along with live detection make fingerprint scanning the number one immediate test of a person’s identity.
SmartMetric has developed biometric cards for banking, cyber security and building access along with other special biometric secured cards such as a portable medical files card for frequent travelers.
SmartMetric holds five issued patents pertaining to its biometric credit/debit card. It is currently being offered to Banks in the United States, Latin America and soon to be released to Banks in Europe.
The SmartMetric biometric card is as thin as a standard credit card with a fully functional fingerprint scanner built inside the card along with a rechargeable battery that allows the card to be used on all card readers including ATMs.