The Japanese company Hitachi released news this week announcing it has developed walk-through-style finger vein authentication technology for security gates in large venues.
Convention centers or sports stadiums, etc., where a large number of people congregate, can easily become the target of criminal activity, and greater security is called for to ensure the safety of the facility. In particular, personal identification is critical to preventing suspicious persons from entering a premise, and therefore interest is growing in biometric identification methods which are relatively difficult to forge. Currently, biometric methods such as fingerprint and facial recognition are being used in airport immigration and other places, however, these methods currently require the person stand still for recognition, leading to congestion when a large number of people arrive. Walk-through methods on the other hand, which would provide high throughput, have not been able to provide high verification accuracy.
The company outlines two main features of the technology.
1. The technology can instantly detect the position and orientation of several fingers as a person goes through a gate.
Previous forms of finger vein authentication required the finger to be placed in a fixed position, thus requiring the individual to standstill. To enable greater flexibility, Hitachi expanded the finger detection space to encompass the whole hand so if fingers are placed in that space, regardless of number, position or orientation, finger vein patterns are detected instantaneously. As a result, the user need not be concerned with the position of the finger, and can quickly pass through a gate.
2. The technology can capture a clear finger vein image in relation to finger position or orientation.
Technology was developed to capture a clear finger vein image by automatically controlling the lighting to illuminate the fingers from optimal positions regardless of the position or orientation of fingers presented. Further, by combining the vein pattern from several fingers, an even higher level of verification accuracy was obtained compared to illuminating just one finger.
The system would require people to pre-register before use and entry into a venue, and the scanner can process approximately 70 people per minute. Hitachi is still working refining the scanner, which could be available to the public in two years.
(Image: Hitachi)
