December 2, 2013 – by Peter B. Counter
The versatility of biometric authentication is becoming more and more astounding from day to day. Recent innovations in mobile devices are allowing strong authentication not only through factors measured with built in cameras and microphones but also fingerprints, now that sensors are featured on a growing number of newly released and upcoming smartphones and tablet devices.
Fingerprint biometrics enhance more than just mobile device authentication, however. Take Fingerprint Cards AB (FPC) as an example: even as it is entering the mobile sphere so successfully, integrating its sensor technology on a number of mobile devices this year, FPC is still making sure that its technology reaches a demographic beyond the mobile device, most recently with the launch of Zwipe’s newest offering: the Zwipe Access biometric card.
“The use of a touch sensor provides an enhanced user experience and is in line with the worldwide trend of integrating touch sensors into portable devices,” says Thomas Rex, EVP Sales & Marketing of Fingerprint Cards.
Zwipe Access is a contactless card that uses an FPC touch sensor to offer high level authentication for access control. The contactless biometric card can work with existing infrastructure thanks to its ISO 14443 compliance, which means that in addition to improved security and convenience, Zwipe Access is easy on deployment.
“The card provides a secure environment, protecting user data while still being able to communicate easily with access control systems using standard interfaces,” explains Zwipe CEO, Kim Kristian Humborstad. “FPC’s fingerprint sensors deliver the performance and functionality that our card product requires in an application where low power consumption and compact size are crucial.”
In addition to saving on power consumption and size, like Humborstad mentioned, the new security card offers additional peace of mind. Thanks to the FPC touch sensor, the card can only be activated by a physically present user that matches the template data stored on the card. Where a non-biometric counterpart would require an organization to have a contingency plan in the event of a lost or stolen card, Zwipe Access adopters don’t need to worry about unauthorized personnel issues thanks to the on-card matching enabled by the FPC technology.
In October of this year FPC announced that it had made industry history in this field, introducing the world’s first smart card with an embedded fingerprint sensor. Now that Zwipe is also integrating FPC technology in its cards, it is safe to say that fingerprint biometrics still have a home in more than just mobile devices.
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