New Sciometrics Patent Applications Detail Improved Contactless Fingerprint System

Sciometrics has filed a pair of patent applications with the US Patent and Trademark Office and its European counterpart. The patents detail improvements for the company’s touchless fingerprint scanning system, which will be deployed in the Slapshot Touchless SDK that Sciometrics is marketing in collaboration with Integrated Biometrics (IB).

IB and Sciometrics first entered into a strategic partnership back in July, when they announced that they would work together to advance the use of contactless fingerprint solutions in mobile devices. The patented Sciometrics system allows users to capture a fingerprint with the camera on a standard smartphone.

The new patents will boost the performance of that system. One describes a smart focusing method that enhances the quality of the captured print. It also allows the camera to pick up Level Three features like pores and ridge shapes, and will reduce image resolution error below two percent. The latter figure meets the threshold for FBI PIV certification, which could allow organizations to use the Slapshot technology in more heavily regulated environments.

The other patent relates to archived identity, and would allow people to link their fingerprint to a financial transaction, such as one made with a credit card or a SIM card. According to Sciometrics, the technologies will increase the fidelity of its touchless prints to the point that they rival the quality of prints that were captured with ink or contact-based scanners.

“We have taken a huge step in bridging the gap between contact and touchless fingerprints,” said Sciometrics CEO Mark Walch. “The advanced technology contained in the new patent filings will both improve the quality of touchless fingerprinting and open new opportunities for using fingerprints to bundle identity with transactions.”

“IB and Sciometrics will define the standards for contactless interoperability with legacy databases created with traditional scanners,” added incoming IB CEO Shawn O’Rourke.

In that regard, Sciometrics has been working with the NIST since 2016 to help create a set of standards for contactless fingerprint recognition. IB is an established developer of FBI-certified fingerprint scanners, and was recently listed as one of Inc. Magazine’s 5,000 fastest-growing private companies. This is the sixth consecutive year that IB has received such a distinction.

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September 16, 2021 – by Eric Weiss