Smart Eye and Fingerprint Cards have combined facial authentication and iris recognition into a new multimodal biometric capability aimed at use cases where identity needs to be verified continuously and with less friction than a separate sensor or stop-and-scan workflow would allow. The companies say the new setup uses the same camera to capture two independent biometric signals and is ready for live demonstrations this spring.
The release builds on the collaboration the companies started in January 2025, when Smart Eye licensed Fingerprint Cards’ iris recognition technology. In the new configuration, Smart Eye contributes facial authentication and the hardware environment while Fingerprint Cards provides the iris layer. The companies said facial authentication alone can achieve accuracy of about 1 in 10,000 and iris recognition about 1 in 1,000,000, while the combined approach reduces the probability of a false match to about 1 in 1,000,000,000.
Smart Eye and Fingerprint Cards said the system can perform iris authentication at distances up to three meters and supports triangulation and continuous authentication rather than relying on a single login-style event. That puts the news alongside a broader run of iris biometrics deployments and efforts to extend identity assurance beyond passkey login into more persistent interactions.
The companies say potential use cases include in-vehicle access control and personalization, smart-home access, media interaction, cybersecurity and high-security workplace environments. That mix is notable because it stretches the pitch beyond the automotive roots often associated with Smart Eye and beyond the device-authentication history attached to Fingerprint Cards. In effect, both companies are using multimodal biometrics to argue for a broader enterprise and embedded-security role. It also gives Fingerprint Cards a more explicit path into face-and-iris combinations instead of fingerprint-only hardware stories.
There is also a timing element. Smart Eye plans to show the combined face-and-iris system at Auto China 2026 in Beijing from April 24 through May 3, while Fingerprint Cards says it will show the solution through meetings and demonstrations around RSA Conference in San Francisco from March 23 through 26.
Sources: Fingerprint Cards
–
By the ID Tech Editorial Team
