High security in the palm of your hand
Biometric technology is commonplace in some parts of the financial services industry and
is increasingly prominent in public places, but concerns remain about accuracy, ease of use
and security. These problems could be overcome by an innovative idea that has become
a workable technology thanks to Fujitsu, says strategic planning director Ken Ashida.
 Most of us are familiar with
biometric technologies, whether
in the workplace, at the airport
or through fiction and films. Biometrics
are now a reality in many settings, either
for offices’ internal security systems, at
international borders or – at least in Japan
– at the AT M.
Users are becoming increasingly
comfortable with the idea of security systems
that use fingerprint or iris recognition, but
some fear that these could be relatively
easily circumvented if there is sufficient will
and sophisticated technology. As a result,
developers have looked at the next stage
in security, and technology company Fujitsu
believes it has found the solution.
‘The visibility of biometric systems in
daily life has grown dramatically in recent
years,’ says Ken Ashida, strategic planning
director at Fujitsu Europe. ‘You see it in
public places and it is talked about more
and more. You see it in the financial world,
at border control and in some government
ID schemes. That rise in visibility created
some negative feedback at first, usually when
people read about it. When people use it,
however, they see past the initial hype and
there is more positive feedback.
‘Now the technology is taking off very
quickly. It is in many more public places but
there are still voices of concern. Biometric
systems are secure, convenient and easy
to use, but there is some psychological
resistance. Fingerprint systems are the
most common but some people say they
don’t work,’ he adds.
Fingerprint systems do have drawbacks.
They only scan well when the finger is
completely dry and the types of laser they
use sometimes make the images unclear.
When you use a scanner you leave
a copy of your fingerprint on it, which
could allow it to be copied. Questions
of hygiene have also surfaced because
contact is required.
Iris scanning technology, too, has its critics.
Some believe that such systems could be
bypassed with a sufficiently detailed colour
picture of the iris pattern.
Fujitsu has developed a technology
that eliminates these problems: Palm Vein
Technology (PVT), which scans the vein
pattern inside a person’s hand.
Personal patterns
The concept behind PVT is not new.
The idea of using vascular patterns for
identification emerged in a research
laboratory many years ago. A patent
application followed but expired before
a workable technology was developed.
Parallel to this, Fujitsu’s researchers
started to look at the idea, developing the
hardware from prototype to commercial
reality in less than ten years.
‘Customers ask us many questions and
want us to prove that the system works.
We can’t disclose everything about the
system or what is inside the device – after
all, it is a security system – so some people
remain cautious. But the system works.
We just need to ensure that the market is
ready for it,’ remarks Ashida.
Fujitsu has tested its contactless palm
vein authentication device, which uses an
image of the blood vessel patterns inside
the hand as a person’s identifying factor, on
more than 140,000 palms. The pattern of
veins is hard to duplicate compared with
a finger or the back of a hand, as a palm
holds a broader and more complicated
vascular pattern.
PVT is also highly accurate; the false
rejection rate is 0.01% and the false
acceptance rate is 0.00008% or lower. The
system can even differentiate between
identical twins, as no two people have the
same pattern of blood vessels.
Another crucial factor is that the palm
has no hair, which could be an obstacle for
photographing the blood vessel pattern,
and is less susceptible to changes in skin
colour. The PVT device captures the vein
pattern using infrared rays, which pass
through the skin, resulting in an image of
black lines, which can be easily matched to
an individual’s previously registered blood
vessel pattern.
Significantly, the PVT scanner has no
detrimental effects on the body, nor does
it require that the user touch the device,
unlike current fingerprint scanners.
Instead, the user rests the wrist or
the middle of the fingers on the device’s
suppor ts. The palm remains some distance
above the scanner, so there is no problem
with hygiene.
The image from the scanner is
conver ted into data points using
algorithms. It is then compressed,
encrypted and stored with other details
in the user’s profile for future comparison.
‘PVT is simple and more accurate than
other biometric systems. The information
is internal, not external like a fingerprint,
so it is much harder to duplicate. Vascular
patterns contain a larger amount of
information, so security is significantly
higher,’ explains Ashida.
‘PVT involves the very
natural, intuitive movement of
pressing the palm down on the
scanner. We have developed
the system to balance security
with ease of use. The unit
itself is bulky and strong, and
a device to grant access to a
controlled area should have
that kind of appearance. Its
presence is as important as
what it does,’ he adds.
Fujitsu’s confidence in the
technology is such that it has
integrated PVT scanners into
access control systems for
electronic door locks. Ashida
can attest to their efficacy
from personal experience,
and knows that users
quickly become familiar and
comfortable with the devices.
‘I use it, and now I get
upset when the system shuts
down and I have to go back
to manual methods. Confidence in the
technology builds over time,’ he comments.
A bright future in finance
The airline sector is among those industries
that have taken a lead in biometric security,
and where it is perhaps most noticeable.
Heathrow Airport, for instance, uses irisscanning
devices as a convenient and quick
means of controlling access to sensitive
areas. The technology could also be a
significant part of security systems in the
banking world in years to come, although
the industry will want the highest levels of
security and reliability it can find.
PVT has already proved itself in parts of
the financial sector. Several banks in Japan
have used the palm vein authentication
technology for customer identification
since 2004, when the Suruga Bank and
the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi adopted
PVT on their AT Ms, where palm scanners
were used in conjunction with smartcards.
Several other banks in Japan followed suit
in 2005.
The move was made to address
Japan’s rapidly growing problem with
illegal withdrawal of funds using stolen or
cloned bankcards. Using PVT for customer
confirmation at bank windows or AT Ms has
helped banks to reduce this kind of activity.
The smartcard from the customer’s
bank account contains the customer’s palm
vein pattern and the matching software
of the palm vein patterns. A PVT device
at the AT M scans the customer’s palm
vein pattern, which is transferred to the
smartcard where it is matched with the
registered vein pattern. The customer’s
palm vein pattern is not released from
the smartcard during the transaction, so it
remains fully secure.
So successful has the application been
that Fujitsu plans to develop another type
of PVT-enabled AT M for use at convenience
stores in Japan. Furthermore, PVT
technology is already appearing at some
AT Ms in South America, and small pilot
schemes are under way in Germany.
Ultimately, the advantages of PVT over
fingerprint and iris scans could see it
become the banking world’s biometric
security system of choice.
‘There is no boundary to its use in any
industry,’ says Ashida, ‘but there has been
a lot of interest from the financial sector,
which is usually relatively slow to jump on
new technologies. To see biometrics being
used in that sector is very positive.’
The adoption of the technology may
accelerate further as Fujitsu refines the
system. The company already plans to
make the sensor smaller and is working
on improvements that will speed up the
verification process.
‘It is only a matter of time before the
interest in the financial industry grows.
It will spend a lot of time testing but
eventually it will use the technology,’
comments Ashida.
‘I am reserved about the speed of growth
in the market, as the financial sector and
other industries are very cautious about
testing, but growth will be steady. Still, the
rise in interest still seems fast compared with
ten years ago.’ |
