Biometrics For The Real World
The true test of any biometrics technology is not how it behaves in the lab or how it behaves under ideal conditions, but how it performs in the real world. For many years now, the promise of biometrics has not been fully realized in large part because performance in the lab is not representative of performance in the field.
When biometrics fail, for whatever reason, the technology becomes more of a barrier than an aide. The net result is user frustration, resistance to adoption, and an inability to justify costs. Regardless of which biometric technology is chosen, it must work reliably under real world conditions. The real world is not always ideal. The real world is wet, it is dry, it is not always clean and users are not all young office workers with great skin conditions.
How do we overcome real world challenges
By reading fingerprint characteristics that are at beneath the surface of the skin. This enhanced data capture mitigates traditional system vulnerabilities and makes our technology the most secure and convenient alternative for identity authentication.
Our system is able to collect and process biometric images in a manner that makes fingerprint authentication and identification more robust, more inclusive and more reliable than other fingerprint sensors, which are vulnerable to a variety of conditions including the presence of topical contaminants, moisture, and bright ambient light. Simply stated, our sensors work where other technologies fail.
The Real World is Wet
Wet conditions are notoriously difficult for both semiconductor and conventional optical fingerprint sensors to handle. SekureID devices work in extreme conditions, including rain. Conventional optical technologies are often unable to produce images in wet conditions because excess moisture obscures fingerprint ridges, resulting in images of puddles, not fingerprints.
SekureID fingerprint sensors capture high-quality images in this situation because the direct imaging process does not depend on a clean finger/sensor interface.
The fingerprint images shown here illustrate this point: A finger was submerged in a pool of water and placed on two sensors. The conventional optical sensor was unable to capture a good image because the water interfered with the finger/sensor interface. The SekureID fingerprint sensor was able to “see” the fingerprint and produce a high-quality image in this very wet real world condition.
The Real World is Dry
Dry fingers! Has any other real world condition caused so much trouble in the biometrics industry? Dry fingertips are common, caused by anything from climate conditions and natural skin characteristics to frequent hand-washing. And yet it is very difficult for conventional technologies to capture fingerprint images from dry fingers.
It’s hard to appreciate SekureID’s solution without first understanding why conventional technologies have so much trouble with dry fingers. Most optical sensors are configured to look for the presence or absence of total internal reflectance (TIR), which is the phenomenon whereby the interface between glass and air acts like a mirror at certain angles. The contact between the skin and the platen defeats the TIR, allowing those points of contact between the finger and the sensor to be imaged. Thus, those points of contact must be complete and unobscured to enable the conventional sensor to collect a fingerprint image. And with dry fingers, this is simply not the case! Establishing firm and complete contact with the sensor is very difficult with dry fingers. There is not enough moisture in the skin nor is the skin pliable enough to facilitate the contact necessary for TIR imaging.
SekureID fingerprint sensors do not require perfect contact between the finger and the platen because they use multispectral imaging, a direct imaging technology. Rather than capturing information about the finger/ sensor contact and creating an image from that, the SekureID fingerprint sensor effectively takes a snapshot of the fingertip. It is in this way that we sidestep the problem of dry fingers in the real world.
The Real World is Rough
The real world is a rough place, and most of us are showing some wear and tear on our hands. Additionally, people don’t have time to wash and lotion their hands when they use a fingerprint sensor, and they resent the inconvenience. SekureID devices take you as you are - at the office, auto shop, or construction site.
A construction site is an interesting real world case. Construction workers work with their hands and have the cuts and calluses to prove it. Additionally, the construction site is dirty so workers may have grime on their hands when they approach a fingerprint sensor. Altogether, this real world scenario is a nightmare for system administrators whose conventional fingerprint sensors depend on quality contact between the finger and the platen.
SekureID fingerprint sensors work well in situations such as these for two important reasons. First, they are able to gather fingerprint information from beneath the surface of the skin. It is not a problem if the fingerprint ridges on the surface are marred by an injury or a callous because the subsurface information remains intact, and SekureID fingerprint sensors can collect it. Second, SekureID fingerprint sensors do not require perfect finger/sensor contact. If a user’s finger is dirty — an occupational hazard of a construction worker — the debris will prevent good clean contact between the finger and the sensor. This is a huge problem for a conventional optical sensor, but no problem at all for an SekureID fingerprint sensor.
The Real World is Diverse
The real world is a big place, full of billions of people with unique characteristics. And while the field of biometrics is built on the concept of an individual’s uniqueness, a diverse user population can negatively affect biometric system performance if the fingerprint sensor is not robust to the range of user characteristics, both physiological and behavioral.
There are several physiological differences that can affect performance. Many people, both young and adult, have small or fine fingerprint features that can be difficult to image. If the sensor cannot differentiate between these fine characteristics, system performance will suffer. Age is another physiological characteristic that can affect the ability of a sensor to collect a usable fingerprint image. One effect of aging is the loss of collagen in the skin; elderly fingers have soft fingerprint ridges that collapse into each other when the finger touches a surface. Because many sensor technologies depend on the quality of contact between the finger and the sensor to collect a good image, soft fingerprint ridges can be difficult to image.
Multispectral imaging is relatively immune to these physiological differences because of its ability to collect unique fingerprint information from both the surface and the subsurface of the skin. If surface information is scarce for whatever reason, SekureID fingerprint sensors can still gather enough relevant fingerprint information to produce a usable image.
The real world is cold
SekureID’s devices are rugged and built to operate in the most extreme outdoor conditions. Including severe downpours, ice and snow. Cold weather climate can have an effect on the ability to properly capture a fingerprint. Cold weather causes skin to dry up and this can also present problems capturing a quality scan on a fingerprint reader. SekureID sensors perform at near zero failure in all environmental conditions.
The real world wears gloves
In the health care industry gloves are an every day thing. SekureID’s biometric fingerprint devices can read an individuals fingerprint even while wearing a latex glove, by reading fingerprint characteristics that are at beneath the surface of the skin.
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