The Biometric Daily

Paying with your finger is the latest hit at your local grocery. Two companies, Pay By Touch & BioPay, rival for the customers favor. The business model for both companies is the same; trying to obtain as many user(templates) possible and tie them to the individuals financial information as provided at enrollment.
The actual payment is simply done by typing the number provided during enrollment and a simple fingerscan on the biometric paymenterminal.
Questions has been raised about the security of these biometric payment method's, but apparently the public doesn't care. Biometric convience is hot and consumers want it. Pay By Touch recently raised $130mln for further expansion.
Which problems will these companies face in the near future?
The first biometric "hack" will blow a big hole the corporation's security image. Although both concepts use a 2-factor authentication (something you know and something you are) I expect that the system will be hacked in the near future.
The second problem both companies will face is that the jump to Europe will turn out to be too far. Since most European countries have very sophisticated smartcard based payment systems, there is no direct customer need to fulfill.
The third problem will be that customers will ask for interoperability between the various systems in the near future. The only way that this can be achieved is either through exchange of vital information (templates/ID) or through adapting the various terminals and re-enrollment of all users.
I welcome these initiatives but I do not think both systems will turn out to be the de facto standard for biometric payments.

Fujitsu and Hitachi battle for the best biometric vein scanning technique. The key difference, besides the actual scanned surface, is that the palm technique is based on a ccd chip which captures the images that are reflected by the light that's being emitted, where the finger technique the actual picture is taken with light that's been transmitted through the finger.
The big advantage of the vein scanning technique in general is that is works under virtually every circumstance, it's fast and best of all "contactless". The vein scanning algorithm is optimized for verification and performs well for 1:N searches on small databases (<250).
Hitachi has developed two different algorithms;
* one that meassures from above, and
* one that meassures sideways.
For physical access the first algorithm has been used where for logical access the second is used. The bad news is, they are not compatible!
Just recently Hitachi launched a "Grip Vein" scanning technique. Although I haven't played with it yet, I'm sure this algorithm is not compatible with the first two.
It's my opinion that Hitachi will eventually win the vein battle. Finger based biometrics provide more user comfort and flexibility than hand based biometrics, and it seems that Hitachi is speeding up development with the launch of a notebook-based vein fingerscanner.

Sometimes products are launched that just make you happy, this is one of them. The Bio Computer On A Stick is a complete Linux OS and Office environment on a bootable USB stick. So.. you will say, and....?
Well the fact of the matter is that you will be able to turn any PC into your PC by simply plugging in the device and boot from it. Once authenticated the Desktop is swiftly launched and you will be able to work in a complete secure environment.
All (your work, your logfiles, your browser cookies and history) is done on the secured partition of the USB Stick. Once you have removed the Stick from the PC no one will ever know that you were there. It's a complete zerofootprint device with an onboard biometric enrollment system.
Last but not least , it's a very cheap device. It sells for only $149.
I had the pleasure of playing with the device for several weeks now. Because it always boots with a clean OS, it's blazingly fast. Surfing is a pleasure. Firefox is a fast browser already, but in combination with this hardware and software it out performs. I used the RDP client frequently and had no problems what so ever to communicate with our Teminal Server. The OpenOffice Suite performed well, although I must say I'm a typical Word & Powerpoint user.
All in all, a good idea, a secure- and best of all an affordable product. You can purchase the stick here or here.

The National Biometrics Security Project in Morgantown is looking for people willing to be test subjects for equipment that can identify individuals based on their iris, fingerprints and voice. The project plans to invite up to 250 individuals each week for a period of 8 weeks. Analysts of the project will determine whether factors like age, temperature and time affect the products effectiveness. The result of this all would be a list of products that passed all tests so that potential buyers would know if the products were qualified.
The participants are payed $20 for each visit. I know up front that it will be a short list. Products are updated constantly and will the list be also? To my opinion it's a complete waste of time and money resulting in something with very little added value.

Today e-Smart Technologies (ticker = ESMT) announced that their CEO is again speaker at some sort of conference.
What does this company do that it's constantly invited to speak everywhere?
e-Smart develops and markets the Super Smart Card(TM). It's a smartcard with an onboard fingerprintsensor and verification system. It seems to be compatible with most smartcard readers (according to the companies website).
Is this a real opportunity or do you have to waste your money on something else?
First of all the concept of a smartcard with a build-in fingerprintsensor is not new. Siemens introduced such a technology in 1999. The card however was not compatible with ordinary smartcard readers but it won a few prizes.
So the first issue for e-Smart is that their claimed exclusivity might turn out to be not so exclusive since there is genuine competition with patents and marketingpower etc.
The second and more important issue is "where is the business case"? If you look closely at their website it's only technology driven with a poor marketing sauce. You will find no real business favors, comparisons with other technologies or a clear ROI.
Only the issuance of such cards would imply a far more complex process as to the normal issuance of smartcards because you would need to have a complete controlled issuance and enrollment process. If you only consider this and set the technology aside, you must agree that this technology is nice but not realistic.

Well that's it, Viisage developed a system which is able to prevent their system to be frauded. It has now been awarded with a couple of US and European patents. If you read the article more carefully, the key of Viisage's technology is that they use so called multibiometrics. Besides a facial, fingerprint technology is used to establish ones identity. There has been quite some fuzz going on with regards to the use of multibiometrics. If you want the mathematical version click here.
Will this be Viisage's weakest link?

SAFLINK responded Wednesday on the unusual volume trading. The stock dropped dramatically when more than 10mln pieces of stock were traded last week. In two weeks time the stock came down from $1.22 to a poor $0.80.
The cynical sentiment in the Yahoo Message Board was typical for this time of year. With the Fall just underway, this drop was not what the various investors needed :-(
It looks like someone is trying to obtain a 10% position within the company. My predication? It's my guess that an important announcement regarding the companies ownership will be published before the end of November. The company is rapidly changing it's strategy regarding biometrics and I wonder if this is for the best. For now I recommend a Strong Hold.

Last Thursday I had lunch with Eric Churet, Sales Manager at Memory Experts, and he had the prototype of the new Stealth MXP, biometric USB Stick. Well USB stick is a bit of a understatement. It's a true security device; AES 256 Bit encryption, One Time Password generation, certificates storage and of course secure biometric access through the use of the UPEK swipe sensor.
Although the MXP has an onboard identification system, a PC application is required to enroll users on the device. The positive side however is that the device provides maximum security for a relatively low price.
The Memory Experts SDK is available for custom integration.
The Stealth MXP is expected to launch in November 2005 with the cheapest version selling for approximately €135,--

Did you know that half of the world population consist of lefthanders? Lefthanders are thought to be more creative, more intelligent and more sensitive than righthanders. My wife is a lefthander so I know that statement is true by experience.
ALDI Germany, a well known German Supermaket chain, is about to lauch a very attractive laptop offer (Aldi-Breitbild-Notebook mit 1,73 GHz und Biometrie-Sensor).
The 1.73 Ghz notebook with widescreen, TV, DVD burner, 100GB harddrive, Bluetooth and tons of software has also a biometric swipesensor build in.
Where all the competition has the sensor build into the corner right of the laptop, this Medion notebook choose the left side of the touchpad as scanningposition. Clearly the designer was a lefthander.
The Notebook sells for €1299 and will be available as of the 26th of october 2005.