Biometric breakthrough - credit cards secured with fingerprint recognition made feasible

The key points in this new innovation are:

• High level and unique security
• Longevity of the card
• Interaction with all existing systems.

Head of Scanecotech R&D Torsten Nordentoft said:

"When you receive your new card, you "teach" it your fingerprint, which is then stored and locked on the card. Subsequently only the unique fingerprint of the legal holder can activate the card. If the card has not been activated by recognition of the legal user's fingerprint it will not be possible to copy the card or use it fraudulently."

"When you wish to make a payment or gain access in security applications, you just swipe your finger across the fingerprint recognizer on the card. The magnetic stripe and/or chip are then activated for a predetermined time or until a data transmission has occurred."

"One important consideration was that we wanted to avoid any storage of the user's fingerprint anywhere else except on the card, to comply with any privacy requirement. And since all the biometric security features are contained solely on the card and not in a central database, the card interacts completely with existing infrastructure: no modifications to software, ATM machines, terminals, or other readers."

"A quick look in anyone's wallet confirms that this technology has enormous potential for all cards that contain personal data: Credit and debit cards, membership cards, security and access cards, all identity cards even passports with fingerprint recognition imbedded are possible in the very near future. Scanecotech are currently in negotiations with the Danish Internet payment system Ewire about developing a competitor to the 'Dancard', one of the World's first direct debit cards."

Head of Scanecotech R&D Torsten Nordentoft continued:

"It used to be that you had to change the infrastructure of the payment systems every time you added a new security feature to a credit card. We aimed at creating a card that increased security to a whole new level without having to change a thing besides the card itself. One of the biggest obstacles was the use of power by the card, but we have solved that problem. On average a credit card is used for 1000 transactions over two years. We have reached 2000 in the current design."

Scanecotech CEO Bjørn Skern, based in Dubai said:

"We have reached a stage, where we need to make some decisions concerning the production of the card. It is important to us that the cost is kept at a level which is comparable to other high security cards, considering the new level of security offered. This requires economy of scale, and we are currently in discussions with not only card producers and developers, but also many potential customers. These are very exciting times for our company. We expect the first cards to be in circulation within the coming 12 months or so."