SmartMetric has developed a hardware and software solution that detects whether the finger being used to activate a biometric payment card is of an actual person or not.
This ‘liveness detection’ technology is designed to thwart the use of fake fingerprints like the ones replicated using a silicon fingerprint replica. SmartMetric, which spent 12 months to develop fingerprint anti-spoofing technology, is now preparing its product for payment network testing and certification.
The company’s electronic credit card is powered by an ARM Cortex processor and has up to a gigabyte and beyond memory.
It supports contact and contactless standard credit card interface for all credit card readers and ATMs. The card has a rechargeable battery, that recharges when used at a standard card reader.
Furthermore, the card has an internal cryptographic vault that uses cryptography to protect data stored inside the card. SmartMetric president & CEO Chaya Hendrick said: “As we move forward with greater and more valuable transaction applications for our biometric credit and debit cards, it was apparent to us that we needed to implement the highest level of biometric protection we could.
“The hardware and software solution has required a major engineering effort that has caused a complete redesign of our biometric card’s internal electronics but was something we felt we needed to do to meet the stringent security requirements of the global credit card industry.”
Testing of the new card is expected to commence shortly with a three-month estimated time frame to complete payment network testing.
In December 2020, SmartMetric announced plans to release its crypto key storage technology for use with credit and debit cards.