Fujitsu Laboratories Limited announced development of
the world’s smallest and slimmest palm vein authentication sensor that is
capable of being employed in tablet devices. By upgrading the technology’s
design with new image sensors and other optical components, Fujitsu
Laboratories has successfully slimmed down the new sensor to a thickness of 5
mm.

The new sensor preserves the same authentication performance
as existing technology while halving thickness of current models. This also
enables easy deployment to mobile devices, such as tablets and slate PCs, which
are becoming increasingly slimmer, and helps to expand the range of
applications for palm vein authentication. More customers will now be able to
perform secure authentication using simple operations.

In recent years, to prevent damage caused by information
leaks and identity fraud at companies and financial institutions, biometric
authentication technologies, which leverage a user’s biological information,
have become prevalent as a means to verify an individual’s identity.

Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a biometric
authentication technology based on the vein patterns in a user’s palm. This
approach has a number of advantages that are unique even among biometric
authentication technologies, including high authentication accuracy and the
measurement of data from inside of the body, which makes it difficult to
falsify.

The technology has been commercialized by Fujitsu as a
non-contact palm vein authentication system called PalmSecure, which is used,
for instance, by banks to authenticate customers, for computer log-in, and in
room-entry/exit management systems. Last year, Fujitsu successfully developed
and commercialized a sensor that features a smaller and thinner footprint, as
well as a simpler authentication process. This is useful in the business world
which in recent years has seen the explosive growth of slate PCs and tablet
devices, and the subsequent need for improved security in compact devices which
has grown to an unprecedented level.

Conventionally, in order to successfully develop a palm vein
authentication sensor that achieves both high-speed authentication and simple
user operations, a high-performance image sensor with a large optical area was
required. This requirement, however, has presented challenges in terms of
miniaturization, and has limited the use of such technologies to A4-size
notebook PCs.

In addition, even if it were possible to create a smaller
and thinner sensor, images captured by such a sensor would be notably different
from those generated by existing palm vein sensors, meaning that data
compatibility with existing models could not be guaranteed. This presented
certain restrictions when building systems that incorporated the technology.

Fujitsu Laboratories has developed the world’s smallest and slimmest ultracompact
palm vein biometric authentication sensor that is capable of being employed in
tablet devices. With a newly-designed optical system, the new sensor preserves
the same authentication performance as existing technology, despite using a
compact image sensor with a smaller optical area.

Because the new design employs a compact and low-cost image sensor, it
achieves an overall reduction in size and thickness for the entire palm vein
sensor. In addition, Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a technique for
correcting the quality of images captured by the image sensor so that they can
be used for authentication.

Through repeated simulations, Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a new
low-distortion wide-angle lens that offers a field of view equivalent to that
of existing sensors, regardless of reductions in size and thickness, as well as
a diffused lighting system for uniform luminance distribution. These
developments ensure that the new sensor is compatible with authentication data
from existing palm vein sensors.

The new technology maintains compatibility with existing palm vein sensors,
equivalent authentication performance and a reduction in size and thickness.
Compared to Fujitsu’s palm vein authentication sensor product that shipped in
May 2011, Fujitsu Laboratories has succeeded in reducing the sensor’s volume by
80% and in scaling the overall thickness down to only 5 mm. This size can be
housed in the slot where fingerprint sensors have been installed in previous
notebook and slate PC models, and can also be easily integrated into mobile
devices, such as tablets, which are becoming progressively slimmer. This
innovation will work to expand the range of applications for palm vein
authentication, and will allow many customers to perform secure authentication
using simple operations.

Fujitsu Laboratories will continue R&D into the commercialization of
ultra-small palm vein authentication, while aiming to quickly bring to market
miniature devices that employ them.

Fujitsu, www.fujitsu.com