PalmID®
COVID-19 Statement
The current COVID-19 pandemic has not just impacted businesses from a financial perspective; it’s also forcing us to evaluate how we interact with people and technology on a daily basis. Personal hygiene is top of mind, as is the avoidance of touching items and surfaces where possible.
Contactless interactions are most certainly becoming a preferred option – with, for instance, pre-staging financial transactions on personal devices and then completing them on an ATM or SMART Kiosk, all set to be the new norm.
The question then becomes: How do we fully cater for a contactless experience? The answer: Contactless authentication processes such as PalmID®.
About PalmID®
PalmID® is a highly secure authentication process that provides non-touch authentication quickly and securely, and which can assist on both endpoint and personal devices.
The human palm contains a complex set of skin lines and creases that are unique enough to identify an individual. When a palm is placed in front of a camera at a distance of around 6 inches (or 15cm), even a low-end camera (such as the ones already installed on mobile phones, laptops and ATMs) can capture the palm skin in great detail.
Once captured, the PalmID® Capture Module uses machine vision techniques to turn the RGB video input into an authentication-ready palm template for enrolment or verification.
The PalmID® Matching Module then matches the captured palm image against stored references and, in just 50-300 milliseconds, it matches the verification (login) attempt against the enrolment template using proprietary algorithms which have been extensively tested against tens of thousands of palm images.
Solution Benefits
- PalmID® is extremely accurate.
- It works in a wide range of illumination conditions.
- It is tolerant to dirt or even scars on the palm.
- It meets the authentication needs of a wide range of markets, across various platforms, offering a wide range of devices and use cases.
- More than 90% of phones and tablets have cameras compatible with PalmID®.
- Users can enrol on one device and later login with a different device (portability).
- Depending on the security model required, PalmID® can be run on a remote server or locally.
- PalmID® has been certified for medical use (electronic prescriptions) in some regions.
- The solution’s IP is protected by four patents.
Solution Features
- Security – It is very difficult to steal or replicate patterns with palm biometrics, since the code is quite literally concealed inside your hand.
- Privacy – Since the palm vein is internal to the body, it can only be captured close-up, via a camera, in combination with UV light. So unless you deliberately scan your hand on a palm vein device, it cannot be captured.
- Accuracy – Since the palm has a larger surface area than the finger or iris, for example, the palm vein scanner is able to capture more data points. This gives it an accuracy advantage over other biometrics.
- Reliability – A person’s palm vein pattern remains relatively stable throughout life, so the chance that a registered user will have to re-enrol in the future is very low.
- Hygiene – Palm biometrics are contactless; simply place your palm in front of a camera.