Fujitsu's PalmSecure device authenticates an individual based on the unique patterns of the veins of their palms. The contactless device (working at an approximate distance of 50mm) attaches to the USB port of a PC, and the vendor notes that the upcoming new version of the device can be embedded directly into PC keyboards.

According to the vendor, the device works by shooting near-infrared rays at the user's palm; rays that are absorbed by the deoxidized hemoglobin present in the user's palm veins, therefore reducing the reflection rate of the rays and causing the veins themselves to appear as a black pattern. This pattern can then be verified against the user's pre-registered pattern for authentication. The vendor notes that not only must the scanned pattern match the registered pattern for the user, but additionally the scanning process requires that the deoxidized hemoglobin must be actively flowing within the user's veins to be properly scanned. According to the vendor, the technology yields a false acceptance rate of less than 0.00008% and a false rejection rate of 0.01%.

Features in the upcoming new version of the device include:

- Smaller size: the new device is expected to boast a 35 x 35 x 27mm, as opposed to the original's 70mm x 70mm x 27mm size.

- Faster authentications: According to the vendor, the new device will provide one-to-one authentications in half the time of the previous version.

- Support for wider operating temperature range: The new device will operate in temperatures as high as 60 degrees celsius (previously 50 degrees celsius).

- SDK: The new version will ship with an SDK in English or Japanese with sample apps and authentication rate evaluation tools.

The new version of the PalmSecure is expected to be available at the end of April, 2006 in Japan; and the end of June 2006 elsewhere.

Contact Fujitsu for further information.