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I'm alive ... And these are my fingers!
May 23, 2014 by Richard Buckle — Founder and CEO, Pyalla Technologies, LLC
It was hard to miss the news coming out of the U.K. this week that Hitachi is rolling out biometric scanning technology for ATMs. I wasn’t going to let this subject go by without providing additional commentary.
In case you missed it, this news item said:
Hitachi and Polish banking services provider Itcard S.A. are in the process of installing their biometric ‘Finger Vein’ technology across Poland. The technology allows people to simply place their finger in a scanner instead of entering a card and pin number to withdraw cash.
I have clients who have been involved in the rollout of ATMs on at least two continents where fingerprint biometrics were exploited, but this latest approach to security is a step up in user convenience and identity protection.
I have always been skeptical about the long-term necessity for PINs as a form of identity verification, and I see the emergence of finger vein technology as a step in the right direction. And perhaps this particular technology will lessen lingering doubts over our personal wellbeing.
There’s an inherent fear in almost all of us that when it comes to biometrics, we will become the victim of amputation. Too many movies have been made where the bad guys have removed an eyeball, cut off a finger, or worse. My voice could be easily recorded, as well, so voice authentication holds no excitement for me either. This stuff of storytellers has sold books and films for a very long time, so it’s not unexpected that the downside of biometrics has worked itself into our subconscious.
But here is an approach to biometrics that seems immune to attacks by the bad guys. As explained in the U.K.’s Daily Mail:
The technology works by using a combination of a CCD camera and near-infrared light. When a finger is placed in a scanner, the near-infrared light is pas sed through the finger. This is partially absorbed by hemoglobin in the veins and captures a finger vein pattern profile that is unique to everyone …This is then matched to a pre-registered profile to verify individual identity.
So now I can withdraw cash using the layout of the veins in my fingers. Turns out they are as unique as fingerprints and not even identical twins have the same vein formation.
But here’s the real kicker. According to an editorial in Industrial Safety Review:
Because the veins are inside the body, invisible to the eye, it is extremely difficult to forge and impossible to manipulate. The gruesome possibility that criminals may hack off a finger has already been discounted as the blood would flow out of a hacked off finger, making authentication impossible.
For too long we have seen fingerprints captured and then transferred by various means – applying adhesive tape to a glass used by an individual being a common practice - or so I have been led to believe after watching several movies involving theft and espionage.
The editorial goes on to explain another important aspect of the technology:
The expansion of finger vein authentication applications is the miniaturization of this technology. Miniaturization enables finger vein authentication technology to be embedded in a greater variety of devices and is thus the driving force behind the expansion of finger vein authentication applications.
Yes, we may soon be able to open the doors of buildings, homes and even cars using this method, not forgetting that it may prove ideal as a way to shop.
One day we might simply wave a hand to say, “Hello product” (even as we wave goodbye to our money), to complete a transaction). This was suggested in a March 14 post to the U.K. publication, The Card Network.
The writer of the post suggested that, “The next time you pop into a shop … all you have to do to authenticate your purchase is wave your hand over the reader. Job done. No more shielding your PIN from the person behind you.” This time, it involves the vein patterns in the palm of your hand but the principle is the same.
Yash Kapadia, CEO of OmniPayments Inc. has been working with governments in South America for some time and, according to Yash, the Columbian government has “put into place a social safety net for poor mothers who have difficulty feeding, educating and maintaining health care for their children.”
These mothers access the government stipend cash allocated to them via the country’s network of ATM and POS devices. But as and Yash told me “Cards get lost; and PINs are forgotten. Fortunately, with her fingerprints on file in our OmniPayments database, a mother has options (and) she can have the POS terminal read one of her fingerprints.”
Thinking about the safety of these mothers in a country such as Colombia, I had to wonder about the cropped fingers that might begin showing up (though to date, there’s no evidence to suggest that anything of this kind has happened) and whether there were better technologies coming to market.
After reading the Daily Mail story, I revisited the topic with Yash. “Yes, absolutely! Should ATMs with the capability to read vein patterns in customers’ fingers show up in the markets we serve then we will support them,” Yash told me.
“This is definitely something that will appeal to governments of all types who are most anxious to make sure the funds fall into the right hands,” he said. “We are investing in cloud computing, taking our first baby steps, and we see the potential for storing fingerprints, finger vein patterns, palm vain patterns – pretty much anything consumers find easy to live with – within our secure cloud as a way to ensure the mass of data that will follow such implementations is protected.”
Or, in this case, that it won’t slip through our fingers.
Technology has shown that we can implement voice recognition and even scan our retinas but some methods simply scare us while others have proven too easy to get around. Checking the patterns of the veins in our fingers or even hands seems to hold considerable promise and, noting that we have to be alive in order for identification to be verified, it looks even more promising.
The technology too is not expensive as best as I can tell, so I’m sure it won’t be long before it makes it to an ATM near you — after all, a quick wave of the hand is about all many of us have time to do, and if it produces the cash we need, all the better, I say.
About Richard Buckle
Richard Buckle is the founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies, LLC. He has enjoyed a long association with the Information Technology (IT) industry as a user, vendor, and more recently, as an industry commentator, thought leader, columnist and blogger. Richard participates in the HPE VIP Community where he is part of their influencer team.
